Verse 9. And do you think that the Companions of the Cave and the inscriptions were wonders among My signs?
The story of the people of the cave is not really something astonishing relative to the Power and Ability of Allah. The creation of the heavens and the earth, the alternation of night and day and the subjugation of the sun, moon and heavenly bodies are more amazing. Allah is capable of doing far more amazing than the incident of the people of the Cave. [Ibn Kathir] (40:57), (79:27).
Humankind is quite insignificant in relationship to the remainder of the creation. Abundance of wealth and technological discoveries often leads them to arrogance and pride.
The Story of Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in circulation amongst the Christians of this time. In 250 CE the Roman Emperor Decius persecutes Christians which lead seven (or eight in some versions) to be concealed in a cave near Ephesus. They were protected from pagan sacrifices and fell into a miraculous sleep. The cave was reopened during the reign of Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II (408 – 450). [Encyclopedia Britannica].
Verse 10. When the young men fled for refuge to the cave, they said: "Our Lord! Grant us your mercy and arrange our affairs for us in the right way!"
Concerning fleeing for the sake of one's religion and the abandonment of family, children, relatives, friends, land and wealth out of fear of trials. The Prophet made Hijrah and so did his Companions. Living in isolation and the permissibility of fleeing from tyrants in Sunnah of the Prophets and the saintly.
Depends on a person's ability: Seclusion in caves or mountains or seclusion in one's home (some companions secluded themselves in their homes after the assassination of Caliph's Uthman and did not leave except to their graves).
The power of supplication when in distress. "Our Lord! Grant us your mercy…" The Prophet s.a.w. used to hasten to prayers whenever any matter disturbed him. (Sunan Abu Dawood).
After doing the best one can for himself, he should put his trust in Allah.
YOUTH.
Those who accepted Islam from outside of the Prophet's family were relative youths – none is older than him.
Phenomena in which young people tend to be the ones most receptive to Islam. Vast majority of 3000 Americans who converted to Islam were in their early twenties during the first Gulf War.
The Importance of Faith in Youth. A youth who grows up worshipping Allah is one of those who will be shaded by Allah's shade in the Day of Resurrection. [Refer to the hadeeth of who will be shaded in the Day of Resurrection]. The connection of having a Just Ruler and religious youth is that the Just Ruler will promote Islamic education system, social system and various elements in the society so that it will be relatively easy for a young person to grow up worshipping Allah.
Raising Righteous Children:
Step One: Choose Righteous Spouse
Step Two: Make Supplications
Step Three: Observe the 'Aqeedah
Step Four: Create an Islamic Environment
Step Five: Teach the Religion Early
Step Six: Teach by Example
Step Seven: Marry them to righteous spouses
Verse 11. Then I drew a veil over their ears for a number of years.
Drawing a veil over the ears is a metaphor for deep sleep which prevents sounds from reaching the ears. [Shawkani] The Prophet also used the ear metaphor to describe the corruption of oversleeping "Satan urinated in his ear". [al Qurtubi].
The actual number of years is mentioned in verse 24. "So they stayed in the cave for three hundred years and nine more".
Verse 12. Then I roused them in order to test [to know] which of the two parties was best in calculating the length of time that they passed.
"Then I roused (resurrected) them…" awakening from sleep is referred as resurrection because sleep is a form of death. (6:60) (39:42). [Ibn Uthaimeen].
"In order to know…" the phrase has two meanings:
1.The knowledge of what will be is not the same as knowledge of what was. Allah's knowledge of something before its occurrence is knowledge that it will occur, but after its occurrence, it is knowledge that it occurred.
2.The knowledge on the basis of which there is a reward of what was intended. (47:31). Allah knows the future: who will do good deeds but He will only reward the doer once the act is perform. Neither recompense nor reward is given based on Allah's knowledge unless it occurs. [Ibn Uthaimeen]
However, there is no difference between what He knows will occur and what He knows has occurred as far as certainty is concerned. [Ibn Uthaimeen].
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Notes on Soorah al-Kahf verses 6-8
Verse 6. Perhaps you will destroy yourself in grief following after them because they did not believe in this speech.
• The Prophet was very keen that the creation would be guided, would be very happy if they were guided and sad when the disbelievers were not because of his compassion and deep sympathy and pity for them.
• If Allah knew that there was any good in them, He would have guided them, but He knows that they are only suitable for the Hellfire.
• Thus busying oneself with grief and sorrow over them is of no benefit.
• "You cannot guide whom you love. But Allah guides whom He wills" (28:56) (88:21-22) (13:40)
• There are two types of person who becomes sad when people do not accept the truth.
o One type who is sad because he is not accepted – blameworthy because this is calling to ones self.
o Another type who is sad because the truth is not accepted – praiseworthy because this is calling to Allah.
Verse 7. Indeed I have made what is on the earth its beautification to test which of them does the best deeds.
• This world is a temporary home adorned with transient beauty, a place of trial and not a permanent settlement.
• "Indeed this life is sweet and green (i.e. plants that die) and Allah has out you in-charge of in in succeeding generations and He observes what you are doing. So fear this world and fear women because the beginning of trials of the Israelites was women." (Sahih Muslim)
• The quality of the deed not the quantity is more important as implied by the word "Best Deeds" not the 'most deeds'.
• Wealth and Children are part of adornment in this life (18:46) (63:9) (64:14). Enmity not from hatred and conflict but love and care prevent parents from religious duties [Ibn Taimiyyah].
• Everything in this world is a test; denying this is futile and absurd. Allah is above and beyond meaningless actions; His perfection invalidates His creation without purpose; without giving them directions; without commanding them to do good and forbidding them from evil. Whoever denies this has denied Allah's divinity and lordship. Whoever denies the Day of Resurrection is itself denial of the Lord's existence. [Ibn Taimiyyah].
• Allah does not test us to know who will pass instead it serves to confirm His Justice and Mercy on the Day of Judgment; that those who goes to Paradise deserve it and those who go to Hell got there by God's grace. [Shawkani].
• Purpose of Test
Spiritual Growth. Gold is purified from ore by fire. Generosity is gained if one have a degree of sustenance that others (16:71)
Purification. If they are patient with trials.
Reminders. When people deviate, they seldom listen to the advice of those around them. But when calamity strikes, it jolts those who still have some faith recognizing their error. (32:21)
"Corruption has appeard on the land and in the sea because of what man's hands have earned in order that (Allah) may make them taste a part of what they have done, and in order that they may return (to the right path). (30:41).
To expose Hypocrites (24:63) People converting to Islam for wrong reasons, and after finding more difficulties in their lives that prior to their conversion they revert to their former beliefs.
Punishment. (24:63) Stories of past nations who rejected divine guidance (Aad, Thamood, Fir'aun etc). Punishment afflicts everyone one, not only the sinners. (8:25).
Verse 8. Indeed I will make all that is on it like dry bare soil.
• Don’t look only at the exterior of this world and be fooled by its adornments and its beauty.
• Take this world as a place of crossing not a place of delight, a place for travel not a place for residence. Spend your utmost effort to know your Lord, to obey His commands, and perfect your deeds. [As-Sa'aadi].
• The Prophet was very keen that the creation would be guided, would be very happy if they were guided and sad when the disbelievers were not because of his compassion and deep sympathy and pity for them.
• If Allah knew that there was any good in them, He would have guided them, but He knows that they are only suitable for the Hellfire.
• Thus busying oneself with grief and sorrow over them is of no benefit.
• "You cannot guide whom you love. But Allah guides whom He wills" (28:56) (88:21-22) (13:40)
• There are two types of person who becomes sad when people do not accept the truth.
o One type who is sad because he is not accepted – blameworthy because this is calling to ones self.
o Another type who is sad because the truth is not accepted – praiseworthy because this is calling to Allah.
Verse 7. Indeed I have made what is on the earth its beautification to test which of them does the best deeds.
• This world is a temporary home adorned with transient beauty, a place of trial and not a permanent settlement.
• "Indeed this life is sweet and green (i.e. plants that die) and Allah has out you in-charge of in in succeeding generations and He observes what you are doing. So fear this world and fear women because the beginning of trials of the Israelites was women." (Sahih Muslim)
• The quality of the deed not the quantity is more important as implied by the word "Best Deeds" not the 'most deeds'.
• Wealth and Children are part of adornment in this life (18:46) (63:9) (64:14). Enmity not from hatred and conflict but love and care prevent parents from religious duties [Ibn Taimiyyah].
• Everything in this world is a test; denying this is futile and absurd. Allah is above and beyond meaningless actions; His perfection invalidates His creation without purpose; without giving them directions; without commanding them to do good and forbidding them from evil. Whoever denies this has denied Allah's divinity and lordship. Whoever denies the Day of Resurrection is itself denial of the Lord's existence. [Ibn Taimiyyah].
• Allah does not test us to know who will pass instead it serves to confirm His Justice and Mercy on the Day of Judgment; that those who goes to Paradise deserve it and those who go to Hell got there by God's grace. [Shawkani].
• Purpose of Test
Spiritual Growth. Gold is purified from ore by fire. Generosity is gained if one have a degree of sustenance that others (16:71)
Purification. If they are patient with trials.
Reminders. When people deviate, they seldom listen to the advice of those around them. But when calamity strikes, it jolts those who still have some faith recognizing their error. (32:21)
"Corruption has appeard on the land and in the sea because of what man's hands have earned in order that (Allah) may make them taste a part of what they have done, and in order that they may return (to the right path). (30:41).
To expose Hypocrites (24:63) People converting to Islam for wrong reasons, and after finding more difficulties in their lives that prior to their conversion they revert to their former beliefs.
Punishment. (24:63) Stories of past nations who rejected divine guidance (Aad, Thamood, Fir'aun etc). Punishment afflicts everyone one, not only the sinners. (8:25).
Verse 8. Indeed I will make all that is on it like dry bare soil.
• Don’t look only at the exterior of this world and be fooled by its adornments and its beauty.
• Take this world as a place of crossing not a place of delight, a place for travel not a place for residence. Spend your utmost effort to know your Lord, to obey His commands, and perfect your deeds. [As-Sa'aadi].
Notes on Soorah al-Kahf verses 4-5
Verse 4. And warn those who say that, Allah has given birth to a son.
• This acted as an explanation from what was left unspecified in the previous verse – Ibn Uthaimeen.
• See (9:30) “The Jews call ‘Uzayr a son of Allah, and the Christian call Christ the son of Allah…”
• Encyclopedia Judaica Jerusalem states that Uszayr called the Father of Judaism by the Jews was considered ‘son of God’ by the Jews of Yemen.
Verse 5. They have no knowledge about it, nor do their fathers. The word coming out of their mouths is very grave. What they are saying is nothing but lie.
• The belief that Jesus is a son of God only became the dominant teaching of Christianity in the 4th century when it was adopted at the council of Nicea in 325 AD along with the other belief that Christ has same nature as God. Arius (250-336) the bishop of Alexandria of Egypt opposed to sign this creed. Before that there are numerous Christians who had diverse views on Christ, each with their own scripture to anchor their views.
• Other prophets were called the Son of God
o Israel (Jacob) in Exodus 4:22-24
o Solomon in 2nd Samuel 8:13-14
o David in Psalm 89:26-27. As the only begotten son in Psalms 2:7.
o Angels are sons of God in the Book of Job 1:6
• In New Testament
o Adam the son of God in Luke 3:38
o Nowhere in the Gospels Jesus actually called himself “Son of God”. Jesus rebuke those who called him the Son of God in Luke 4:41.
• The Hebrew Perspective
o The Hebrews were strict Monotheists and in their expression Son of God (usage in the Old Testament) metaphorically means “Servant of God” one who is a close and faithful servant of God as a son to his father.
o Example: Blessed are the peace-makers; they will be called sons of God. (Matthew 5:9)
• The Roman Perspective
o Romans and Greeks believe in a literal meaning of Son of God as a god incarnate or someone born of a physical union between male and female gods.
o Example: In Acts 14:11-13 Barnabas called the Roman god Zeus and Paul was called the Roman god Hermes.
• Allah has refute all these claims in the last scripture sent to mankind (72:3) (19:92-3) (39:4)
• The word coming out of their mouths is very grave.
o The heavens are almost torn apart, the earth split in two and the mountain crumble, that they claim the Most Gracious had a son. (19:90-1)
o Allah having a son means that He is deficient and others share in His Lordship, His Dominion and His Divinity. It is also lying about Him. (6:21).
• This acted as an explanation from what was left unspecified in the previous verse – Ibn Uthaimeen.
• See (9:30) “The Jews call ‘Uzayr a son of Allah, and the Christian call Christ the son of Allah…”
• Encyclopedia Judaica Jerusalem states that Uszayr called the Father of Judaism by the Jews was considered ‘son of God’ by the Jews of Yemen.
Verse 5. They have no knowledge about it, nor do their fathers. The word coming out of their mouths is very grave. What they are saying is nothing but lie.
• The belief that Jesus is a son of God only became the dominant teaching of Christianity in the 4th century when it was adopted at the council of Nicea in 325 AD along with the other belief that Christ has same nature as God. Arius (250-336) the bishop of Alexandria of Egypt opposed to sign this creed. Before that there are numerous Christians who had diverse views on Christ, each with their own scripture to anchor their views.
• Other prophets were called the Son of God
o Israel (Jacob) in Exodus 4:22-24
o Solomon in 2nd Samuel 8:13-14
o David in Psalm 89:26-27. As the only begotten son in Psalms 2:7.
o Angels are sons of God in the Book of Job 1:6
• In New Testament
o Adam the son of God in Luke 3:38
o Nowhere in the Gospels Jesus actually called himself “Son of God”. Jesus rebuke those who called him the Son of God in Luke 4:41.
• The Hebrew Perspective
o The Hebrews were strict Monotheists and in their expression Son of God (usage in the Old Testament) metaphorically means “Servant of God” one who is a close and faithful servant of God as a son to his father.
o Example: Blessed are the peace-makers; they will be called sons of God. (Matthew 5:9)
• The Roman Perspective
o Romans and Greeks believe in a literal meaning of Son of God as a god incarnate or someone born of a physical union between male and female gods.
o Example: In Acts 14:11-13 Barnabas called the Roman god Zeus and Paul was called the Roman god Hermes.
• Allah has refute all these claims in the last scripture sent to mankind (72:3) (19:92-3) (39:4)
• The word coming out of their mouths is very grave.
o The heavens are almost torn apart, the earth split in two and the mountain crumble, that they claim the Most Gracious had a son. (19:90-1)
o Allah having a son means that He is deficient and others share in His Lordship, His Dominion and His Divinity. It is also lying about Him. (6:21).
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Notes on Soorah al Kahf verses 2-3
Verse 2. [He made it] straight to warn of a terrible punishment coming from Him, and to give glad tidings of a good reward to the believers who do righteous deeds.
"[HE made it} straight". Shawkani: 1) refers to its straightforwardness 2) custodian and guardian for the previous divine revealed scriptures.
Belief alone is not sufficient; righteous actions should accompany it.
Two conditions for an act to be righteous:
o Sincerity to Allah: intending to have the pleasure of Allah and the Hereafter.
o Obedience to Allah: The deed must not be outside Allah's Shareah.
"A good reward" the pleasure of Allah and entrance to paradise containing what no eye has ever seen, nor ear ever heard, not has it crossed the mind of any human being.
Verse 3. They will remain there forever.
• Both paradise and hell already exists now and they are both eternal. (4:168-9) (33:64-5) (43:74-5)
• The Heaven is already created."…prepared for the God fearing". (3:133). Numerous hadeeth supports this. "Indeed I saw paradise and I had a bunch of fruit from it. If I had brought it, you would have eaten [from it] as long as the world existed…." (Al Bukhari)
• Location of Paradise: It is in the highest level of 'Illiyoon (83:18)
• Hell is in the lowest of the lows (83:7).
