1. THE TRUTH
There is a story about four blind men
who wanted to know about the elephant. An elephant was brought to them. The
first person came forward and touched the animal’s tail. He thought that the
elephant is like a rope. The second
person touched its leg and thought that it is like a tree. The third person
touched its ivory and thought that it is like a spear. The fourth person
touched its trunk and thought it is a moving round tube.
Since each of
them used one sense only, namely, the sense of touch, each one had a limited
perception of the elephant. Each of them would hold his opinion and would say
that others are wrong. Had they possessed the sense of sight, they would have
seen that each of them had touched only a small part of the animal and did not
have a full concept of the elephant.
With the help of another sense, in this case, the sense of sight, they
will have a broader understanding than by using one sense only, here, the sense
of touch. The more senses we use the
more understanding we shall have.
If we compare our senses to the notes
of a musical instrument, such as a piano, we have five notes only. Some people are said to possess a kind of
mysterious ability called ‘the sixth sense”. Their brains are said to have the
ability to perceive the message transmitted by the brain waves of others. However, we have not heard a person who
claimed to possess the seventh sense.
Compared to the piano, our ”instrument” is very poor, since it has no
more than six notes only, if the sixth sense it accepted as genuine.
Our senses are not fully reliable. They
can make mistakes. Therefore, they have to pass the test called the judgement
of reason. Our sense of sight, for example, tells us that the moon is much
bigger than the stars, but our reason holds the opposite view. When we become
ill, everything tastes bitter, even honey.
The language we use to express our
judgement and ideas is very limited. How can we explain the colour to the blind
and the sound to the deaf, not to mention the beauty of the Rocky Mountain
scenery and the melody of a Mozart symphony? We cannot even explain the
sweetness of honey.
We may speak the same language, but
this does not guarantee that we understand each other properly. We may feel
that we are speaking in different languages because of our different level of
knowledge and understanding. Let us suppose that an astronaut is landing on a
certain planet silimar to the earth somewhere in this universe inhabited by
primitive beings. Let us imagine a conversation between the astronaut and an
intelligent being on that planet which
runs as follows:
Astronaut:
“Hello, sir, I come from a planet in the solar system called the earth, its
population is over five billions. It was the 21th century when I left it”
Primitive being: “I am from a cave over
there, and I have no idea as to the earth, population and century. What are you wearing?”
Astronaut: “It is a space suit.”
Primitive being: “What kind of animal
skin was it made from?”
Astronaut: “It is not made of animal
skin, but of a synthetic fabric manufactured in the factory. Its safety and
durability have been tested using the most modern technology of the twenty
first century.”
The primitive being could not stand the
conversation any longer, because he did not understand what the astronaut was
talking about. He said to the astronaut, “Excuse me, Iam going to my cave,” and
left.
There are many things in this world
which are like the elephant to the blind in the story mentioned above. They are
mysterious because of our lack of sense and knowledge. They are, for example,
the Heaven, the Hell, the Resurrection and the Judgement Day. Prophets who were
sent by Allah the Almighty to guide the human beings described these mysterious
things in allegorical ways because of the limitation of our languages. In
Paradise, for example, we are told that people will eat and drink, even “wine”
which will bring them into ecstasy without being drunk. Prophet Muhammad (peace
be upon him) said that in Paradise people would find things which no eye has seen,
no ear has heard and no mind has imagined.
No
matter how intelligent we are, our knowledge of the unseen is very limited. Our
sense, languages and understanding are very limited. Answering the question of
a Bedouin about the spirit, Allah said:
وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الرُّوحِ قُلِ الرُّوحُ مِنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّي
وَمَا أُوتِيتُمْ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا
(الإسراء : ٨٥)
“They ask thee
concerning the spirit. Say: ‘The spirit is
of the command of my Lord: Of knowledge it is
only
As Muslims we
accept the description of Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) about the unseen,
believing in the Heaven, the Hell, and the Resurrection Day, and we humbly
acknowledge our frailty, weakness, and ignorance. In the meantime, we ask Allah
to increase our knowledge and give us wisdom.
2.
YAQĪN (CERTAINTY)
Allah says in
the Qur’ān:
وَاعْبُدْ رَبَّكَ حَتَّى يَأْتِيَكَ
الْيَقِينُ
(الحجر : ٩٩)
“And serve thy Lord until there comes unto
thee the Hour that is certain”[2]
What does the yaqīn,
“the certainty” mean here? It is death. This is the translation given by
Mujāhid, al-H...asan and
Qatādah. They were the Qur’ānic commentators among the tābi’īn, people who were contem-porary to the
companions of the Prophet.
In another
Qur’ānic verse, yaqīn also means “death”, when the people who are to enter
Hell will say in the Hereafter:
وَكُنَّا نُكَذِّبُ بِيَوْمِ الدِّينِ حَتَّى أَتَانَا الْيَقِينُ ( المدثر : ٤٦-٤٧
)
“And we used to
deny the Day of Judgment, until there
came to us
(the hour) that is certain.” [3]
In one
tradition the Prophet entered into the house of ‘Uthmān ibn Maz.‘ūn who was passing away, and said,
أَمَّا هُوَ فَقَدْ
جَاءَهُ الْيَقِينُ وَاللَّهِ إِنِّي لَأَرْجُو لَهُ الْخَيْرَ
(رواه البخاري وأحمد)
“As for him, the hour of certainty
(meaning “death”)
Death is
something of whose coming we are certain.
According to the verse mentioned before, every Muslim has to serve and
worship Allah until the imminent death comes.
Speaking about
prayer, Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) said,
صَلِّ قَائِمًا
فَإِنْ لَمْ تَسْتَطِعْ فَقَاعِدًا فَإِنْ لَمْ تَسْتَطِعْ فَعَلَى جَنْبٍ
(رواه البخاري وأبو داءود وابن ماجة و أحمد)
“Pray standing;
if you can’t, pray sitting;
This means,
there is no excuse for not doing the prayer (except women in their period).
However, there is misinterpretation of
the word yaqīn (certainty) in the verse mentioned before among people
who claimed to be knowledgeable. They
said that yaqīn in this verse means ma‘rifah (gnosis) or h.aqīqah (truth,
reality). Therefore, they interpreted the verses mentioned above as “Worship
your Lord until ultimate truth comes to you.” So, when this happens, sharī‘ah
or religious obligations would not apply to them any longer. They would not
have to pray any more, for every movement of their bodies, even the beat of
their hearts would be prayer and dhikr (remembrance to Allah), h.ajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca)
would not apply to them any longer, for their hearts would have become the qiblah
(direction in praying) and the Ka‘bah itself, and the t.awāf (the circumambulation around
the Ka‘bah) would be around their hearts.
This interpretation is not only
misleading, but also leads astray.
Prophets, peace be upon them, were the chosen people who knew more about
Allah and His injunctions than others, and yet, they were people who followed
the most religious obligations. Who are we to claim to know something which
allows us to be exempted from these religious obligations?
The other
meaning of yaqīn is “the truth”.
The lapwing (hoopoe) said to Prophet Sulaymān (Solomon, p.b.u.h.),
وَجِئْتُكَ مِنْ سَبَإٍ بِنَبَإٍ يَقِينٍ (
النمل : ٢٢)
“And I have come to thee from Saba with tidings true”[6]
All
truth is in itself certain. Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728/1328) divided yaqīn
into three categories:
1. ‘Ilmu’l-Yaqīn, certainty by
reasoning or inference. For example, if somebody told you that there is honey
at a certain place and the informer is a reliable person, this is ‘ilmu’l-yaqīn,
certainty by reasoning.
2. ‘Aynu’l-Yaqīn,
certainty
by personal inspection, namely, certainty of seeing something with our own
eyes. This belongs to the category of “seeing is believing.” If you come to the
place and see the honey by yourself, this is ‘aynu’l-yaqīn, certainty by
personal inspection.