• Harun Yahya's deviant teachings:
o "…it will be understood with what kind of order Allah created the entire universe from out of nothing, so much so that, with this secret, the question of "when" and "where?" become meaningless because there are no time and space left. When spacelessness is grasped, it will be understood that hell, heaven and earth are all actually the same place." (Allah is known through reason (pp. 202-3).
• Those who say that Hell is not eternal
o Jahmites
o Imam of the pantheists, Ibn 'Arabee at Taa'ee
o Aboo Haazil al 'Allaaf (a leading Mu'tazilah scholar)
o Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al Qayyim
• Evidence of Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al Qayyim
o Narrated Abdullah ibn 'Amar al Aas that he said: "There will come a time when a wind will blow through the gates of Hell, and there will be nobody in it. This is a marfoo' narration."
o "And those who are blessed, they will be in Paradise abiding there for as long as the heavens and earth endure, except as your Lord wills, a gift without end." (11:108)
o It is not permissible to malign or condemn these two scholars because of this error of ijtihaad.
o Another narration from Ibn Taimiyyah in Majmoo' Fatawa
"The Salaf and Imaams of this Ummah and Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah agreed that there exist created entities that will never come to an end at all, like Paradise, Hell etc."
o This indicates that Ibn Taimiyyah has two opinions. Unless one can establish his final verdict it is incorrect to assert that he held that Hell would end without qualifying it.
"[HE made it} straight". Shawkani: 1) refers to its straightforwardness 2) custodian and guardian for the previous divine revealed scriptures.
Belief alone is not sufficient; righteous actions should accompany it.
Two conditions for an act to be righteous:
o Sincerity to Allah: intending to have the pleasure of Allah and the Hereafter.
o Obedience to Allah: The deed must not be outside Allah's Shareah.
"A good reward" the pleasure of Allah and entrance to paradise containing what no eye has ever seen, nor ear ever heard, not has it crossed the mind of any human being.
Verse 3. They will remain there forever.
• Both paradise and hell already exists now and they are both eternal. (4:168-9) (33:64-5) (43:74-5)
• The Heaven is already created."…prepared for the God fearing". (3:133). Numerous hadeeth supports this. "Indeed I saw paradise and I had a bunch of fruit from it. If I had brought it, you would have eaten [from it] as long as the world existed…." (Al Bukhari)
• Location of Paradise: It is in the highest level of 'Illiyoon (83:18)
• Hell is in the lowest of the lows (83:7).
• Harun Yahya's deviant teachings:
o "…it will be understood with what kind of order Allah created the entire universe from out of nothing, so much so that, with this secret, the question of "when" and "where?" become meaningless because there are no time and space left. When spacelessness is grasped, it will be understood that hell, heaven and earth are all actually the same place." (Allah is known through reason (pp. 202-3).
• Those who say that Hell is not eternal
o Jahmites
o Imam of the pantheists, Ibn 'Arabee at Taa'ee
o Aboo Haazil al 'Allaaf (a leading Mu'tazilah scholar)
o Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al Qayyim
• Evidence of Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al Qayyim
o Narrated Abdullah ibn 'Amar al Aas that he said: "There will come a time when a wind will blow through the gates of Hell, and there will be nobody in it. This is a marfoo' narration."
o "And those who are blessed, they will be in Paradise abiding there for as long as the heavens and earth endure, except as your Lord wills, a gift without end." (11:108)
o It is not permissible to malign or condemn these two scholars because of this error of ijtihaad.
o Another narration from Ibn Taimiyyah in Majmoo' Fatawa
"The Salaf and Imaams of this Ummah and Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah agreed that there exist created entities that will never come to an end at all, like Paradise, Hell etc."
o This indicates that Ibn Taimiyyah has two opinions. Unless one can establish his final verdict it is incorrect to assert that he held that Hell would end without qualifying it.
Notes on Soorah al-Kahf Verse 1
Notes on Soorah al-Kahf
Introduction
• Kahf means ‘cave’ in verse 9 (Ashaabul Kahf)
• Earlier times titled “Soorah ashaab al kahf”
Place of Revelation
• Subject-matter and style is in Makkah. Some scholars consider verses 1-8, 28 and 107-110 in Madeenah.
• Inauthentic narration from Ibn kathir quoting Tabari about three Quraish men asking the Jews about Prophet Muhammad. The three questions were 1) the youth who disappeared in earlier times 2) traveler to from East toWest 3) Concerning the Soul. Ibn Is’haaq’s teacher was unknown.
The Merits of the Soorah
• Descent of Tranquility – Hadeeth of Al Baraa about a man reciting Soorah al kahf when an animal in his house became agitated and there was cloud hovering over him. The prophet instructed him to continue his recitation. Sahih Muslim.
• Protection from Dajjaal – First ten verses (Sahih Muslim) or lat ten verses (Sahih Muslim) from Soorah al Kahf.
• A Source of light – illumination by its light from one Friday to the next (Mustadrak – Saheeh al Jaami’) and as a light on the Day of Resurrection (Mustadrak – Saheeh at Targheeb).
• Forgiveness – “ …he would be forgiven for his sins between the two Fridays” a mawqoof narration from Ibn Umar according to Ibn Kathir. [The meaning is correct according to hadeeth].
Soorah al-Kahf (The Cave) 18
Verse 1. Praise be to Allah, Who revealed to His Servant the Scripture in which He did not allow any deviation.
• Do not praise yourselves (53:32). Allah is the source of all goodness and blessings. Self praise by Allah is not a vice but a virtue and right.
• Alhamd means “Describing the one praised with perfection as an expression of love and glorification”. Hamd is more general praising for one’s character and thanks for what he has done. Shukr is only thanking for what one has hone and not for characteristics. (Ibn Kathir).
• Allah can be called God because al-Ilaah is one of His attributes.
• Virtues of Alhamdulillah
o Best Supplication – Hadeeth of Jabir ibn Abdillah “The best way to remember Allah is Laa ilaha illallah and the best supplication is alhamdulillah. (Saheeh Sunan Ibn Maajah).
o Giving thanks for Blessings - giving thanks for blessing is itself a cause for increased blessings. [14:7]
• The Occasions for alHamdulillah
o On Awakening from Sleep [Alhamdulillah alladhee ahyana ba’da ma amaatana wa ilayhin-nushorr] [All praise is due to Allah who brought us to life after causing us to die and to him belongs the resurrection.] (Sahih Al Bukhari)
o On Completion of Meals
o On Seeing Suffering
• “Who revealed to His Servant”
o Prophet Muhammad is described as ‘His Servant’ in three context” 1) When describing the revelation of the Qur’an 2) When speaking in his defence 3) On the occasion of his ascension. Thoug all creatures are His servants, because he was the greatest servant of Allah amongst human beings. In the most honorable positions of the Prophet, Allah described him as a servant. Thus, the most blessed description of a human being is that of a “Servant of Allah”.
• “The Scripture”
o Primarily here the Qur’an. It is the greatest blessing which He has granted the people of the earth – takes them out for darkness into light.
• “He did not allow any deviation”
o Two characteristics of perfection from all sides
Negating from it any deviation (its information is free from lies, and its commands or prohibitions free from oppression or frivolity).
Affirming uprightness (it only informs about and commands the most important issues that which fills the hearts with understanding, faith and reason.
o See 4:82
o Compared to the Old Testament where the prophets of God are described in the most corrupt terms. Prophet Abraham as drunkard; Prophet Lot committing incest with his daughters; Prophet David committing adultery’ and Prophet Solomon worshipping idols in his old age.
o Hindu Scriptures – god incarnate [avatar] Krishna hiding clothes of women swimming naked in lakes (Govindpuran).
From Tafseer Soorah al Kahf by Dr. Bilal Philips
Introduction
• Kahf means ‘cave’ in verse 9 (Ashaabul Kahf)
• Earlier times titled “Soorah ashaab al kahf”
Place of Revelation
• Subject-matter and style is in Makkah. Some scholars consider verses 1-8, 28 and 107-110 in Madeenah.
• Inauthentic narration from Ibn kathir quoting Tabari about three Quraish men asking the Jews about Prophet Muhammad. The three questions were 1) the youth who disappeared in earlier times 2) traveler to from East toWest 3) Concerning the Soul. Ibn Is’haaq’s teacher was unknown.
The Merits of the Soorah
• Descent of Tranquility – Hadeeth of Al Baraa about a man reciting Soorah al kahf when an animal in his house became agitated and there was cloud hovering over him. The prophet instructed him to continue his recitation. Sahih Muslim.
• Protection from Dajjaal – First ten verses (Sahih Muslim) or lat ten verses (Sahih Muslim) from Soorah al Kahf.
• A Source of light – illumination by its light from one Friday to the next (Mustadrak – Saheeh al Jaami’) and as a light on the Day of Resurrection (Mustadrak – Saheeh at Targheeb).
• Forgiveness – “ …he would be forgiven for his sins between the two Fridays” a mawqoof narration from Ibn Umar according to Ibn Kathir. [The meaning is correct according to hadeeth].
Soorah al-Kahf (The Cave) 18
Verse 1. Praise be to Allah, Who revealed to His Servant the Scripture in which He did not allow any deviation.
• Do not praise yourselves (53:32). Allah is the source of all goodness and blessings. Self praise by Allah is not a vice but a virtue and right.
• Alhamd means “Describing the one praised with perfection as an expression of love and glorification”. Hamd is more general praising for one’s character and thanks for what he has done. Shukr is only thanking for what one has hone and not for characteristics. (Ibn Kathir).
• Allah can be called God because al-Ilaah is one of His attributes.
• Virtues of Alhamdulillah
o Best Supplication – Hadeeth of Jabir ibn Abdillah “The best way to remember Allah is Laa ilaha illallah and the best supplication is alhamdulillah. (Saheeh Sunan Ibn Maajah).
o Giving thanks for Blessings - giving thanks for blessing is itself a cause for increased blessings. [14:7]
• The Occasions for alHamdulillah
o On Awakening from Sleep [Alhamdulillah alladhee ahyana ba’da ma amaatana wa ilayhin-nushorr] [All praise is due to Allah who brought us to life after causing us to die and to him belongs the resurrection.] (Sahih Al Bukhari)
o On Completion of Meals
o On Seeing Suffering
• “Who revealed to His Servant”
o Prophet Muhammad is described as ‘His Servant’ in three context” 1) When describing the revelation of the Qur’an 2) When speaking in his defence 3) On the occasion of his ascension. Thoug all creatures are His servants, because he was the greatest servant of Allah amongst human beings. In the most honorable positions of the Prophet, Allah described him as a servant. Thus, the most blessed description of a human being is that of a “Servant of Allah”.
• “The Scripture”
o Primarily here the Qur’an. It is the greatest blessing which He has granted the people of the earth – takes them out for darkness into light.
• “He did not allow any deviation”
o Two characteristics of perfection from all sides
Negating from it any deviation (its information is free from lies, and its commands or prohibitions free from oppression or frivolity).
Affirming uprightness (it only informs about and commands the most important issues that which fills the hearts with understanding, faith and reason.
o See 4:82
o Compared to the Old Testament where the prophets of God are described in the most corrupt terms. Prophet Abraham as drunkard; Prophet Lot committing incest with his daughters; Prophet David committing adultery’ and Prophet Solomon worshipping idols in his old age.
o Hindu Scriptures – god incarnate [avatar] Krishna hiding clothes of women swimming naked in lakes (Govindpuran).
From Tafseer Soorah al Kahf by Dr. Bilal Philips
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Time travel and the Prophets
The purpose of this piece is to tickle the curiosity of people in the modern times regarding the relationship between science and religion. In particular, those who believe that religion and science are antithesis to one another. Religions essentially came from Prophets as the mouthpiece of God's revelation. Prophets were recorded to have performed feats that are deemed contrary to the laws of science. In the time of the Prophet Muhammad, he spoke of many events in the past and future that the people of his time could only believe in.
Prophet Muhammad were shown the denizens of hellfire. When he was taken up to heaven, on each level he saw the prophets. In other occasions he was shown the people being punished in the hellfire. It is established that the punishment in hell does not yet occur, because this will happen after the day of judgment. This is also true with regards to entering heaven. Eternal dwelling in Heaven and punishment in hell do not happen except after the day of Judgment.
In modern times, people are amazed about the idea of time travel. But this idea is old and ancient. thousands of years before H.G. Wells wrote his famous novel "the Time Machine", Muslims already believe that the Prophet Muhammad were shown the future, traveled faster than the speed of light and ascended to the heavens, shown the fruits in paradise ( essentially to another dimension).
The Qur'an contains stories that points to the relativity of time. The people of the cave woke up after three hundred years or so. The Prophet Uzair (Ezra) died a hundred years and came back to life while his food are still left unspoiled.
More on these later insha Allah
Prophet Muhammad were shown the denizens of hellfire. When he was taken up to heaven, on each level he saw the prophets. In other occasions he was shown the people being punished in the hellfire. It is established that the punishment in hell does not yet occur, because this will happen after the day of judgment. This is also true with regards to entering heaven. Eternal dwelling in Heaven and punishment in hell do not happen except after the day of Judgment.
In modern times, people are amazed about the idea of time travel. But this idea is old and ancient. thousands of years before H.G. Wells wrote his famous novel "the Time Machine", Muslims already believe that the Prophet Muhammad were shown the future, traveled faster than the speed of light and ascended to the heavens, shown the fruits in paradise ( essentially to another dimension).
The Qur'an contains stories that points to the relativity of time. The people of the cave woke up after three hundred years or so. The Prophet Uzair (Ezra) died a hundred years and came back to life while his food are still left unspoiled.
More on these later insha Allah
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Would you accept your daughter to be a second wife?
Alhamdulillah wassalamtu wassalamu 'ala rasoolillah.
Islam is a pragmatic religion - practical in all aspects. If one were to delve into the minutae of the methodology of Islamic Law (Usool al Fiqh), one would find that it has taken into account the not so subtle realities of life - that this life is not a bed of roses. That life after all is not just looking for Prince Charming or Cinderalla and live happily ever after. That one goes to a series of vascillating ups and downs and twists and turns. These, perhaps, serve to remind us that hey - this is not Jannah bro/sis! This is the fleeting Dunya, don't fall inlove with it.
Although one can say that these things did not happen to me or to my family, but how many neighbors or your dentist's neighbors you heard having illegal extra marital affairs? How many broken families were direct result from these affairs? Isnt it better to absorb and build families rather than breaking it apart? Statistics my friend. Statistics will tell us all. There are hundreds of thousand more women than men in New York [1.5% of 19 million people] (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/36000.html). Tell me how are these hundreds of thousand women fulfill their socioeconomic, emotional and physical needs? How many mistresses, girlfriends and prostitutes amongst these? The FACT that there are women who allow themselves to become mistresses and prostitutes points to the reality that these women may also allow themselves to become a wife of an already married man. ISnt it more honorable and sustainable to become a wife with all the rights of the first than to be a mistress?
Before I proceed, it is perhaps beneficial to classify whatever in this Dunya into four things:
1. Absolutely Beneficial with no harms
2. Overwhelmingly beneficial - with benefits outweighing the harms
3. Overwhelmingly harmful - with harms outweighing the benefits
4. Absolute harm
Tawheed is the highest ever beneficial thing a person can have while Shirk is its baseful counterpart - the most harmful thing a person can have.
And the rest of the world either falls into category two or three.
Polygyny - a man having mutiple partners or in case of Islam, limited polygyny likely falls - fundamentally - into the second category. That with all the conditions met - polygyny could be beneficial to the person and to the society. Meaning, the devastated widow could become the second wife or the supprotless orphan could be third or the marginalized and hated prostitute could be the fourth.
In anycase marriage, whether the first, second, third or fourth can only fall into these five basic rulings in Islam:
1. It is Obligatory to those who can afford and fear of commiting fornication/adultery
2. It recommended to those who can afford but not fear of commiting fornication/adultery
3. It is Mubah/Allowed according to the opinion of some scholars (some scholars say that Marriage is Obligatory)
4. It is Detestable if Harms outweighs benefits but not leading into greater sins. If for example a man wants to get married and have another family at the expense of DESTROYING his first family that he had laborly taken care of most of his life is unreasonable.
5. It is Haram if it leads to greater Sin (like marrying one's sister and many things)
When a man and a woman decide to get married, these things should be taken into consideration.
So Yes. A woman is better off a second wife than to be a lonely, needy spinster or an abused prostitute.
Personally, If the groom meets my condition (Mujtahid and Mujahid) I can give my daughter in marriage with him even if she is the second wife - with her loving permission of course. THere is nothing undignified or less honorable in being a second wife. Aisha, the mother of the Believers was the third wife of the Prophet. But history doesnt remember her as the THIRD wife. History remembers her as the first Woman Islamic Scholar.
Islam is a pragmatic religion - practical in all aspects. If one were to delve into the minutae of the methodology of Islamic Law (Usool al Fiqh), one would find that it has taken into account the not so subtle realities of life - that this life is not a bed of roses. That life after all is not just looking for Prince Charming or Cinderalla and live happily ever after. That one goes to a series of vascillating ups and downs and twists and turns. These, perhaps, serve to remind us that hey - this is not Jannah bro/sis! This is the fleeting Dunya, don't fall inlove with it.
Although one can say that these things did not happen to me or to my family, but how many neighbors or your dentist's neighbors you heard having illegal extra marital affairs? How many broken families were direct result from these affairs? Isnt it better to absorb and build families rather than breaking it apart? Statistics my friend. Statistics will tell us all. There are hundreds of thousand more women than men in New York [1.5% of 19 million people] (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/36000.html). Tell me how are these hundreds of thousand women fulfill their socioeconomic, emotional and physical needs? How many mistresses, girlfriends and prostitutes amongst these? The FACT that there are women who allow themselves to become mistresses and prostitutes points to the reality that these women may also allow themselves to become a wife of an already married man. ISnt it more honorable and sustainable to become a wife with all the rights of the first than to be a mistress?
Before I proceed, it is perhaps beneficial to classify whatever in this Dunya into four things:
1. Absolutely Beneficial with no harms
2. Overwhelmingly beneficial - with benefits outweighing the harms
3. Overwhelmingly harmful - with harms outweighing the benefits
4. Absolute harm
Tawheed is the highest ever beneficial thing a person can have while Shirk is its baseful counterpart - the most harmful thing a person can have.
And the rest of the world either falls into category two or three.
Polygyny - a man having mutiple partners or in case of Islam, limited polygyny likely falls - fundamentally - into the second category. That with all the conditions met - polygyny could be beneficial to the person and to the society. Meaning, the devastated widow could become the second wife or the supprotless orphan could be third or the marginalized and hated prostitute could be the fourth.
In anycase marriage, whether the first, second, third or fourth can only fall into these five basic rulings in Islam:
1. It is Obligatory to those who can afford and fear of commiting fornication/adultery
2. It recommended to those who can afford but not fear of commiting fornication/adultery
3. It is Mubah/Allowed according to the opinion of some scholars (some scholars say that Marriage is Obligatory)
4. It is Detestable if Harms outweighs benefits but not leading into greater sins. If for example a man wants to get married and have another family at the expense of DESTROYING his first family that he had laborly taken care of most of his life is unreasonable.
5. It is Haram if it leads to greater Sin (like marrying one's sister and many things)
When a man and a woman decide to get married, these things should be taken into consideration.
So Yes. A woman is better off a second wife than to be a lonely, needy spinster or an abused prostitute.
Personally, If the groom meets my condition (Mujtahid and Mujahid) I can give my daughter in marriage with him even if she is the second wife - with her loving permission of course. THere is nothing undignified or less honorable in being a second wife. Aisha, the mother of the Believers was the third wife of the Prophet. But history doesnt remember her as the THIRD wife. History remembers her as the first Woman Islamic Scholar.
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Fasting and Purification of the Soul
Bismillah walhamdulillah wassalatu wassalamu ‘ala Rasoolillah
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
O you who believe! Observing saum (the fasting) is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become the pious. (Soorah al Baqarah 2:183)
The goal of fasting is to attain Taqwa or God-consciousness and fear of Allah. The ability to tame the unruly tendencies of one’s inner self on one hand, and the cultivation of one’s will power, on the other, are very important in the process of purification of the soul. This is because during fasting in Ramadan, there are many opportunities, blessings and means that one can avail and utilize so that one’s soul is purified.
Firstly, forgiveness of sins has a very positive result in purifying the soul. The accumulation of sins for the whole year produces in the conscience a sense of endless guilt and the feeling of one’s sins are being forgiven is a relief in one’s weary heart. Have you ever wondered how people cannot sleep at night because they have wronged someone or quarreled with someone? This heavy burden upon a believer’s soul is relieved once reconciliation takes place. Similarly, Allah subhanahu wa taala, in His mercy forgives the fasting people whereby relieving him of the guilt of his past sins against Allah. The Prophet Muhammad said:
من صام رمضان ايمنا و احتصابا غفر له ما تقدم من ذنبه
Who ever fast in Ramadan having Iman and Ihtisab, his past sins will be forgiven for him.
This hadeeth stipulates two conditions in order for the sins to be forgiven. The fasting person must of course be a Mu’min. Al Ihtisab carries with it three meanings: having firm resolve, hoping for the reward, and being pleased with the act not considering it a heavy burden.
Secondly, one should feel that he is doing a deed that is very dear and special to Allah. Every deed of son of Adam has an equivalent reward of ten to seven hundred times, except fasting which will be rewarded by Allah Al Kareem, the Most Generous.
Third, fasting purifies the soul by cultivating the much needed virtue of patience. There are three categories or facets of patience: Being patient in performing the obligations, being patient in avoiding the prohibitions and being patient in times of calamity. All of these three are trained in the fasting person by performing the obligatory act of fasting, avoiding vile, filthy, senseless, sinful actions and being patient in difficulties that might happen while fasting.
Fourth, fasting reminds him the true purpose of his creation and the meaning of Islam. That to worship Allah, one must inevitably submit to His will first; that Allah comes first before one’s own desires. Especially for those who are living in non Muslim countries experience the temptation where everyone is eating and drinking while you are holding yourself because you want to follow what Allah wants.
Fifth, everything seems to slow down during Ramadan (especially in Muslim countries), and one doesn’t have the usual energy to do the fruitless things. Hence one is left with more free time to think and ponder. This leaves a person with more time to ponder over his life and possibly the wrong things he have done.
Sixth, feeling and doing the act yields more certainty that witnessing it. How many times we have seen pictures of malnourished children in Africa and felt pity for them, yet one still cannot feel how is it to starved and taste the pangs of hunger in one’s stomach. This in turn should turn on the switch of gratefulness in us for the blessings of Allah.
Seventh, fasting makes us realize our potential as human beings. Some of us think that the obligations and prohibitions of Islam are overwhelming or inapplicable especially in non Muslim societies so we involve ourselves in haram activities thinking that we cannot do anything about it. But in Ramadan, we only haven’t abstained from the haram but from the halal as well. If we have the strength to abstain from the halal then how about the haram? This is especially true for the smokers! In fact fasting is a sort of training for the gradual weaning from the addictive effects of smoking.
Eighth, turning to Allah and realizing one’s need for Him. If Allah takes away our most fundamental needs as human beings then who is there to help us. Imagine if Allah takes away our sense of taste or sense of satiety. Having been born with all the complete senses and limbs makes us forget that ultimately these are not really ours. This reality is vividly demonstrated in people with illness such as stroke patients with hemiplegia or paralysis of one’s side of the body. His left hand is there still connected to his body, he can see it, yet he cannot move it on his own and sometimes might not even feel that it is there. Subhanallah!
Ninth, we have heard the hadeeth of the Prophet: Whoever guarantees me what is between his jaws/beard [the tongue] and what is between his legs [sexual organs] I guarantee him paradise . Don’t you see? Being fasting makes us more conscious of what we say and more careful in our interactions with the opposite sex.
Tenth, fasting again makes us remember that we are not here just to eat and drink; that our existence is not just mere fulfillment and gratification of our basic desires; that we are here for a more sublime purpose, which is to worship Allah. In other words we eat not just to live but to worship the Creator. This is what separates us from the modern, secular materialistic people where they eat to live or even worst, some of them actually live to eat .
Eleventh, fasting is a chance to demonstrate sincerity to Allah. All types of worship are visible to others even giving charity secretly whereby the receiver knew that somebody gave him secretly. However in fasting nobody knows if you really fasted or secretly ingested food to your mouth except Allah. Sincerity in actions is a fundamental prerequisite in the acceptance of deeds and consequently success.
Twelfth, fasting helps to cure the disease of the ‘desire for more’. When one thinks that he is able to survive with only one and half meal a day and this is his real needs. Some of us has this self-made needs, a make believe that we ourselves concocted. How many of us say things like “I can’t live without smart phone or a V8 engine powered vehicle or a three storey villa”? We misallocate our resources at the expense of other more important things.
Ultimately, Taqwa have a big role in all of this. This will power to do the things that Allah has ordered us to do, this self-restraint that bridles us to avoid what Allah has prohibited for us, and this love for Allah, doing what is beyond the obligatory. Fasting in Ramadan and its Tarawih incorporates all of these aspects, purifying our souls and making us closer and closer to Allah. “Allah the Almightly has said :For whoever has mutual animosity wit a fried (wali) of Mine, I declare war upon him. My servant does not draw near to Me with anything more beloved more to Me than the religious duties that I have imposed upon him; and My servant continues to draw near to Me with supererogatory works such that I love him. And when I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which strikes, and his leg with which he walks. Were he to ask of me, I would surely give him; and were he to ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant him it. (Bukhari).
The contents of this article are largely taken from Jamaluddin Zaraboso's bbook "Purification of the Soul".
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
O you who believe! Observing saum (the fasting) is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become the pious. (Soorah al Baqarah 2:183)
The goal of fasting is to attain Taqwa or God-consciousness and fear of Allah. The ability to tame the unruly tendencies of one’s inner self on one hand, and the cultivation of one’s will power, on the other, are very important in the process of purification of the soul. This is because during fasting in Ramadan, there are many opportunities, blessings and means that one can avail and utilize so that one’s soul is purified.
Firstly, forgiveness of sins has a very positive result in purifying the soul. The accumulation of sins for the whole year produces in the conscience a sense of endless guilt and the feeling of one’s sins are being forgiven is a relief in one’s weary heart. Have you ever wondered how people cannot sleep at night because they have wronged someone or quarreled with someone? This heavy burden upon a believer’s soul is relieved once reconciliation takes place. Similarly, Allah subhanahu wa taala, in His mercy forgives the fasting people whereby relieving him of the guilt of his past sins against Allah. The Prophet Muhammad said:
من صام رمضان ايمنا و احتصابا غفر له ما تقدم من ذنبه
Who ever fast in Ramadan having Iman and Ihtisab, his past sins will be forgiven for him.
This hadeeth stipulates two conditions in order for the sins to be forgiven. The fasting person must of course be a Mu’min. Al Ihtisab carries with it three meanings: having firm resolve, hoping for the reward, and being pleased with the act not considering it a heavy burden.
Secondly, one should feel that he is doing a deed that is very dear and special to Allah. Every deed of son of Adam has an equivalent reward of ten to seven hundred times, except fasting which will be rewarded by Allah Al Kareem, the Most Generous.
Third, fasting purifies the soul by cultivating the much needed virtue of patience. There are three categories or facets of patience: Being patient in performing the obligations, being patient in avoiding the prohibitions and being patient in times of calamity. All of these three are trained in the fasting person by performing the obligatory act of fasting, avoiding vile, filthy, senseless, sinful actions and being patient in difficulties that might happen while fasting.
Fourth, fasting reminds him the true purpose of his creation and the meaning of Islam. That to worship Allah, one must inevitably submit to His will first; that Allah comes first before one’s own desires. Especially for those who are living in non Muslim countries experience the temptation where everyone is eating and drinking while you are holding yourself because you want to follow what Allah wants.
Fifth, everything seems to slow down during Ramadan (especially in Muslim countries), and one doesn’t have the usual energy to do the fruitless things. Hence one is left with more free time to think and ponder. This leaves a person with more time to ponder over his life and possibly the wrong things he have done.
Sixth, feeling and doing the act yields more certainty that witnessing it. How many times we have seen pictures of malnourished children in Africa and felt pity for them, yet one still cannot feel how is it to starved and taste the pangs of hunger in one’s stomach. This in turn should turn on the switch of gratefulness in us for the blessings of Allah.
Seventh, fasting makes us realize our potential as human beings. Some of us think that the obligations and prohibitions of Islam are overwhelming or inapplicable especially in non Muslim societies so we involve ourselves in haram activities thinking that we cannot do anything about it. But in Ramadan, we only haven’t abstained from the haram but from the halal as well. If we have the strength to abstain from the halal then how about the haram? This is especially true for the smokers! In fact fasting is a sort of training for the gradual weaning from the addictive effects of smoking.
Eighth, turning to Allah and realizing one’s need for Him. If Allah takes away our most fundamental needs as human beings then who is there to help us. Imagine if Allah takes away our sense of taste or sense of satiety. Having been born with all the complete senses and limbs makes us forget that ultimately these are not really ours. This reality is vividly demonstrated in people with illness such as stroke patients with hemiplegia or paralysis of one’s side of the body. His left hand is there still connected to his body, he can see it, yet he cannot move it on his own and sometimes might not even feel that it is there. Subhanallah!
Ninth, we have heard the hadeeth of the Prophet: Whoever guarantees me what is between his jaws/beard [the tongue] and what is between his legs [sexual organs] I guarantee him paradise . Don’t you see? Being fasting makes us more conscious of what we say and more careful in our interactions with the opposite sex.
Tenth, fasting again makes us remember that we are not here just to eat and drink; that our existence is not just mere fulfillment and gratification of our basic desires; that we are here for a more sublime purpose, which is to worship Allah. In other words we eat not just to live but to worship the Creator. This is what separates us from the modern, secular materialistic people where they eat to live or even worst, some of them actually live to eat .
Eleventh, fasting is a chance to demonstrate sincerity to Allah. All types of worship are visible to others even giving charity secretly whereby the receiver knew that somebody gave him secretly. However in fasting nobody knows if you really fasted or secretly ingested food to your mouth except Allah. Sincerity in actions is a fundamental prerequisite in the acceptance of deeds and consequently success.
Twelfth, fasting helps to cure the disease of the ‘desire for more’. When one thinks that he is able to survive with only one and half meal a day and this is his real needs. Some of us has this self-made needs, a make believe that we ourselves concocted. How many of us say things like “I can’t live without smart phone or a V8 engine powered vehicle or a three storey villa”? We misallocate our resources at the expense of other more important things.
Ultimately, Taqwa have a big role in all of this. This will power to do the things that Allah has ordered us to do, this self-restraint that bridles us to avoid what Allah has prohibited for us, and this love for Allah, doing what is beyond the obligatory. Fasting in Ramadan and its Tarawih incorporates all of these aspects, purifying our souls and making us closer and closer to Allah. “Allah the Almightly has said :For whoever has mutual animosity wit a fried (wali) of Mine, I declare war upon him. My servant does not draw near to Me with anything more beloved more to Me than the religious duties that I have imposed upon him; and My servant continues to draw near to Me with supererogatory works such that I love him. And when I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which strikes, and his leg with which he walks. Were he to ask of me, I would surely give him; and were he to ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant him it. (Bukhari).