3. H...aqqu’l-Yaqīn, absolute
truth, no possibility of error of judgement or error of the eye. If you taste
the honey and find it genuine honey, your certainty is called h.aqqu ’l-yaqīn, absolute truth.
People around
the world knew through the media that a tornado disaster occurred here at
Edmonton last week (July 31, 1987). For
them, this is ‘ilmu’l-yaqīn, certainty by reasoning. To people who come
to see this disastrous area, it is ‘aynu’l-yaqīn, certainty by personal
inspection. To the victims, it is h.aqqu’l-
yaqīn, the absolute truth. Before, they had homes, now, they don’t.
You know that
fire burns; this is ‘ilmu’l-yaqīn. If you see fire burning, this is ‘aynu’l-yaqīn.
But if you feel the heat of fire, or burn your finger, this is h.aqqu’l-yaqīn, the absolute truth.
Allah says in the Qur’ān,
كَلَّا لَوْ تَعْلَمُونَ عِلْمَ الْيَقِينِ . لَتَرَوُنَّ الْجَحِيمَ
. ثُمَّ لَتَرَوُنَّهَا
عَيْنَ الْيَقِينِ. ثُمَّ لَتُسْأَلُنَّ يَوْمَئِذٍ
عَنِ النَّعِيمِ
(
التكاثر : ٥-٨)
“Nay, were
ye to know, with certainty of mind
(you would beware), ye shall certainly see
Hellfire!-Again,
ye shall see it with certainty of sight! Then
shall ye be
questioned that day about the joy (ye indulged
in)!”[7]
H...aqqu’l-Yaqīn is also
mentioned in the Qur’ān. Allah says:
وَإِنَّا لَنَعْلَمُ أَنَّ مِنْكُمْ مُكَذِّبِينَ. وَإِنَّهُ لَحَسْرَةٌ
عَلَى الْكَافِرِينَ.
وَإِنَّهُ لَحَقُّ الْيَقِينِ. فَسَبِّحْ بِاسْمِ
رَبِّكَ الْعَظِيمِ
(الحاقّة ٤٩-٥٢).
“And We certainly know that there are
amongst
you those that reject (it) [namely,
revelation]. But truly
(revelation) is a cause of sorrow for
the unbelievers.
But
is truth of assured certainty.”[8]
Whoever rejects
Revelation, the Qur’ān, will be made sorrowful on the Judgement Day, and this
is the absolute certainty.
Īmān (faith) and yaqīn
(certainty) are closely related. Like yaqīn, Ibn Taymmiyyah divided
faith into three degrees:
1. Faith
gained through study and investigation, but having no effect in one’s daily
life.
2. Faith
accompanied with good deed, as one starts feeling the effect of faith in one’s
daily life.
3. Faith
in which one tastes its sweetness.
With regard to
the sweetness of faith (حَلَاوَةُ الْإِيمَانِ)a tradition
says:
حَدَّثَنَا
مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ الْمُثَنَّى قَالَ حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ الْوَهَّابِ الثَّقَفِيُّ قَالَ
حَدَّثَنَا أَيُّوبُ
عَنْ أَبِي قِلَابَةَ عَنْ أَنَسِ
بْنِ مَالِكٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ عَنْ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ
قَالَ ثَلَاثٌ
مَنْ كُنَّ فِيهِ وَجَدَ حَلَاوَةَ
الْإِيمَانِ أَنْ يَكُونَ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَحَبَّ إِلَيْهِ مِمَّا سِوَاهُمَا
وَأَنْ يُحِبَّ الْمَرْءَ
لَا يُحِبُّهُ إِلَّا لِلَّهِ
وَأَنْ يَكْرَهَ أَنْ يَعُودَ فِي الْكُفْرِ كَمَا يَكْرَهُ أَنْ يُقْذَفَ فِي النَّارِ.