The contents of this article are largely taken from Jamaluddin Zaraboso's bbook "Purification of the Soul".
Monday, August 31, 2009
The Goals of Fasting
Alhamdulillah wassalatu wassalamu 'ala Rasoolillah
The goal of fasting is to achieve Taqwa - fear and love for Allah.
Allah said:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
O you who believe! Observing saum (the fasting) is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become the Muttaqoon (pious). Al Baqarah 2:183
The Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallama said:
"Perhaps the fasting person gets nothing from his fast except hunger. And perhaps the praying person [at night during Ramadan] gets nothing from his standing [in prayer] except sleeplessness"
Recorded by Ibn Maajah. Declared Sahih by al Albani in Saheeh al Jaami vol. 1 pg. 656.
The fast is meant to be a period of training and development of Taqwa (God-consciousness). IF a person does not abstain from forbidden acts during that time of fasting, then he is actually not receiving or enacting the proper type of training. Hence, the act itself becomes nothing more than a burden and hardship on the person without any beneficial outcome in this life or, possibly, in the Hereafter.
"The goal of fasting is not thirst, and hunger. The goal of fasting is the overcoming of one's desires and defeating the base desires of the soul."
Al Baidhaawi, quoted by IBn Hajr in Fath al Baari vol. 4 p. 117
"The purpose of fasting is that the spirit of man was released from the clutches of desires and moderation prevailed in his carnal self, and, through it, he realizsed the goal of purification and everlasting felicity. It is aimed at curtailing the intensity of desire and lust by means of hunger and thirst, at inducing man to realize how many were there in the world like him who had to go even without a small quantity of food, at making it difficult for the Devil to deceive him, and at restraining his organs from turning towards things in which there was the loss of both worlds. Fasting, thus, is the bridle of the God-fearing, the shiled of the crusaders and the discipline of the virtuous."
Ibn al Qayyim, quoted in Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi, the four Pillars, p. 173.
"While you are fasting, let your hearing, sight and tongue also abstain from lying and the forbidden. Avoid harming your neighbor. You should have calmness and tranquility on the day of your fast. Do not let the day of your fast and the day you break your fast be the same"
Jaabir quoted by Ibn Rajb in Lataaif p. 292
Don't let Ramadan become a festival where one eats and party all night and sleep all day. You can see people who do this dont change from year to year. One of the acceptance of good deeds is that the person is guided to follow up those good deeds with additional good deeds. Everyone should make an effort to change during the month of Ramadan.
Note:
These study notes were taken from Jamaluddin Zaraboso' Purification of the Soul.
The goal of fasting is to achieve Taqwa - fear and love for Allah.
Allah said:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
O you who believe! Observing saum (the fasting) is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become the Muttaqoon (pious). Al Baqarah 2:183
The Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallama said:
"Perhaps the fasting person gets nothing from his fast except hunger. And perhaps the praying person [at night during Ramadan] gets nothing from his standing [in prayer] except sleeplessness"
Recorded by Ibn Maajah. Declared Sahih by al Albani in Saheeh al Jaami vol. 1 pg. 656.
The fast is meant to be a period of training and development of Taqwa (God-consciousness). IF a person does not abstain from forbidden acts during that time of fasting, then he is actually not receiving or enacting the proper type of training. Hence, the act itself becomes nothing more than a burden and hardship on the person without any beneficial outcome in this life or, possibly, in the Hereafter.
"The goal of fasting is not thirst, and hunger. The goal of fasting is the overcoming of one's desires and defeating the base desires of the soul."
Al Baidhaawi, quoted by IBn Hajr in Fath al Baari vol. 4 p. 117
"The purpose of fasting is that the spirit of man was released from the clutches of desires and moderation prevailed in his carnal self, and, through it, he realizsed the goal of purification and everlasting felicity. It is aimed at curtailing the intensity of desire and lust by means of hunger and thirst, at inducing man to realize how many were there in the world like him who had to go even without a small quantity of food, at making it difficult for the Devil to deceive him, and at restraining his organs from turning towards things in which there was the loss of both worlds. Fasting, thus, is the bridle of the God-fearing, the shiled of the crusaders and the discipline of the virtuous."
Ibn al Qayyim, quoted in Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi, the four Pillars, p. 173.
"While you are fasting, let your hearing, sight and tongue also abstain from lying and the forbidden. Avoid harming your neighbor. You should have calmness and tranquility on the day of your fast. Do not let the day of your fast and the day you break your fast be the same"
Jaabir quoted by Ibn Rajb in Lataaif p. 292
Don't let Ramadan become a festival where one eats and party all night and sleep all day. You can see people who do this dont change from year to year. One of the acceptance of good deeds is that the person is guided to follow up those good deeds with additional good deeds. Everyone should make an effort to change during the month of Ramadan.
Note:
These study notes were taken from Jamaluddin Zaraboso' Purification of the Soul.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Choosing the Easier Alternative: The relevance of Jihad in the Tausug Context
Alhamdulillah. Wassalatu Wassalamu 'ala Rasoolillah.
About the issue of using peaceful means in attaining peace or freedom or whatever goal it is out there, let me share to you a piece of my mind.
It is true that in Islam fighting is not the only means of attaining an objective. While many Muslims might agree with this, some may be reluctant to accept the idea that Islamic objectives can be achieved by ways other than Jihad. This is especially true when people starts to quote to you Quranic Verses, Hadeeth or Stories from the Seerah that specifies the conditions of or the merits of fighting for the sake of Allah. Unfortunately, if one has a contrary opinion, one is seen as having less faith, cowardice or worst - a government spy.
You might recall the hadeeth of Aishah when she narrated that the Prophet of Allah always chooses an easier alternative should there be two choices or ways of doing things confronting him - if both are permissible.
Is Jihad permissible in our times? Is Da'wah permissible in our times? Im asking this question in the context of Tausug scheme of things. The situation in Cotabato and Lanao might be different. Im separating the Tausug because I believe not all Bangsamoro are in the same socio-political condition.
I am yet to find a Muslim who would say Da'wah is NOT permissible. Concerning Jihad, I'm not sure about this as I haven't heard 'mainstream' Ulama condoning nor condemning it in our present context (Its maybe because Im not in contact with them at all). When I say Jihad, I do not mean kidnapping, bombing public places or things that have become associated with terrorism. I categorically condemn these as with those Major Ulama of our time like Bin Baz, al Albani and Ibn Uthaimeen. I mean legitimate fighting in the battlefield between combatants.
In any case the issue of Jihad can only fall into the five main categories of Islamic Jurisprudence. Wajib, Sunnah, Mubah, Makrooh or Haram. I assume that our Ulama's opinions fall into one of these categories.
Relevant Shariah Texts point to the permissibility or even the obligation of Jihad in our area, BUT, let me give a big but here...
Before that, you might already have realized that there are three levels of knowledge.
1. Knowledge of a thing (or a specific and relevant Shariah evidence) including its textual authenticity. Example is the hadeeth where the sacrifice/effort offered related to a particular act is equivalent to its rewards. (Making wudoo' using cold water in a very cold day). Having knowledge of it makes one perform wudoo' to pray Salatul Fajr.
2. Understanding - One must understand the real meaning of the Shariah evidence and its context. Same hadeeth. In winter time, if warm water is available (from heaters for example), it is not from the true understanding of the hadeeth to make wudoo' using a very cold water. The hadeeth only motivates a person to perform wudoo' in a situation where there is no water heater available (like fourteen centuries ago). One brother in his enthusiasm to follow the Sunnah actually collected pebbles and put it in a basket inside his toilet. After defecating, he uses it instead of papers! The Prophet of course used pebbles and water. But the true understanding is to use any suitable material that is easier to find and dispose like paper. (My relatives still use dried banana leaves - they call it Daag).
3. Wisdom - this is the hard part as you already know. Wisdom has been defined as putting things into its proper place (time and context). This includes knowing the evidence, understanding their true and intended meaning and applying or implementing it in the right time and context of the situation. This entails knowledge and understanding of both the Shariah texts and the real time situation. This also includes a good deal of certainty of the result(s) should the text be implemented or not implemented in a given situation.
So now we are faced with many variables here.
1. No doubt about Da'wah and other peaceful means of attaining our goals. (We have to define the goals first though.)
2. As far as the Major Ulama of our time, terrorism is not a legitimate Islamic solution at all.
3. Jihad might be Islamically legitimate but is it the only solution available?
In the third quarter of the last century, Tausugs (and other Bangsamoro) renewed their quest for independence by waging a war with the government. It has been thirty years since, hundreds of thousands died, millions are displaced, countless miseries. What we can surely say is that the Tausug are in no better condition than what they were in thirty years ago. The recent Jihad of Malik is a testimony that such endeavor is not sustainable where bullets run out after a three day skirmish. How can a small group fight an army with a full economy behind them?
What would the Prophet do in such a situation?
Remember when the Prophet and his companions were still in Makkah? Remember what he did in Hudaibiyyah when he opted for a ten year truce of no fighting that resulted in a surge of converts of tribes from all over Arabia that after three years after the truce (after the Quraish violated it) he came back to Makkah with ten thousand warriors?
Remember the hadeeth concerning Prophet Eesa and the Gog and Magog?
Then a people whom God had protected would come to Jesus, son of Mary, and he would wipe their faces and would inform them of their ranks in Paradise and it would be under such conditions that God would reveal to Jesus these words, ‘I have brought forth from amongst My servants such people against whom none would be able to fight; you take these people safely to the Mount of Toor, and then God would send Gog and Magog and they would swarm down from every slope. The first of them would pass the lake of Tiberius and drink out of it. And when the last of them would pass, he would say, ‘There was once water there.’ Jesus and his companions would then be besieged here (at Toor, and they would be so hard pressed) that the head of the ox would be dearer to them than one hundred dinars (old currency.
I still have to find the reference of the hadeeth but the story is quite famous. Imagine one of the greatest Prophet of Allah hiding from his enemies! Yet can one even dare say that he is coward and have no honor?
What I can conclude from this - whatever you call this - is that we as a people do not have the luxury of participating in this endeavor as it has been proven to be less than what we expected it to be, carrying with it more harms than benefits. As far as I can tell, this strategy has failed in the Tausug experience.
Im not saying that we should not defend our selves when evil people comes to our home and kill our family and steal our belongings. What I am saying is that collectively as a people, there must be a better way out there that has been prescribed in the Quran and Sunnah. It might be Islamic to fight. But it is also Islamic not to fight and engage in more sustainable and fruitful endeavors. Especially more so if the goal is the same.
Allahu alam.
Subhanaka Allahumma wa bihamdik. Wa ash hadu an la ilaha anta wa atubo ilaik.
About the issue of using peaceful means in attaining peace or freedom or whatever goal it is out there, let me share to you a piece of my mind.
It is true that in Islam fighting is not the only means of attaining an objective. While many Muslims might agree with this, some may be reluctant to accept the idea that Islamic objectives can be achieved by ways other than Jihad. This is especially true when people starts to quote to you Quranic Verses, Hadeeth or Stories from the Seerah that specifies the conditions of or the merits of fighting for the sake of Allah. Unfortunately, if one has a contrary opinion, one is seen as having less faith, cowardice or worst - a government spy.
You might recall the hadeeth of Aishah when she narrated that the Prophet of Allah always chooses an easier alternative should there be two choices or ways of doing things confronting him - if both are permissible.
Is Jihad permissible in our times? Is Da'wah permissible in our times? Im asking this question in the context of Tausug scheme of things. The situation in Cotabato and Lanao might be different. Im separating the Tausug because I believe not all Bangsamoro are in the same socio-political condition.
I am yet to find a Muslim who would say Da'wah is NOT permissible. Concerning Jihad, I'm not sure about this as I haven't heard 'mainstream' Ulama condoning nor condemning it in our present context (Its maybe because Im not in contact with them at all). When I say Jihad, I do not mean kidnapping, bombing public places or things that have become associated with terrorism. I categorically condemn these as with those Major Ulama of our time like Bin Baz, al Albani and Ibn Uthaimeen. I mean legitimate fighting in the battlefield between combatants.
In any case the issue of Jihad can only fall into the five main categories of Islamic Jurisprudence. Wajib, Sunnah, Mubah, Makrooh or Haram. I assume that our Ulama's opinions fall into one of these categories.
Relevant Shariah Texts point to the permissibility or even the obligation of Jihad in our area, BUT, let me give a big but here...
Before that, you might already have realized that there are three levels of knowledge.
1. Knowledge of a thing (or a specific and relevant Shariah evidence) including its textual authenticity. Example is the hadeeth where the sacrifice/effort offered related to a particular act is equivalent to its rewards. (Making wudoo' using cold water in a very cold day). Having knowledge of it makes one perform wudoo' to pray Salatul Fajr.
2. Understanding - One must understand the real meaning of the Shariah evidence and its context. Same hadeeth. In winter time, if warm water is available (from heaters for example), it is not from the true understanding of the hadeeth to make wudoo' using a very cold water. The hadeeth only motivates a person to perform wudoo' in a situation where there is no water heater available (like fourteen centuries ago). One brother in his enthusiasm to follow the Sunnah actually collected pebbles and put it in a basket inside his toilet. After defecating, he uses it instead of papers! The Prophet of course used pebbles and water. But the true understanding is to use any suitable material that is easier to find and dispose like paper. (My relatives still use dried banana leaves - they call it Daag).
3. Wisdom - this is the hard part as you already know. Wisdom has been defined as putting things into its proper place (time and context). This includes knowing the evidence, understanding their true and intended meaning and applying or implementing it in the right time and context of the situation. This entails knowledge and understanding of both the Shariah texts and the real time situation. This also includes a good deal of certainty of the result(s) should the text be implemented or not implemented in a given situation.
So now we are faced with many variables here.
1. No doubt about Da'wah and other peaceful means of attaining our goals. (We have to define the goals first though.)
2. As far as the Major Ulama of our time, terrorism is not a legitimate Islamic solution at all.
3. Jihad might be Islamically legitimate but is it the only solution available?
In the third quarter of the last century, Tausugs (and other Bangsamoro) renewed their quest for independence by waging a war with the government. It has been thirty years since, hundreds of thousands died, millions are displaced, countless miseries. What we can surely say is that the Tausug are in no better condition than what they were in thirty years ago. The recent Jihad of Malik is a testimony that such endeavor is not sustainable where bullets run out after a three day skirmish. How can a small group fight an army with a full economy behind them?
What would the Prophet do in such a situation?
Remember when the Prophet and his companions were still in Makkah? Remember what he did in Hudaibiyyah when he opted for a ten year truce of no fighting that resulted in a surge of converts of tribes from all over Arabia that after three years after the truce (after the Quraish violated it) he came back to Makkah with ten thousand warriors?
Remember the hadeeth concerning Prophet Eesa and the Gog and Magog?
Then a people whom God had protected would come to Jesus, son of Mary, and he would wipe their faces and would inform them of their ranks in Paradise and it would be under such conditions that God would reveal to Jesus these words, ‘I have brought forth from amongst My servants such people against whom none would be able to fight; you take these people safely to the Mount of Toor, and then God would send Gog and Magog and they would swarm down from every slope. The first of them would pass the lake of Tiberius and drink out of it. And when the last of them would pass, he would say, ‘There was once water there.’ Jesus and his companions would then be besieged here (at Toor, and they would be so hard pressed) that the head of the ox would be dearer to them than one hundred dinars (old currency.
I still have to find the reference of the hadeeth but the story is quite famous. Imagine one of the greatest Prophet of Allah hiding from his enemies! Yet can one even dare say that he is coward and have no honor?
What I can conclude from this - whatever you call this - is that we as a people do not have the luxury of participating in this endeavor as it has been proven to be less than what we expected it to be, carrying with it more harms than benefits. As far as I can tell, this strategy has failed in the Tausug experience.
Im not saying that we should not defend our selves when evil people comes to our home and kill our family and steal our belongings. What I am saying is that collectively as a people, there must be a better way out there that has been prescribed in the Quran and Sunnah. It might be Islamic to fight. But it is also Islamic not to fight and engage in more sustainable and fruitful endeavors. Especially more so if the goal is the same.
Allahu alam.
Subhanaka Allahumma wa bihamdik. Wa ash hadu an la ilaha anta wa atubo ilaik.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Islam in Essence
MEANING
Islam is an Arabic word that literally means submission, surrender and obedience. It is an active, conscious, ongoing and continuous process of willfully submitting ones own will, surrendering ones own wishes and desires which results in dutiful obedience throughout ones life.
WHO
The object of this submission, surrendering and obedience is the Creator of the Universe. At this point of our discussion, whatever name you call or language you use pertaining to this creator is immaterial. What is important is that you believe that you were created and you just didn’t come from nothing or evolved from some molecule or single cell organisms. The Being you believe that created you – that is the object of this submission and obedience. Muslims believe that that Creator has a name that He Himself revealed – His name is Allah.
Further, this Creator is unique in His qualities one of which is that He is transcendent. He is above and beyond His creation. He is neither enclosed by the creation nor is any part of the creation above Him in any way. He is not a part of the created world nor is it a part of Him. His Being is totally distinct and separate from His creation. He is the Creator and the universe and its contents are all a part of His creation. Therefore whatever is found in the universe is not God. Since man’s cognition is limited by his experience in the universe, whatever he can think of and imagine in any shape or form could not possibly be God. However, God doesn’t have to be in the creation in order to affect them. He hears and sees and has power over everything without the need of being in the creation.
In essence this belief about the Creator is mentioned in the Qur’an,
“…There is nothing like Him, and He is the hearer and seer of all.” (Qur’an 42:11)
WHAT
The next logical question is what’s that submission entails and what is required from our obedience. In Islam, it is believed that only the Creator alone should be worshipped and that nothing from His creation is worshipped. In other words the Will of this Creator, the action that He requires from His creation is to offer their worship to Him alone. In Islam, this worship is the very purpose of creation.
“I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship me” (Qur’an 51:56)
There should be no intermediaries between the Creator and the creation in terms of worship. The Arabic word for the one that is worshipped is called Ilah or translated as god.
Worship in Islam is not confined to prayers, supplications, fasting or pilgrimage but every deed that is done to please God is essentially worship. It can be expressed as calling to Him in times of needs. It also includes emotions like love, trust and fear, all of which have degrees which should only be directed to the Creator. Therefore supplicating to Prophets, dead saints, ancestors and asking their help is considered worship of them. Consequently, if the very purpose of creation is to worship the Creator, then the greatest sin is to worship the creation in lieu of the Creator.
HALF OF FAITH
If you can believe that the One who created you alone deserves your worship and veneration, then, technically you are a half believer. If you can accept that no one in the creation deserves this worship and veneration then you are a partial believer. This is because if one wants to embrace Islam, one has to declare the testimony of faith, the first half of which is “I bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped except God”.
Some people may be surprised about this fundamental and simple Islamic belief. That in reality Islam calls to the pure and unadulterated worship of the Creator, untainted by the worship of the creation.
HOW
At this point, we ask the question, if we can agree on the point that we should only worship the Creator alone and not worship anything else, how are we supposed to worship Him? Since the Creator gave us brains can we then decide individually for ourselves the manners and ways of worship? The answer is no because there will be confusion as to what manner of worship should be followed and mankind would be lost and cannot possibly fulfill the very essence of their existence.
The ‘how’ of worship was made shown to us by God by sending His prophets and messengers. There are about 125000 prophets sent by God to mankind, twenty five of them were mentioned in the Qur’an. Prophets like Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus and lastly Muhammad were all sent by God and revealed to them scriptures in order to tell and remind mankind above all else that the purpose of their existence – that is they should only worship the Creator alone.
“And We certainly sent into every nation a messenger, [saying], ‘Worship Allah and avoid taghut [false objects of worship].’” (Qur’an 16:36)
The fundamental message of all the Prophets are the same. That is to worship the Creator alone. However, they manner of worshipping Him might slightly vary from one another and their Laws also varies from one another.
This concept is preserved in the following biblical passage,
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. Exodus 20: 2-3
If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let us worship them," you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy (13:1-3)
However, if Muslims are required to believe in all the Prophets like Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, does it mean that they should also be Jews, Christians and Muslims at the same time? Did God the Creator sent these prophets with different messages? Is God the author of confusion? Of course the answer is no. Then why are there different religions?
WHY
Islam maintains that the pure teachings of the prophets before Muhammad were lost and corrupted. This is due to the fact that none of the scriptures of these previous prophets remained intact in their pure form.
Since Jesus was the prophet preceding Muhammad, for the sake of brevity, we will only consider Christianity in our discussion. Most Christians believe that the New Testament is the Gospel of Jesus. Many would even say that each and every letter of the Bible is the word of God. In the first few hundreds of years after Christ there were many written accounts about Jesus and those accounts vary because they were written by people who had different views who really Christ was. If one would compare and contrast the epistles of James and Paul for example, one could say that these very early Christians had different view of Christ and consequently his message. Early Christian writings such as the Gospel of Thomas had different views of Christ which represents the view of the Agnostics and the Ebionites.
Furthermore these written accounts were copied and re-copied by hand. In due course of time, errors in copying crept in, and these errors were copied by later scribes and became part of the scriptures believed to be the Gospel of Christ.
Consequently, this variation led to different beliefs concerning the nature of Jesus. These books represented the scriptures of different forms of Christianities that exists side by side even in the same city. This difference ultimately led to discord and violence between their adherents. To preserve the unity and harmony of his empire, Emperor Constantine convene the Nicene Council in the fourth century over which the official scriptures about Christ is to be decided and the official ‘view’ of Christ should be adopted by the empire. These collections of books became the canonized gospels and this one form of Christianity recognized by the Roman Empire became the Roman Catholic Church. This is after thousands have been massacred and numerous ‘gospels’ were burnt.
To date, there is nothing that we can call the very gospel of Christ that he dictated to his disciples. Even the so called synoptic gospels were only written account of Jesus attributed to his disciples. Meaning, the gospel according to Matthew was not written by the disciple Matthew, the gospel of Mark was not written by the apostle Mark, and so on. The earliest of which was probably written at least 30 years after Christ. Those that remained fairly intact were the epistles of Paul (of course after his gospels were chosen at the Nicene Council) who didn’t see and meet Christ and had a different view of Christ’s message against the real disciples of Christ like James. It is important to note that these early accounts Jesus were written in Greek, a language that Jesus didn’t speak.
Moreover, many Christians didn’t know that these gospel-manuscripts were hand copied by scribes who were deeply influenced by cultural, theological and political disputes of their day, for almost fifteen hundred years before the invention of the printing press. Hence copying mistakes and intentional changes abound in what is now called the New Testament.
Concerning the difference of the surviving manuscripts, Dr. Bart Ehrman, one of the leading contemporary scholars of New Testament wrote in his New York Times best selling book, Misquoting Jesus – the Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why, wrote in page 10,
“…These copies differs from one another in so many places that we don’t even know how many differences there are. Possibly it is easiest to put it in comparative terms: there are more differences among our manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament”
With such magnitude of changes and discrepancies, how sure can we get concerning the true nature of Jesus and his message? In the end, after the corruption of the message of Jesus, the worship of the Creator was changed to the worship of the creation – like Jesus, Mary, and several pious people and saints.
The purpose of explaining this is not certainly to degrade Christian’s Holy Scriptures but to explain why God has to send Prophet Muhammad and why does He has to reveal the Qur’an.
This answers the question why God sent His last Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings of Allah upon him in order to communicate to them once again the purpose of their creation and re-establish the correct belief about God and the proper way of worshipping Him. This last communication of God to mankind is called Qur’an.
“He has sent down upon you [O Muhammad], the Book in truth, confirming what was before it. And He revealed the Torah and the Gospel.” (Qur’an 3:3)
The Qur’an doesn’t only confirm the truth that is contained in the older scriptures such as the Bible but it is a criterion over it. It is the final word from God in terms of who the Creator is and what does He wants us to do in this life.
“And We have revealed to you [O Muhammad], the Book [i.e. the Qur’an] in truth, confirming that which preceded it of the Scripture and as a criterion over it.” (Qur’an 5:47)
Fourteen hundred years before Dr. Bart Ehrman wrote his best selling piece, the Qur’an declared that the Bible was written and changed by people and condemns them,
“So woe to those who write the ‘scripture’ with their own hands, then say, ‘This is from Allah,’ in order to exchange it for a small price. Woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for what they earn.” (Qur’an 2:79).
THE FINAL WORD
Thus Allah had to send His final prophet, Muhammad so that His final word is revealed to mankind. Prophet Muhammad restored the original belief of mankind since Adam - that the Creator should only be worshipped. The way of worshipping the Creator is according to the prophet of their time. Hence, Jesus was the way, the truth and the life and no one can come to God in his time except through him. And so does Moses, David, Solomon, they were the truth and the way in their own time.
In our present time since the dawn of Islam, our way of worshipping our Creator is the way Prophet Muhammad taught us how to worship Him.
PRESERVATION OF QUR’AN
Moreover, since no prophet will come after Prophet Muhammad and no revelation would descend from God, then this final message has to be preserved. God promised in the Qur’an that it will be preserved and He Himself will do it.
“Verily We: It is We Who have sent down the Reminder (i.e. the Quran) and surely, We will guard it (from corruption).” (Qur’an 15:9)
Indeed the Qur’an has been preserved from the beginning of Islam until now. It has been preserved both in written as well as in recited form (memory). Both types of preservation complement each other especially in the early days of Islam when the Qur’an was first compiled in its totality in the era of first Caliph Abu Bakr (d. 634 CE ), and reproduced and canonized in the time of Caliph Uthman (d. 656 CE). Copies of these original manuscripts still exist today in museums in Turkey and Tashkent Uzbekistan.
John Burton a renowned orientalist had this to say about the Qur’an:
The method of transmitting the Qur’an from one generation to the next by having the young memorise the oral tradition of their elders had mitigated somewhat from the beginning worst perils of relying solely on written records.…the text which has come down to us in the form which it was organized and approved by the Prophet…What we have today in our hands is the mus-haf (written form of Qur’an) of Muhammad. [The Collection of the Qur’aan p. 239-40. Usool at Tafseer p. 160]
Perhaps there is no other book in the world that is memorized from cover to cover except the Qur’an. Preschool kids, housewives, laborers, lawyers, doctors and indeed every Muslim in the earth right now have to have some verses or chapters of the Qur’an memorized. It is said in Muslim prayers at least five times daily and in it is recited completely during the night time prayers in the month of Ramadan. In fact one would find during the daily prayers that the Imam (leader in the congregational prayer) is corrected by people praying behind him once he makes a small mistake.
Moreover, the Qur’an is probably the only book in the world with a fully developed science of how to read and articulate it’s every letter. This science is taught religiously in many mosques in the world. If this is the case, one would wonder that if the reading and pronunciation of the Qur’an has been fully preserved then how much more of its text.
CHALLENGES
“Then do they not reflect upon the Qur’an? If it had been from [any] other than Allah, they would have found within it much contradiction.” (Qur’an 4:82)
Consequently, the criterion of the authenticity of any scripture is the absence of contradictions both internally and externally. Internal consistencies mean that there should be no contradictions between the verses of the scripture that cannot be reconciled. External consistency means that there should be no contradictions between the copies of the manuscripts of the scripture.
CONCLUSION
Therefore, dear reader, if you can accept the belief that you should only worship the One who created you, gave you life, provide for you the air you breathe and food you eat, the earth you stand upon; if you can accept the belief that none of His creation deserves to be worship including the Prophets, pious men, saints, stones or trees; If you can accept that He sent prophets continually throughout human history in order to bring back mankind to the very purpose of their existence; If you can accept that the last of these prophets was Muhammad and with him the Qur’an, the very last revelation sent to mankind; then you are actually now knocking at the door of Islam. All you have to do is declare the testimony of faith.
“Ash hadu an La ilaha Illallah wa ash hadu Muhammadan Rasoolullah”,
I bear witness that nothing deserves to be worshipped but God and Muhammad is His messenger.
Abu Khalid
Islam is an Arabic word that literally means submission, surrender and obedience. It is an active, conscious, ongoing and continuous process of willfully submitting ones own will, surrendering ones own wishes and desires which results in dutiful obedience throughout ones life.
WHO
The object of this submission, surrendering and obedience is the Creator of the Universe. At this point of our discussion, whatever name you call or language you use pertaining to this creator is immaterial. What is important is that you believe that you were created and you just didn’t come from nothing or evolved from some molecule or single cell organisms. The Being you believe that created you – that is the object of this submission and obedience. Muslims believe that that Creator has a name that He Himself revealed – His name is Allah.
Further, this Creator is unique in His qualities one of which is that He is transcendent. He is above and beyond His creation. He is neither enclosed by the creation nor is any part of the creation above Him in any way. He is not a part of the created world nor is it a part of Him. His Being is totally distinct and separate from His creation. He is the Creator and the universe and its contents are all a part of His creation. Therefore whatever is found in the universe is not God. Since man’s cognition is limited by his experience in the universe, whatever he can think of and imagine in any shape or form could not possibly be God. However, God doesn’t have to be in the creation in order to affect them. He hears and sees and has power over everything without the need of being in the creation.
In essence this belief about the Creator is mentioned in the Qur’an,
“…There is nothing like Him, and He is the hearer and seer of all.” (Qur’an 42:11)
WHAT
The next logical question is what’s that submission entails and what is required from our obedience. In Islam, it is believed that only the Creator alone should be worshipped and that nothing from His creation is worshipped. In other words the Will of this Creator, the action that He requires from His creation is to offer their worship to Him alone. In Islam, this worship is the very purpose of creation.
“I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship me” (Qur’an 51:56)
There should be no intermediaries between the Creator and the creation in terms of worship. The Arabic word for the one that is worshipped is called Ilah or translated as god.
Worship in Islam is not confined to prayers, supplications, fasting or pilgrimage but every deed that is done to please God is essentially worship. It can be expressed as calling to Him in times of needs. It also includes emotions like love, trust and fear, all of which have degrees which should only be directed to the Creator. Therefore supplicating to Prophets, dead saints, ancestors and asking their help is considered worship of them. Consequently, if the very purpose of creation is to worship the Creator, then the greatest sin is to worship the creation in lieu of the Creator.
HALF OF FAITH
If you can believe that the One who created you alone deserves your worship and veneration, then, technically you are a half believer. If you can accept that no one in the creation deserves this worship and veneration then you are a partial believer. This is because if one wants to embrace Islam, one has to declare the testimony of faith, the first half of which is “I bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped except God”.
Some people may be surprised about this fundamental and simple Islamic belief. That in reality Islam calls to the pure and unadulterated worship of the Creator, untainted by the worship of the creation.
HOW
At this point, we ask the question, if we can agree on the point that we should only worship the Creator alone and not worship anything else, how are we supposed to worship Him? Since the Creator gave us brains can we then decide individually for ourselves the manners and ways of worship? The answer is no because there will be confusion as to what manner of worship should be followed and mankind would be lost and cannot possibly fulfill the very essence of their existence.
The ‘how’ of worship was made shown to us by God by sending His prophets and messengers. There are about 125000 prophets sent by God to mankind, twenty five of them were mentioned in the Qur’an. Prophets like Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus and lastly Muhammad were all sent by God and revealed to them scriptures in order to tell and remind mankind above all else that the purpose of their existence – that is they should only worship the Creator alone.