(رواه
البخاري و مسلم )
“It
was narrated by Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, who said:
the Messenger of Allah (p.b.u.h.) said:
‘Whoever possesses three things will
taste the sweetness of faith: that he loves Allah and His Messenger more than any other; that he loves someone
for the sake of Allah alone; and that he hates to return to infidelity as he
hates to be
3. THE SECOND VIEW
About a century
ago (perhaps even earlier), somewhere in the world, one day an exited schoolboy
came home and said to his grandfather: “Grand-pa, my teacher said that the
earth is round.” “Impossible,” said his grand-father, “your teacher did not
know what he was talking about; he must have been too full when he said such a
nonsense.”
Three
“smart” gentlemen were discussing about the telephone. “It must be invented by the English, because
telephone is an English word.” “Not at all,” said the other, “telephone
is a Malay/Indonesian word: it comes from “tali” meaning “rope” or “wire”, and
“pohon” or “puhun” meaning “a tree”.
“Not at all,” said the third person; “telephone is a Greek word; it
comes from “tele” meaning “far”, and “phone” meaning “sound”. It was the Greeks
who invented it.” [10]
There
is a story that an alien from the outer space landed with his flying saucer
(UFO) on the earth. His way of speaking and producing sound was different from
that of human beings. Therefore, he wanted to know how the human beings produce
sound when they speak, but he did not have a chance to observe closely a human
being, especially while speaking.
Suddenly, the wind blew and he observed the branches of trees rubbing
each other and producing sound. He nodded and made his conclusion that human
beings speak by rubbing their upper jaws with their lower jaws.
An
other story is that a scientist was studying the behaviour of the fleas. He
trained a flea to jump over a matchbox every time he said “jump”.
After the flea responded the command, the scientist pulled off two of
its six legs and said “jump”. The flee jumped again, but not so successfully as
before. The scientist nodded; then he pulled off two more of its legs and said,
“jump” The flea jumped again, but with less successfully than before. The
scientist nodded again. Then he pulled off the remaining two legs of the flea
and said again, “jump”, but the flea with no more leg did not move and did not
obey the order, although it was repeated
several times, “jump, jump, jump”. This “smart” scientist was happy with
his new finding. He came to the following conclusion and wrote it in his
notebook. “The flea’s hearing lies in its legs. If it loses two legs, it cannot
hear so well and cannot jump very high. The more it loses its leg, the more it
loses its hearing. When it loses all of its legs it becomes completely deaf and
therefore, it cannot respond to any command.”
You,
dear readers, are well aware that none of the above conclusion is correct. You
have a second view, which is probably right. You may have the right statement.
But could you leave a room—if there is any—for a second view for your statement
whenever you draw a conclusion from your observation? In this way, you open your heart and broaden
your mind.
Prejudice
is generally the result of lack of knowledge or experience, misconception,
misjudgment and wrong conclusion. A teacher does not have to be talkative,
although his or her job needs him or her to talk. A policeman (woman) does not have to be
haughty, although he or she has to be authoritative in dealing with a culprit.
A person who does not believe in the divinity of Jesus (peace be upon him) does
not have to consider him an impostor. Hābīl (Abel) did not have to be a coward
if he refused the challenge of his brother Qābīl (Cain). A person who does not
share your view does not have to be your enemy and does no have to be
unintelligent. We have to avoid
suspicion. Allah said in the Qur’ān:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا اجْتَنِبُوا كَثِيرًا مِنَ الظَّنِّ
إِنَّ بَعْضَ الظَّنِّ إِثْمٌ
(الحجرات : 12)
“O ye who believe! Avoid suspicion as much
(as
possible): for suspicion in some cases is a
sin…”
[11]
4.
‘UMAR, THE SECOND CALIPH
‘Umar (Omar) bin (son of) al-Khat.t.āb was the
second among the four rightly-guided caliphs. His long rule lasted for more
than ten years. During his rule there lived a prince called Jabalah bin Ayham.
He was the last prince of the Ghassanide dynasty. Losing hope for victory
against the Muslim army under Abū ‘Ubaydah, he came to the Muslim general and
embraced Islam.