“And We certainly sent into every nation a messenger, [saying], ‘Worship Allah and avoid taghut [false objects of worship].’” (Qur’an 16:36)
The fundamental message of all the Prophets are the same. That is to worship the Creator alone. However, they manner of worshipping Him might slightly vary from one another and their Laws also varies from one another.
This concept is preserved in the following biblical passage,
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. Exodus 20: 2-3
If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let us worship them," you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy (13:1-3)
However, if Muslims are required to believe in all the Prophets like Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, does it mean that they should also be Jews, Christians and Muslims at the same time? Did God the Creator sent these prophets with different messages? Is God the author of confusion? Of course the answer is no. Then why are there different religions?
WHY
Islam maintains that the pure teachings of the prophets before Muhammad were lost and corrupted. This is due to the fact that none of the scriptures of these previous prophets remained intact in their pure form.
Since Jesus was the prophet preceding Muhammad, for the sake of brevity, we will only consider Christianity in our discussion. Most Christians believe that the New Testament is the Gospel of Jesus. Many would even say that each and every letter of the Bible is the word of God. In the first few hundreds of years after Christ there were many written accounts about Jesus and those accounts vary because they were written by people who had different views who really Christ was. If one would compare and contrast the epistles of James and Paul for example, one could say that these very early Christians had different view of Christ and consequently his message. Early Christian writings such as the Gospel of Thomas had different views of Christ which represents the view of the Agnostics and the Ebionites.
Furthermore these written accounts were copied and re-copied by hand. In due course of time, errors in copying crept in, and these errors were copied by later scribes and became part of the scriptures believed to be the Gospel of Christ.
Consequently, this variation led to different beliefs concerning the nature of Jesus. These books represented the scriptures of different forms of Christianities that exists side by side even in the same city. This difference ultimately led to discord and violence between their adherents. To preserve the unity and harmony of his empire, Emperor Constantine convene the Nicene Council in the fourth century over which the official scriptures about Christ is to be decided and the official ‘view’ of Christ should be adopted by the empire. These collections of books became the canonized gospels and this one form of Christianity recognized by the Roman Empire became the Roman Catholic Church. This is after thousands have been massacred and numerous ‘gospels’ were burnt.
To date, there is nothing that we can call the very gospel of Christ that he dictated to his disciples. Even the so called synoptic gospels were only written account of Jesus attributed to his disciples. Meaning, the gospel according to Matthew was not written by the disciple Matthew, the gospel of Mark was not written by the apostle Mark, and so on. The earliest of which was probably written at least 30 years after Christ. Those that remained fairly intact were the epistles of Paul (of course after his gospels were chosen at the Nicene Council) who didn’t see and meet Christ and had a different view of Christ’s message against the real disciples of Christ like James. It is important to note that these early accounts Jesus were written in Greek, a language that Jesus didn’t speak.
Moreover, many Christians didn’t know that these gospel-manuscripts were hand copied by scribes who were deeply influenced by cultural, theological and political disputes of their day, for almost fifteen hundred years before the invention of the printing press. Hence copying mistakes and intentional changes abound in what is now called the New Testament.
Concerning the difference of the surviving manuscripts, Dr. Bart Ehrman, one of the leading contemporary scholars of New Testament wrote in his New York Times best selling book, Misquoting Jesus – the Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why, wrote in page 10,
“…These copies differs from one another in so many places that we don’t even know how many differences there are. Possibly it is easiest to put it in comparative terms: there are more differences among our manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament”
With such magnitude of changes and discrepancies, how sure can we get concerning the true nature of Jesus and his message? In the end, after the corruption of the message of Jesus, the worship of the Creator was changed to the worship of the creation – like Jesus, Mary, and several pious people and saints.
The purpose of explaining this is not certainly to degrade Christian’s Holy Scriptures but to explain why God has to send Prophet Muhammad and why does He has to reveal the Qur’an.
This answers the question why God sent His last Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings of Allah upon him in order to communicate to them once again the purpose of their creation and re-establish the correct belief about God and the proper way of worshipping Him. This last communication of God to mankind is called Qur’an.
“He has sent down upon you [O Muhammad], the Book in truth, confirming what was before it. And He revealed the Torah and the Gospel.” (Qur’an 3:3)
The Qur’an doesn’t only confirm the truth that is contained in the older scriptures such as the Bible but it is a criterion over it. It is the final word from God in terms of who the Creator is and what does He wants us to do in this life.
“And We have revealed to you [O Muhammad], the Book [i.e. the Qur’an] in truth, confirming that which preceded it of the Scripture and as a criterion over it.” (Qur’an 5:47)
Fourteen hundred years before Dr. Bart Ehrman wrote his best selling piece, the Qur’an declared that the Bible was written and changed by people and condemns them,
“So woe to those who write the ‘scripture’ with their own hands, then say, ‘This is from Allah,’ in order to exchange it for a small price. Woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for what they earn.” (Qur’an 2:79).
THE FINAL WORD
Thus Allah had to send His final prophet, Muhammad so that His final word is revealed to mankind. Prophet Muhammad restored the original belief of mankind since Adam - that the Creator should only be worshipped. The way of worshipping the Creator is according to the prophet of their time. Hence, Jesus was the way, the truth and the life and no one can come to God in his time except through him. And so does Moses, David, Solomon, they were the truth and the way in their own time.
In our present time since the dawn of Islam, our way of worshipping our Creator is the way Prophet Muhammad taught us how to worship Him.
PRESERVATION OF QUR’AN
Moreover, since no prophet will come after Prophet Muhammad and no revelation would descend from God, then this final message has to be preserved. God promised in the Qur’an that it will be preserved and He Himself will do it.
“Verily We: It is We Who have sent down the Reminder (i.e. the Quran) and surely, We will guard it (from corruption).” (Qur’an 15:9)
Indeed the Qur’an has been preserved from the beginning of Islam until now. It has been preserved both in written as well as in recited form (memory). Both types of preservation complement each other especially in the early days of Islam when the Qur’an was first compiled in its totality in the era of first Caliph Abu Bakr (d. 634 CE ), and reproduced and canonized in the time of Caliph Uthman (d. 656 CE). Copies of these original manuscripts still exist today in museums in Turkey and Tashkent Uzbekistan.
John Burton a renowned orientalist had this to say about the Qur’an:
The method of transmitting the Qur’an from one generation to the next by having the young memorise the oral tradition of their elders had mitigated somewhat from the beginning worst perils of relying solely on written records.…the text which has come down to us in the form which it was organized and approved by the Prophet…What we have today in our hands is the mus-haf (written form of Qur’an) of Muhammad. [The Collection of the Qur’aan p. 239-40. Usool at Tafseer p. 160]
Perhaps there is no other book in the world that is memorized from cover to cover except the Qur’an. Preschool kids, housewives, laborers, lawyers, doctors and indeed every Muslim in the earth right now have to have some verses or chapters of the Qur’an memorized. It is said in Muslim prayers at least five times daily and in it is recited completely during the night time prayers in the month of Ramadan. In fact one would find during the daily prayers that the Imam (leader in the congregational prayer) is corrected by people praying behind him once he makes a small mistake.
Moreover, the Qur’an is probably the only book in the world with a fully developed science of how to read and articulate it’s every letter. This science is taught religiously in many mosques in the world. If this is the case, one would wonder that if the reading and pronunciation of the Qur’an has been fully preserved then how much more of its text.
CHALLENGES
“Then do they not reflect upon the Qur’an? If it had been from [any] other than Allah, they would have found within it much contradiction.” (Qur’an 4:82)
Consequently, the criterion of the authenticity of any scripture is the absence of contradictions both internally and externally. Internal consistencies mean that there should be no contradictions between the verses of the scripture that cannot be reconciled. External consistency means that there should be no contradictions between the copies of the manuscripts of the scripture.
CONCLUSION
Therefore, dear reader, if you can accept the belief that you should only worship the One who created you, gave you life, provide for you the air you breathe and food you eat, the earth you stand upon; if you can accept the belief that none of His creation deserves to be worship including the Prophets, pious men, saints, stones or trees; If you can accept that He sent prophets continually throughout human history in order to bring back mankind to the very purpose of their existence; If you can accept that the last of these prophets was Muhammad and with him the Qur’an, the very last revelation sent to mankind; then you are actually now knocking at the door of Islam. All you have to do is declare the testimony of faith.
“Ash hadu an La ilaha Illallah wa ash hadu Muhammadan Rasoolullah”,
I bear witness that nothing deserves to be worshipped but God and Muhammad is His messenger.
Abu Khalid
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Is the Islamic Law Outdated?
ISLAMIC STUDIES ACADEMY
Midterms Assignment
Summar 2008
Course Code:
FQH 402
Course Title:
Evolution of Fiqh
Due Date:
Instructor:
Dr Bilal Philips
STUDENT: AL MADZHAR AHMADUL
Explain why the statement “Islamic law is outdated” is false using points 2 and 3 of the Introduction on the distinction between Fiqh and Shariah as your basis, along with 2 practical examples.
Alhamdulillah wassalatu wassalamu ‘ala Rasoolillah
The statement “Islamic law is outdated” is false because of the fact that Allah, the Law Giver, the Wise could not possibly give mankind a certain set of Law and declare that such law are binding for them until the end of time, and would become non essential due to the passive of time.
One of the reasons of this misunderstanding comes from the way we identify with the phrase “Islamic Law” which does not distinguish between Shari’ah and Fiqh. Therefore what follows is an elucidation between the two terminologies and their corresponding illustrations.
I. Distinctions between Shari’ah and Fiqh: Shari’ah is fixed and unchangeable, whereas Fiqh changes according to the circumstances under which it is applied.
Example: the ruling on smoking.
When tobacco was introduced to the Muslim world some few hundred years ago, it was ruled to be detestable (Makrooh) by the Islamic Scholars. The only known bad effect of smoking at that time was bad odor. Since smoking, just like garlic and onions, causes bad odor, the ruling on them was applied to smoking. This is due to the fact that the Prophet did not use to eat foods containing onions and garlic.
In Sahih Muslim, Jabir reported:
The Messenger of Allah (Peace and salutations of Allah be upon him) said: He who eats garlic or onion should remain away from us or from our mosque and stay in his house. A kettle was brought to him which had (cooked) vegetables in it, He smelt (offensive) odour in it. On asking he was informed of the vegetables (cooked in it). He said: Take it to such and such Companion. When he saw it, he also disliked eating it. (Upon this). he (the Holy Prophet) said: You may eat it, for I converse with one with whom you do not converse.
This hadeeth tells us that onions and garlic are detestable due to their inherently noxious aromatic characteristics but it also tells us that despite of that we can still eat them.
The “Shari’ah” part of this ruling is the hadeeth of Jabir (and others) found in Sahih Muslim. The “Fiqh” part comes from analogical deduction (Qiyaas) of the rulings on smoking based on the rulings on onions and garlic.
However as science and medicine have advanced significantly in the last century, many health related effects of smoking have been well documented to the point that we can fairly say that there is already an Ijmaa’ or concensus between researchers and physicians concerning the evil effects of smoking on human health. In fact, it has been estimated that in the 20th century about 100 million have died of tobacco-related illness worldwide.[1]. This figure is more than the death resulted from any plagues or the individual world wars. Globally, smoking-related mortality is set to rise from 3 million annually (1995 estimate) to 10 million annually by 2030, with 70% of these deaths occurring in developing countries[2]. Moreover, the socio-economic impact of smoking is also no less harmful than its health effects.
Because of these descriptions, it cannot be from the good things that were allowed for the sons of Adam, rather it is from the filthy and foul things that were forbidden for them. Allah said:
Those who follow the Messenger (Muhammad), the unlettered Prophet whom they find written in the Torah and the Gospel with them, he enjoins upon them that which is virtuous and forbids them that which is evil; he allows them all that is good and forbids for them all that is foul. Al-A’raf (7):157
That is why modern Islamic scholars who are aware of danger and harm of smoking ruled that it is haram.
The “Shariah” part of this modern ruling for smoking is the verse of Al A’raf verse 157 (and others) and the “Fiqh” part is the application of the comprehensive word (Khabaaith: foul, filthy) from the verse to smoking.
Finally in relation to the first distinction between Shari’ah as fixed and Fiqh as changeable, onions and garlics continues to be Makrooh because of its basis from a direct Shariah evidence (the hadeeth) while the ruling of smoking has been changed from Makrook to Haram due to different results of Qiyaas.
II. Distinctions between Shari’ah and Fiqh: The Laws of Shari’ah are, for the most part, general: they lay down basic principles. In contrast, the laws of Fiqh tend to be specific: they demonstrate how the basic principles of Shari’ah should be applied in given circumstance.
Example: Women are prohibited to drive in Saudi.
It is widely believed that in Saudi women are prohibited to drive. This is because; it is said, Saudi Arabia applies a strict form and interpretation of Islam – the ‘Wahabi’ Islam. However, looking at the issue closely would reveal that that is not so.
Recently a senior of Scholar of Saudi states that “in principle women driving is permitted in Islam. Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Al-Obaikan, a member of the Kingdom’s Council of Senior Islamic Scholars.
The ban, he said, has to do with the social complications rather than the act itself. As an example, the sheikh referred to a fatwa from former Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Bin-Baz that said it is permitted for women in rural areas to drive cars, but that they should be forbidden from driving in the cities where, as Al-Obaikan said, “youths (even) harass women accompanied by parents and drivers.
He said if certain issues are resolved, such as the problem of men’s behavior and traffic safety, then he sees no religiously motivated conflict with women driving.” [3]
It is clear from these statements that the basis of women being prohibited to drive in cities is from a basic Islamic principle of “The Means takes on the same rulings as their aims do” and from this; a secondary principle Sad ad-dara’i or preventing the means that can lead to haram is taken. There are several Qur’anic verses from where this principle can be deduced.
Dr. Saleh as Saleh in a discussion of Shaykh Abdur Rahman As Saadi’s fiqh maxims wrote:
Every allowable matter taken to abandon an obligation or to perform a forbidden act is itself haraam (forbidden). This is because in this foundation, the means take on the same ruling as there aims. That is why it is forbidden to trade or buy after the second call for jumu’ah; Allaah states[4].
O you who believe (Muslims)! When the call is proclaimed for the Salaat (prayer) on the day of Friday (Jumu'ah prayer), come to the remembrance of Allaah [Jumu'ah religious talk (Khutbah) and Salaat (prayer)] and leave off business (and every other thing), that is better for you if you did but know!_ Surah al-Jumu’ah (62:9)
Although trade is halal, but since doing it in the time of Jumu’ah prayer would cause one to miss it, it is forbidden. Similarly, driving is fundamentally allowed – men or women – but in Saudi, the Scholars and the government felt that there is a greater evil in allowing it due to a specific condition of their society.
This situation is specific to the Saudi society and must not be blindly applied to all Islamic countries. In connection to our topic, here, the Shariah law gives general rulings or principles which in this case is preventing the means that leads to haram and the Fiqh issue here is the specific situation of the Saudi society.
Summary
The statement “Islamic law is outdated” is not accurate because it doesn’t distinguish between the term Shari’ah and Fiqh. The Shari’ah of Allah cannot be outdated while its application, the Fiqh (understanding) of it can be, as demonstrated by the changing ruling of smoking. In the absence of specific ordinance from the Shari’ah, it nevertheless, lays down general principle that can serve as a basis for determining what is beneficial and what is harmful. The application of these principles can vary from place to place or time to time.
Wallahu ‘Alam.
[1] White WB. Smoking-related morbidity and mortality in the cardiovascular setting. Prev Cardiol. 2007 Spring;10(2 Suppl 1):1-4.
[2] Fagerström K. The epidemiology of smoking: health consequences and benefits of cessation. Drugs. 2002;62 Suppl 2:1-9.