Accompanied
by followers, Jabalah visited Madinah where he was received with peculiar
honours. Then he accompanied ‘Umar the caliph on pilgrimage to Mecca. While he
was performing his pilgrimage a Bedouin accidentally trampled his flowing robe
which caused him to tumble and fall. The
proud prince struck the Bedouin on the face. To his amazement, he was summoned
by the caliph who ordered, under the law of retaliation, that the Bedouin had
the right to return the blow.
“What!” cried Jabalah, “I, the prince
of Ghassān, and he, a common Bedouin of the desert!”
“Yes,”
said ‘Umar, “for in Islam all are equal.”
The affronted
Jabalah returned at once to Constantinople, the capital of Byzantine empire.
Being a Christian again, he was hospitably entertained at the Byzantine court.
‘Umar used to
walk around the city at night to see the condition of his people. One night he
saw light in a house late at night. Accompanied by ‘Abd Allāh bin Mas‘ūd, he
approached the house. He entered the house and asked ‘Abd Allāh to stay at the
door. When he saw an old man drinking alcohol, he said:
“I have never seen anything worse than what I
am seeing now; an old man approaching death drinking alcohol!”
“O Prince of the Believers,” said the
old man raising his head, “there is something worse than this. What you are
doing now is worse. You are spying, which is prohibited by Allah, you are
entering a house without permission.”
“You are right,” said ‘Umar sadly and left.
”May
your mother be breaved of you [an expression of displeasure among the Arabs], O
‘Umar,” ‘Umar said to himself, “if Allah does not forgive you! The man was drinking secretly, and now you
saw him. He will continue drinking.” He did not tell ‘Abd Allāh bin Mas‘ūd what he
had seen in the house that night.
The old man
stopped attending ‘Umar’s court. However, one day ‘Umar saw him coming and
sitting at the far corner of the court. He looked very shy. ‘Umar called him.
The man approached him expecting to be reproached and humiliated.
“Come closer,”
said ‘Umar. The man came and sat down near him. “Bring your ear closer,” said
‘Umar. Then he whispered to him:
“By Allah who
sent Muhammad as a true messenger, I have never told anybody of what I have
seen from you.” The old man said:
“Bring your ear
closer to me, O Prince of the Believers!” ‘Umar did and the man whispered to
him:
“By Allah who sent Muhammad as a true
messenger, I have stopped drinking since you saw me that night.” ‘Umar was
overwhelmed, raised his voiced and shouted: “Allāhu Akbar” (Allah is Great!,
Glory to Allah!).
5.
HUMAN SOULS (SPIRITS)
Human beings consist of body and soul
or spirit. Without soul we do not live. The spirit is the engine, the motor,
and the mover of the body. Our action is
controlled by our soul or spirit, and is motivated by it. Good spirits create good deeds, and bad
spirits create bad deeds.
The
Sufis (Muslim mystics) list four stages or stages of the development of the
human spirit:
1 النَّفْسُ
اْلأَمَّارَة (al-nafsu’l-ammārah), the spirit
which is prone to do evil (in seeking satisfaction). It cannot make distinction
between good and evil. It is uncontrollable by our reason. It is most evident
among children. This spirit is mentioned in the Qur’ān when Prophet Yusuf
(Joseph, p.b.u.h.) according to the majority of Qur’ānic commentators (or
Zulaykhā’, according to A. Yusuf Ali) said:
(يوسف : ٥٣)
وَمَا أُبَرِّئُ نَفْسِي إِنَّ
النَّفْسَ لَأَمَّارَةٌ بِالسُّوءِ
“Yet I do not absolve myself (of blame):
2. النَّفْسُ اللَّوَّامَة
(al-nafsu’l-lawwāmah),
the self-reproaching spirit which feels conscious of evil. It is an inner
voice, which is usually suppressed by selfishness. This kind of spirit is
mentioned in the Qur’ān when Allah says,
وَلَا أُقْسِمُ
بِالنَّفْسِ اللَّوَّامَةِ (القيامة : ٢)
“And I do swear by the
self-reproaching soul.”[13]
This spirit may be compared to the
conscience, except that the conscience is a faculty, not a stage of spiritual
development. The conscience, the “guilty feeling”, tortures many criminals with
blame until they surrender to punishment. When they are punished, they feel
relieved.