[3] fatwa-online@yahoogroups.com
[4] Al-Qawaa'id wal-Usool al-Jaami'ah wal-Furooq wat-Taqaaseem al-Badee'ah an-Naafi'ah. The Basic Rulings and Principles of Fiqh –The Beneficial, Eloquent Classifications and Differentiations
Foundation -2 By Sh. 'Abdur Rahmaan ibn Naasir As-Sa'di, pg. 5.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Usool al Fiqh Questions Summer 2008
ISLAMIC STUDIES ACADEMY
Mid-Term Assignment Spring 2008
Course Code:
FQH 302
Course Title:
USOOL AL-FIQH - II
Instructor:
Ismaila Rasheed
Due Date:
Mid term exams
AL MADZHAR J. AHMADUL
Assignment 1:
Allah says in the Qur’an 8: 60 …. “Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power …by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah”……
a) How do we apply the meaning of the word ‘power’ in our times?
Answer: Power here means steeds of war. Just like in the time of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم when he referred to shooting arrows as power. In our times, whatever means of war that is highly effective can be taken to mean power. In this aspect we have to distinguish between the means and the goal. At the time of the Prophet, the means of war are arrows, swords, spears, and animals such as horses and camels, that are part of medieval warfare. The goal of which is to defend oneself and defeat the enemy. The means in our times have changed as technology has changed. But the goal has remained the same. Islam has to be defended because there will always be falsehood and its people who is opposed to truth and its adherents. Thus, the word ‘power’ in the Qur’an can be taken to mean any modern weapon of deterrent, defense and offense.
b) Is the statement “By which you may terrify the enemy of Allah”… a justification for those who classify Islam as a terrorizing religion?
Answer: No definitely not. Rather we have to put this verse into context. In modern vernacular this ‘terrifying the enemy of Allah’ is none other than ‘deterrence’. Meaning, no one would dare to attack a country, for example, with a weapon that can inflict immeasurable damage such as nuclear weapons because of the disastrous consequences if the attack is reciprocated. When USA dropped the A bomb to Japanese Cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this led to their unconditional surrender. No one would dare to attack a country as such. In fact, this ‘deterrence’ policy is the way how nuclear countries justلify their activities. The ‘enemies’ here are the aggressive ones who knew no rules and laws and who are thinking of attacking the nascent Muslim community. Please note that Nuclear weapon that indiscriminately kills none combatants and innocent people is fundamentally not allowed in Islam.
Further if one reads on to the next few verses,
But if they incline to peace, you also incline to it, and trust in Allah. Verily, He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower.) ( And if they intend to deceive you, then verily, Allah is All-Sufficient for you. He it is Who has supported you with His help and with the believers.) 8:61-62
…one would see that this exhortation to amass means of protection is not one of aggressive in nature due to the fact that once the enemy inclines to peace, and the believers are convinced of their peaceful intentions then they are enjoined to put their trust in God.
Assignment 2:
The majority of scholars agreed that Ijmaa’ (Consensus) is a proof and it is compulsory to work with it. The question now is, has there been anything like Ijmaa’ in the history of Islamic legislation?
Taking into account that just after the Prophet’s departure (saw) the boarder of the Islamic Nation expanded and scholars also traveled from one place to another.
Yes there are lots of example that an Ijmaa’ occurred. In fact a scholar named Ibn Al Mundhir wrote a book that compiled the consensus that arguably occurred between the Muslims. Example such Ijmaa’ is the caliphate of Abu Bakr, the burial place of the Prophet, the collection of the Qur’an, the Taraaweh Prayer etc. The Muwatta of Imam Malik also mentioned several consensus such as the inheritance of paternal half-siblings, the inheritance of maternal half-siblings, the judgement of the sale with the precondition of being free of all defects, and the sale of meat for meat can entail a form of usury (riba al-fadl).
Wallahu ‘alam
Allah says in the Qur’an 8: 60 …. “Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power …by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah”……
a) How do we apply the meaning of the word ‘power’ in our times?
Answer: Power here means steeds of war. Just like in the time of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم when he referred to shooting arrows as power. In our times, whatever means of war that is highly effective can be taken to mean power. In this aspect we have to distinguish between the means and the goal. At the time of the Prophet, the means of war are arrows, swords, spears, and animals such as horses and camels, that are part of medieval warfare. The goal of which is to defend oneself and defeat the enemy. The means in our times have changed as technology has changed. But the goal has remained the same. Islam has to be defended because there will always be falsehood and its people who is opposed to truth and its adherents. Thus, the word ‘power’ in the Qur’an can be taken to mean any modern weapon of deterrent, defense and offense.
b) Is the statement “By which you may terrify the enemy of Allah”… a justification for those who classify Islam as a terrorizing religion?
Answer: No definitely not. Rather we have to put this verse into context. In modern vernacular this ‘terrifying the enemy of Allah’ is none other than ‘deterrence’. Meaning, no one would dare to attack a country, for example, with a weapon that can inflict immeasurable damage such as nuclear weapons because of the disastrous consequences if the attack is reciprocated. When USA dropped the A bomb to Japanese Cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this led to their unconditional surrender. No one would dare to attack a country as such. In fact, this ‘deterrence’ policy is the way how nuclear countries justلify their activities. The ‘enemies’ here are the aggressive ones who knew no rules and laws and who are thinking of attacking the nascent Muslim community. Please note that Nuclear weapon that indiscriminately kills none combatants and innocent people is fundamentally not allowed in Islam.
Further if one reads on to the next few verses,
But if they incline to peace, you also incline to it, and trust in Allah. Verily, He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower.) ( And if they intend to deceive you, then verily, Allah is All-Sufficient for you. He it is Who has supported you with His help and with the believers.) 8:61-62
…one would see that this exhortation to amass means of protection is not one of aggressive in nature due to the fact that once the enemy inclines to peace, and the believers are convinced of their peaceful intentions then they are enjoined to put their trust in God.
Assignment 2:
The majority of scholars agreed that Ijmaa’ (Consensus) is a proof and it is compulsory to work with it. The question now is, has there been anything like Ijmaa’ in the history of Islamic legislation?
Taking into account that just after the Prophet’s departure (saw) the boarder of the Islamic Nation expanded and scholars also traveled from one place to another.
Yes there are lots of example that an Ijmaa’ occurred. In fact a scholar named Ibn Al Mundhir wrote a book that compiled the consensus that arguably occurred between the Muslims. Example such Ijmaa’ is the caliphate of Abu Bakr, the burial place of the Prophet, the collection of the Qur’an, the Taraaweh Prayer etc. The Muwatta of Imam Malik also mentioned several consensus such as the inheritance of paternal half-siblings, the inheritance of maternal half-siblings, the judgement of the sale with the precondition of being free of all defects, and the sale of meat for meat can entail a form of usury (riba al-fadl).
Wallahu ‘alam
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Concerning Islamic Laws of Inheritance
ISLAMIC STUDIES ACADEMY
Mid-Term Assignment Spring 2008
Course Code:
FQH 202
Course Title:
FIQH OF MU’AAMALAAT - IV
Instructor:
Abdus Salam Ghouse
MA, College of Hadeeth
Islamic University of Madeenah
Assignment 1:
Is women's inheritance in Islam really unfair? Discuss this issue and rectify the doubts.
Answer:
The rights of woman in the western world compared with rights of Muslim women 1400 years ago. In the west, one can legally write a will to a dog while leaving the wife nothing. In Islam, the right of the wife and other relatives are protected. No one can cancel them. Men are responsible for the maintenance of women. Hence, the son of the deceased is responsible for his mother and his sister since the father died. Men do not always have greater inheritance than women. Siblings (a brother and a sister) of the deceased gets an equal share of 1/6th each. (Qur’an 4:11)
Is women's inheritance in Islam really unfair? Discuss this issue and rectify the doubts.
Answer:
The rights of woman in the western world compared with rights of Muslim women 1400 years ago. In the west, one can legally write a will to a dog while leaving the wife nothing. In Islam, the right of the wife and other relatives are protected. No one can cancel them. Men are responsible for the maintenance of women. Hence, the son of the deceased is responsible for his mother and his sister since the father died. Men do not always have greater inheritance than women. Siblings (a brother and a sister) of the deceased gets an equal share of 1/6th each. (Qur’an 4:11)
“…it is inaccurate to say that the female invariably receives less than the male counterpart. Nor does the standard explanation of the sexually differentiated shares seem satisfactory. The female uterine sister inherits equally with her uterine brother, and so does the mother with the father of the deceased. It is the daughter and the germane or consanguine sister who receive only half as much as their male counterparts when they inherit jointly.”
“The case of the wife is particularly interesting. Her share is on half of what the husband would inherit from her, were he the survivor. The full implication of this provision must be seen in the light of the fact that the husband and the wife hold their properties and possessions independently of each other; between them there is no mandatory community of property. It is an interestingly verifiable proposition that the Muslim husband usually owns more than his wife and is therefore likely to leave more behind than she would, if he were to survive her. If he survives her, which is less likely from a demographic standpoint, his arithmetically larger share of inheritance – the one half of her independently held and owned property – may in fact be equal to or even less than her arithmetically smaller share, the one-fourth of his independently held and owned property. This is assuming that there are no children involved; otherwise, is one-half becomes one-fourth and her one fourth an eight. At any rate, the two shares are arithmetically different; one share is the double of the other. Yet the value of a larger share (the husband’s ) of a small estate (the wife’s) may be equal to or perhaps even less than the value of a small share (the wife’s ) of a large estate (the husband’s). The end result here would seem that, while the two shares are arithmetically different, they are not necessarily unequal in the final analysis. And even if they appear mathematically unequal, Muslims would most likely contend that they are morally equitable in view of the husband’s varied financial duties, the demographic facts and the non community of property.”
“…In the Islamic scheme of society, women are free from the usual economic responsibility. They are not legally required to provide for any person, not even for themselves. IF they have no independent resources, they are to be fully maintained by their able male relatives. The female is always assured by law of adequate care. Even the wealthy wife is to be maintained by the husband, the needy sister by the brother, the mother by the son, the daughter by the father, etc. Every living person needs subsistence, and every able male is held responsible for his own and possibly for that of other dependents. But not every deceased person leaves property for inheritance. This may suggest that the male is more likely to be ‘liable’ than ‘beneficiary’. His obligations to relatives, male and female alike, may well exceed what he could possibly inherit from any of them. When he sometimes receives a larger share of inheritance, it is probably in recognition of his manifold obligation and in partial compensation therefore. The whole scheme seems so designed as to ensure equity. When a larger share of the property is allocated to the exclusively liable male, who may be responsible for an entire household or perhaps beyond, and a smaller share is allocated to the ‘carefree’ and economically ‘non responsible’ female, the allocation cannot be easily called discrimatory against women. It would be discrimatory indeed if men and women were given the same of equal financial responsibilities. Since they are not, the sociological concept of differentiation or the Islamic term of equity characterizes the Islamic system more accurately than discrimination.”
“However, the Muslim woman, by receiving a smaller share of the property than the man’s , is not in fact being denied the fruits of any effort on her part or the produce of any of her labor. It is not that she earned something which is being withheld or taken away form her. Whatever she takes of the property of the deceased relatives is in return for nothing material she has done, or contributed. She inherits our of compassion or kindness, so to speak, and not because she has discharged or will discharge any financial duty to any relative.” [1]
Assignment 2:
Mention the merits of laws of inheritance in Islam and prove that they are just and rational for humanity.
It ensures that relatives are given their due share and right while in the world today, non Islamic systems do not protect this right. Hence one can find deranged people leaving wealth to their dogs, house, or a tree, or strange lovers, to the exclusion of their family members.
It distributes inheritance from the perspective of equitability, not necessarily from the perspective of equality. Meaning, one who has the most responsibility receives the most allocation of resources. This equitable concept is acceptable in todays economic minds. This is because, Islamic law has assigned different roles to different members of the family.
This assignment of roles to different members of family is according to the very nature that Allah created men and women. Biological, hormonal, musculoskeletal, neurological, psychological differences between male and female have just been recently discovered and accepted by people of science whereas this delicate difference has been clearly demarcated by Islam by assigning different yet complimentary roles for them fourteen hundred years ago. The best selling book Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus” is a contemporary testament to this fundamental difference.
[1] The Family Structure in Islam. Hammudah Abd al Ati. Pp. 267-270. American Trust Publications.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Tale of a People
Tausug Islam Yahoo Group LogoTALE OF A PEOPLE[1]
I
Never was I a conquered, vanished race.
Freely flowing my blood had been in stream.
Wantonly had grown my bones: formed my face,
Ramified had my twigs remain untrimmed.
Manisfest'd are my clothes, my ways, my plead;
A free tongue I speak and articulate.
To God I submit had remained my creed,
Still to Makka I circumambulate.
Never was a Spanish monarch my name,
For their cross and sword to a crescent failed.
Nor the American had brought me shame,
For my wielding Kris never been derailed.’
So to you the pseudo-democracists,
Never will I to your imperialists!
II
So why'd we succumbed I refrain to ask,
To their honeyed tongue and their mystic charm?
Untold we then the face behind the mask,
The surface beauty, underneath but harm.
Stagnant we had and unnerved to move,
When strong is our thigh and firm is our breast.
When sharp is our blade and brisk is our hooves,
Why can't we just scourge and flog them to rest?
Nay, what is a deed with wrong intention?
What's left an act devoid of purpose?
When the mind is shadowed by illusion'
Framed mind and abled Will can't juxtapose
Even by now and unknown to us then,
Our thoughts had been shaped and contoured by them
III
Though enlightened we are from our slumber,
The nightmare to reality persists.
Questions formed as the lightning and thunder,
From where's that sound after the flash exist'd?
What must we do amidst this awareness?
What must have done, rather should I have asked?
Knowing where Paris had hit Achilles,
Knowing the face underneath the mask.
Scourging and flogging will not clear the mind.
Though necessary are them for the fight.
Free mind and abled will is the true rhyme'
Insha-Allah freedom will be in sight.
We must pass through the ways of the Prophets,
Or we end in the theater like puppets!
IV
Once upon a time and so long ago,
There's a story to tell and to relate.
There existed an archipelago,
Now it is called the Sulu sultanate.
And from Arabia Shiekh Makhdum had come.
Armed only with Tawheed sealed in his heart,
With the ways of the Prophet in his arm,
The submission to the will of God start'd.
Without the armor and the point of sword,
The kingdom grew to the neighboring side.
Abode to the commandment of the Lord,
To spread the message, compulsion aside.
Truth a guidance is without compulsion.
For action is naught but an intention.
V
Time had passed as we lift another page,
When the maritime exploiters arrived
For gold, god, glory they carried with rage,
Imposing terror to our native tribe.
But no! my people defended the land.
"Protect not only" but as commanded,
By Allah, his Prophet and for Islam,
So the hegemony was prevented.
And indeed only the edge of our shores,
Had they set their feet and ominous plans.
With such courage so they coined us the Moors,
With such valor like Muslim Africans.
To the right path we must stick my brethrens,
So for us the earth and of the heavens.
VI
Now let us journey to our nearest past,
When the white men but with black cloaks appears.
Bringing promises and freedom at last,
Thus end of Thirty and three-hundred years.
At first sight we fell in love like lovers.
Yielding and trusting in their neat façade.
When the bees kissed these orchid flowers,
Seeing an oasis yet a mirage!
Mimicking in the midst of mockery,
They fooled us with their wit and craftiness.
With shrewd plans that had left certainly,
Wandering in the waves of wantonness.
Beloveds, now we are learned already,
Shall we remain fixed, always unready?
[1] This is the tale of a group of people called Bangsamoro. The author tried to imitate the Shakespearean sonnet, 14 lines iambic pentameter. However, he failed to make the poem iambic, although it is in 14 lines and with 10 syllables each. This was written in Zamboanga City almost 13 years ago.
I
Never was I a conquered, vanished race.
Freely flowing my blood had been in stream.
Wantonly had grown my bones: formed my face,
Ramified had my twigs remain untrimmed.
Manisfest'd are my clothes, my ways, my plead;
A free tongue I speak and articulate.
To God I submit had remained my creed,
Still to Makka I circumambulate.
Never was a Spanish monarch my name,
For their cross and sword to a crescent failed.
Nor the American had brought me shame,
For my wielding Kris never been derailed.’
So to you the pseudo-democracists,
Never will I to your imperialists!
II
So why'd we succumbed I refrain to ask,
To their honeyed tongue and their mystic charm?
Untold we then the face behind the mask,
The surface beauty, underneath but harm.
Stagnant we had and unnerved to move,
When strong is our thigh and firm is our breast.
When sharp is our blade and brisk is our hooves,
Why can't we just scourge and flog them to rest?
Nay, what is a deed with wrong intention?
What's left an act devoid of purpose?
When the mind is shadowed by illusion'
Framed mind and abled Will can't juxtapose
Even by now and unknown to us then,
Our thoughts had been shaped and contoured by them
III
Though enlightened we are from our slumber,
The nightmare to reality persists.
Questions formed as the lightning and thunder,
From where's that sound after the flash exist'd?
What must we do amidst this awareness?
What must have done, rather should I have asked?
Knowing where Paris had hit Achilles,
Knowing the face underneath the mask.
Scourging and flogging will not clear the mind.
Though necessary are them for the fight.
Free mind and abled will is the true rhyme'
Insha-Allah freedom will be in sight.
We must pass through the ways of the Prophets,
Or we end in the theater like puppets!
IV
Once upon a time and so long ago,
There's a story to tell and to relate.
There existed an archipelago,
Now it is called the Sulu sultanate.
And from Arabia Shiekh Makhdum had come.
Armed only with Tawheed sealed in his heart,
With the ways of the Prophet in his arm,
The submission to the will of God start'd.
Without the armor and the point of sword,
The kingdom grew to the neighboring side.
Abode to the commandment of the Lord,
To spread the message, compulsion aside.
Truth a guidance is without compulsion.
For action is naught but an intention.
V
Time had passed as we lift another page,
When the maritime exploiters arrived
For gold, god, glory they carried with rage,
Imposing terror to our native tribe.
But no! my people defended the land.
"Protect not only" but as commanded,
By Allah, his Prophet and for Islam,
So the hegemony was prevented.
And indeed only the edge of our shores,
Had they set their feet and ominous plans.
With such courage so they coined us the Moors,
With such valor like Muslim Africans.
To the right path we must stick my brethrens,
So for us the earth and of the heavens.
VI
Now let us journey to our nearest past,
When the white men but with black cloaks appears.
Bringing promises and freedom at last,
Thus end of Thirty and three-hundred years.
At first sight we fell in love like lovers.
Yielding and trusting in their neat façade.
When the bees kissed these orchid flowers,
Seeing an oasis yet a mirage!
Mimicking in the midst of mockery,
They fooled us with their wit and craftiness.
With shrewd plans that had left certainly,
Wandering in the waves of wantonness.
Beloveds, now we are learned already,
Shall we remain fixed, always unready?
[1] This is the tale of a group of people called Bangsamoro. The author tried to imitate the Shakespearean sonnet, 14 lines iambic pentameter. However, he failed to make the poem iambic, although it is in 14 lines and with 10 syllables each. This was written in Zamboanga City almost 13 years ago.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
On Christianity
Masjid Tulay in Lupah Sug
Discuss and explain why 3-5 people, places and/or events were critical to developing Christianity into what it is today.
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds and all that exists. Peace and salutations of Allah be upon His Messenger Muhammad صل الله عليه وسلم .
I. JESUS CHRIST
Jesus Christ is the central of focus of Christianity. He serves many functions in the religion such as the saviour (foundation of salvation), the revealer of God, and the model of a pious life. He is one of the persons in Trinity which is the central theology of christianity. The core Christian belief is that, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, sinful humans can be reconciled to God and thereby are offered salvation and the promise of eternal life. This is the what the average Christian know and this understanding is what the canonized gospels seem to support. However, when all the sources and documents at the time of Jesus are taken together including the writings of the Jews, one might not agree with the Christian interpretation of who Jesus was, and consequently what his message was all about. Vital to this theses is the concept of Messiah. While the Christian concept of Messiah is the coming of the son of God and his death in order to provide salvation to all mankind, archeological findings such as the Qumran documents which includes the gospel of Thomas does not offer support such claims. It is does not matter what is written in it (gospel of Thomas), but what matters is what is not written in it. Meaning there is no mention of messianic elements that culminates in the supposedly death of Christ on the cross. The Gospel of Thomas was written much earlier than the canonized gospels. Apparently, the earlier the gospel is written, the more it conforms with a monotheistic worldview, much the same to the teachings of Moses. Conversely, the later the gospels are written, the more it goes far away from the monotheistism as it adds the basic elements of Christianity as advocated by Paul such as the gospel of John. However contemporary scholars on Christianity now acknowledge that Jesus peace be upon him was born a Jew, raised a Jew and lived all his life as a Jew. He was a teacher and even a Jewish Rabbi[1]. He didn’t teach Christian concepts such as the Divine atonement or vicarious sacrifice, much of which was promoted by Paul, our second person who was critical to the development of present day christianity.
II. ST. PAUL
Paul is rather a controversial character because admittedly, he was a persecutor of the followers of Christ. What is more controversial is the varying and even apparently contradicting narratives of his meeting with ‘risen’ Jesus thrice mentioned in Acts of Apostle in chapters 9, 22 and 26. But Christian exegetes easily dismiss the contradiction as having slight differences, easy to harmonize, and does not affect the basis of the narrative which is perfectly identical in substance[2].
Several theories were purported to explain the visions of Paul when he was on his way to Damascus. To discredit these theories, Christian scholars says that these explanations ‘suppose that it was Paul's faith in Christ which engendered the vision, whereas according to the concordant testimony of the Acts and the Epistles it was the actual vision of Christ which engendered faith’[3]. Another controversy concerning Paul he ‘had but a vague knowledge of the life and teaching of the historical Christ and even disdained such knowledge as inferior and useless’ [4] This is due to Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 16:
“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.”[5]
However, it is argued that this understanding is improbable because Paul loved Jesus passionately and whose spirit he prided of having. But this is really an after the fact argument on the side of Christian apologist because the core issue here is the authority of Paul to transmit Jesus’ teachings and his closeness to him. A question could then be asked ‘did Paul really love the real Jesus’? Since today’s Christianity hinges on Paul’s claims to his meeting with Jesus it is no wonder that church’s doctors and apologists would defend the veracity of this incident.
Perhaps what is most astounding from an outsider point of view is the stark contrast of Jesus’ teachings and Paul’s teachings even in the canonized gospels themselves. Mark chapter 12 verse 29 says:
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds and all that exists. Peace and salutations of Allah be upon His Messenger Muhammad صل الله عليه وسلم .
I. JESUS CHRIST
Jesus Christ is the central of focus of Christianity. He serves many functions in the religion such as the saviour (foundation of salvation), the revealer of God, and the model of a pious life. He is one of the persons in Trinity which is the central theology of christianity. The core Christian belief is that, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, sinful humans can be reconciled to God and thereby are offered salvation and the promise of eternal life. This is the what the average Christian know and this understanding is what the canonized gospels seem to support. However, when all the sources and documents at the time of Jesus are taken together including the writings of the Jews, one might not agree with the Christian interpretation of who Jesus was, and consequently what his message was all about. Vital to this theses is the concept of Messiah. While the Christian concept of Messiah is the coming of the son of God and his death in order to provide salvation to all mankind, archeological findings such as the Qumran documents which includes the gospel of Thomas does not offer support such claims. It is does not matter what is written in it (gospel of Thomas), but what matters is what is not written in it. Meaning there is no mention of messianic elements that culminates in the supposedly death of Christ on the cross. The Gospel of Thomas was written much earlier than the canonized gospels. Apparently, the earlier the gospel is written, the more it conforms with a monotheistic worldview, much the same to the teachings of Moses. Conversely, the later the gospels are written, the more it goes far away from the monotheistism as it adds the basic elements of Christianity as advocated by Paul such as the gospel of John. However contemporary scholars on Christianity now acknowledge that Jesus peace be upon him was born a Jew, raised a Jew and lived all his life as a Jew. He was a teacher and even a Jewish Rabbi[1]. He didn’t teach Christian concepts such as the Divine atonement or vicarious sacrifice, much of which was promoted by Paul, our second person who was critical to the development of present day christianity.
II. ST. PAUL
Paul is rather a controversial character because admittedly, he was a persecutor of the followers of Christ. What is more controversial is the varying and even apparently contradicting narratives of his meeting with ‘risen’ Jesus thrice mentioned in Acts of Apostle in chapters 9, 22 and 26. But Christian exegetes easily dismiss the contradiction as having slight differences, easy to harmonize, and does not affect the basis of the narrative which is perfectly identical in substance[2].
Several theories were purported to explain the visions of Paul when he was on his way to Damascus. To discredit these theories, Christian scholars says that these explanations ‘suppose that it was Paul's faith in Christ which engendered the vision, whereas according to the concordant testimony of the Acts and the Epistles it was the actual vision of Christ which engendered faith’[3]. Another controversy concerning Paul he ‘had but a vague knowledge of the life and teaching of the historical Christ and even disdained such knowledge as inferior and useless’ [4] This is due to Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 16:
“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.”[5]
However, it is argued that this understanding is improbable because Paul loved Jesus passionately and whose spirit he prided of having. But this is really an after the fact argument on the side of Christian apologist because the core issue here is the authority of Paul to transmit Jesus’ teachings and his closeness to him. A question could then be asked ‘did Paul really love the real Jesus’? Since today’s Christianity hinges on Paul’s claims to his meeting with Jesus it is no wonder that church’s doctors and apologists would defend the veracity of this incident.
Perhaps what is most astounding from an outsider point of view is the stark contrast of Jesus’ teachings and Paul’s teachings even in the canonized gospels themselves. Mark chapter 12 verse 29 says:
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.[6]
In another gospel, Matthew chapter 5 verse 17 Jesus reportedly said:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.”[7]
Of course Jesus being a practicing Jew refers the law here to the Laws of Moses. But Paul seemingly audaciously contradicted Jesus’ commandments and teachings when he declared in Galatians chapter 2 verse 16:
“Know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.”[8]
One interesting to note at this point is that where are the rest of the disciples? Do they all believe just as what Paul believed?
III. THE COUNCIL OF JERUSALEM
The followers of Jesus continued to preach his gospels to the Jews and the non Jews. When the gentiles embrace Christianity in its early years, the question of whether they should be like the Jews or is their any some leeway for them not to follow the laws arose. What can be said concerning this is they like its theology but they don’t like its laws. Thus it became a necessity that the disciples should come together and meet in Jerusalem. Representing the community of Antioch were Paul and Barnabas while James is that of Jerusalem. The key issues were about circumcision, sacrificing things to idols, eating of blood of strangulated animals and fornication. The catholic encyclopedia claims that this “injunction was laid upon them, not in virtue of the Mosaic Law, but in the name of the Holy Ghost. This meant the complete triumph of Paul's ideas”.
This last sentence mentioning Paul’s ideas as being triumphant reveals the fact that in these early days of Christianity, the very first believers themselves were involved in controversy regarding a fundamental aspect of the religion. These questions are probably asked: “Shall we follow the Laws of Moses (just like what Jesus did in all his life when he was with us) or shall we abandon it? Is faith enough or are we required to follow the Law?
This ‘debate’ between James and Paul were recorded for posterity in the Epistle of James and the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians. In the first verse of the first chapter of Galatians, Paul declared that he is an apostle not from men nor through men but through Jesus Christ, probably referring to the fact that unlike the disciples who met Jesus as human, he met and received revelation from the risen Christ. He goes on to say in verse six that he marvels that the people of the Church of Galatia are turning away to a different gospel. Again in chapter two, he alluded to a person ‘who seemed to be something’[9] and his disdain for him. Then he enumerated that James, Ciphers and John as those ‘seemed to be pillars’[10] in the ninth verse. Paul then went on to proceed to cite the story of Abraham that just as he believed in God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
James on the other hand in the beginning of his epistles mentioned about being patient from temptations (which breaks the law). It is perhaps worthwhile to quote James words:
Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.[11]
Concerning Abraham, he reportedly to have said:
You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone".[12]
James, the brother of Jesus, the first bishop of Jerusalem had variant views of Jesus’ teachings in contrast to Paul’s Christianity. Robert Eisenman in his book James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls portrays this kind of relationship between Paul and James.[13]
But somehow Paul’s ideas were triumphant and it is known as Pauline Christianity – a paradigm shift from the fundamental teachings of monotheism and adherence to the law in Judaism to Trinity and vicarious atonement. Consequently Michael Hart, a contemporary historian would have to put Paul as second to Jesus as the most influential person in Christianity.[14]
IV. CONSTANTINE I
Early Christians were persecuted, seized, tormented, put into flames, starved, and coerced into gladiatorial contests to amuse spectators. In 313 Emperor Constantine I, whose mother St. Helena was a Christian, announced the Edict of Milan which removes penalties for professing Christianity and returns the confiscated Church properties. His ascension to the throne is generally considered the beginning of Christendom (medieval and renaissance notion of the Christian world as a sort of social and political polity). Not only did he legalize Christianity but he also supported the Church from his own wealth and became its patron. However, it turns out that there are a number of different varieties of Christianities with different views on Jesus, such as the Gnostics Christianity vies a vis Pauline Christianity. It was extremely diverse during the second and third century that there are different brands of Christianity living often side by side, even in the same city.[15]
To uphold the unity of his empire, a unified doctrine has to be established. Therefore Constantine convenes the bishops to meet in Nicea.
V. THE COUNCIL OF NICEA 325 CE
Of two thousand and forty eight (2048) bishops who were invited, Constantine disqualified 1730 from having voice in deciding questions. Although the emperor did not decide the creed, he in fact influenced it indirectly by deciding who is to decide on the creed. This step dampened the spirit of the remaining bishops whom the emperor chose not to disqualify[16]. The result is the Nicene Creed which is an anathema to Unitarian belief championed by Arius.
Conclusion
The history of Christianity is a cognitive dissonance that is filled with controversy in its formative stage. Its teachings evolved in time from a sect of Judaism to a distinct religion of Trinity, Divine Atonement, and later the Original Sin (as expounded by St. Augustine). Although Christians will argue that it is only those who are imbued with holy spirit who should interpret the bible, however, looking at the gospels as historical documents and contemporary writings at the time revealed that Jesus could not have been what the gospels described him to be nor what the Christians perceived him to be. The differences between James and Paul over a fundamental issue is an important clue concerning who really was Jesus’ true disciple who followed him closely. Finally, if the core beliefs such as the Trinity and Divine atonement were so important to Christian understanding of themselves, then why is it that nowhere Jesus Christ explicitly taught this and leave his followers to figure it out and consequently differ about it.
[1] From Jesus to Christ. PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/jesus/rabbi.html
[2] St. Paul, Catholic Encyclopedia. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11567b.htm. Jan. 7, 2008.
[3] Ibid
[4] Ibid
[5] King James Version. www.biblegateway.com
[6] New International Version. www.biblegateway.com
[7] Ibid
[8] New International Version
[9] Galatians 2:6
[10] Galatians 2:9
[11] James 1:23
[12] James 2:20-24
[13]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_the_Brother_of_Jesus:_The_Key_to_Unlocking_the_Secrets_of_Early_Christianity_and_the_Dead_Sea_Scrolls
[14] http://www.adherents.com/adh_influ.html
[15] From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/diversity.html
[16] A Comparative Study of the Religions of Today. Muhammad Ali Muhiyaddin pg 43.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)