3.
النَّفْسُ
اْلمُسَوَّلَة (al-nafsu’l-musawwalah): This spirit
knows what is good and what is bad, but it is still unable to conquer evil,
because of external factors, such as jealousy and hatred. The example in the
Qur’ān is the hatred and jealousy of Yusuf’s brothers when they threw him into
the well. Allah said,
قَالُوا يَا أَبَانَا إِنَّا
ذَهَبْنَا نَسْتَبِقُ وَتَرَكْنَا يُوسُفَ عِنْدَ
مَتَاعِنَا
فَأَكَلَهُ الذِّئْبُ وَمَا أَنْتَ بِمُؤْمِنٍ
لَنَا وَلَوْ كُنَّا صَادِقِينَ. وَجَاءُوا
عَلَى قَمِيصِهِ
بِدَمٍ كَذِبٍ قَالَ بَلْ سَوَّلَتْ لَكُمْ
أَنْفُسُكُمْ أَمْرًا فَصَبْرٌ
جَمِيلٌ وَاللَّهُ
الْمُسْتَعَانُ عَلَى مَا تَصِفُونَ
(يوسف : ١٧-١٨).
“They said:
‘O father! We went racing with one
another, and left Joseph with our things; and
the
wolf devoured him. But thou wilt neverbelieve us even
though we tell the truth.’ They stained his shirt with
false blood.
He said:‘Nay, but your minds [or spirits]
have made up tale(that may pass) with you.
(For me)
patience is most fitting: against that which
ye assert,
it is Allah (alone) Whose helpcan be
sought.’”[14]
4.
النَّفْسُ
اْلمُطْمَئِنَّة
(al-nafsu’l-mut.ma’innah): the soul in complete
rest and satisfaction. This is the final
stage of spiritual development. Your spirit becomes tranquil, no matter
what happens around you: calamity, disaster, etc. you do not panic because you trust in Allah.
Allah will say to this kind of spirit:
يَا أَيَّتُهَا
النَّفْسُ الْمُطْمَئِنَّةُ.ارْجِعِي إِلَى رَبِّكِ رَاضِيَةً
مَرْضِيَّةً. فَادْخُلِي فِي عِبَادِي وَادْخُلِي جَنَّتِي
(الفجر :
٢٧-٣٨)
“(To the
righteous soul will be said, ‘O (thou)
soul, in (complete) rest and satisfaction!
Come back
thou to thy Lord,--well pleased (thyself), and
well-pleasing
unto Him!
Enter thou,then, among My devotees!
This
state of spiritual tranquility is one of the four fundamentals of happiness. In
a tradition, the Prophet taught a man to say this supplication: “O Allah, give
me a tranquil spirit, faith (īmān) when I meet you, satisfaction with
your creed, and contentment with your providence.”
The
second fundamental of happiness is having faith when one is dying. When one is
on the finish line of life one should be in the state of iman. A person who is not
a mu’min (a believer) while one is dying will be doomed to punishment
although one is pious in one’s early life.
The
third fundamental of happiness is satisfaction with Allah’s creed. However, this does not mean fatalism. On the
contrary, it is the acceptance of whatever the outcome of our utmost effort
without blaming anybody and without saying “if I did such-and-such, this would
not have happened”. Remember, man
proposes and Allah disposes.
The
fourth fundamental of happiness is contentment with Allah’s providence. Do not
envy people for what they have. Perhaps they are not happier than you are. The
English proverb says “The key to happiness is contentment.”
The meaning of h.ayāt t.ayyibah
(good life) according to ‘Alī (may Allah be pleased with him) as mentioned in
the following verse is “content”. The
verse runs as follows:
مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا مِنْ ذَكَرٍ
أَوْ أُنْثَى وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً
وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُمْ بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ
(النحل
: ٩٧)
“Whoever works
righteousness, man or woman,
and has faith,verily, to him will We give a life
that is good and pure, and We will bestow
on such their
reward according
6. GOOD CONDUCT
Islam
deals with man’s relationship with Allah which is called ‘ibadah
(worship) and his relationship with his fellow creatures which is called mu‘āmalah
(behaviour towards others) or akhlāq (good conduct). These two kinds of
relationship have to go hand-in-hand in proper balance and proportion. Ignoring
any one of them is wrong. It is not
right to say that as long as I am good with others I do not have to observe
prayers and fasting. It is also wrong to
say that as long as I do my prayers I should not care for others. A tradition
dealing with mu‘āmalah is as follows:
عَنْ عَائِشَةَ
أَنَّ رَجُلًا قَعَدَ بَيْنَ يَدَيْ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ
فَقَالَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ
إِنَّ لِي مَمْلُوكِينَ يُكَذِّبُونَنِي وَيَخُونُونَنِي وَيَعْصُونَنِي
وَأَشْتُمُهُمْ وَأَضْرِبُهُمْ
فَكَيْفَ أَنَا مِنْهُمْ قَالَ يُحْسَبُ مَا خَانُوكَ وَعَصَوْكَ وَكَذَّبُوكَ
وَعِقَابُكَ إِيَّاهُمْ فَإِنْ
كَانَ عِقَابُكَ إِيَّاهُمْ بِقَدْرِ ذُنُوبِهِمْ كَانَ كَفَافًا لَا لَكَ وَلَا عَلَيْكَ
وَإِنْ
كَانَ عِقَابُكَ إِيَّاهُمْ
دُونَ ذُنُوبِهِمْ كَانَ فَضْلًا لَكَ وَإِنْ كَانَ عِقَابُكَ إِيَّاهُمْ فَوْقَ ذُنُوبِهِمْ
اقْتُصَّ لَهُمْ مِنْكَ الْفَضْلُ
قَالَ فَتَنَحَّى الرَّجُلُ فَجَعَلَ يَبْكِي وَيَهْتِفُ فَقَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ
صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ
أَمَا تَقْرَأُ كِتَابَ اللَّهِ { وَنَضَعُ الْمَوَازِينَ الْقِسْطَ لِيَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ
فَلَا تُظْلَمُ نَفْسٌ شَيْئًا
وَإِنْ كَانَ مِثْقَالَ حَبَّةٍ مِنْ خَرْدَلٍ أَتَيْنَا بِهَا وَكَفَى بِنَا
حَاسِبِينَ } الْآيَةَ فَقَالَ الرَّجُلُ وَاللَّهِ
يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ مَا أَجِدُ لِي وَلِهَؤُلَاءِ
شَيْئًا خَيْرًا مِنْ مُفَارَقَتِهِمْ
أُشْهِدُكُمْ أَنَّهُمْ أَحْرَارٌ كُلُّهُمْ.
(رواه
أحمد و الترمذي).
“It was narrated by ‘Ā’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her)
that a man said to
the Prophet: ‘O Messenger of Allah, I have
slaves who belie me,
betray me and disobey me. So I beat hem
and insult them. What will happen
between me and them?’ The Messenger of
Allah (p.b.u.h.) said to him: ‘Their belying, betrayal and disobedience to you
will be compared with your punishment against them. If your punishment is below their bad deeds to you,
it will be merit for you. If your punishment is equal to their bad deeds
to you, then there will be neither merit nor sin. But if your punishment is
beyond their bad deeds to you, the merit you have before will be cut from you.’
On hearingthis, the man started weeping and crying. The Messenger of Allah said:‘Haven’t you read
the Book of Allah which said, “We [i.e., Allah] shall set up scales of
justice for the day of Judgement, so that not a soul will be dealt with
unjustly in the least. And if there be
(no more than) the weight of a mustard seed, We will bring it (to account):
and enough are We to
take account.”’ [Qur’ān, al-
Anbiyā’ [21]:47). The man said: ‘O the Messenger
of Allah, I don’t
find anything better than to be
separated from these
people. I bear
The man freed
his slaves, got rid of them, for fear of committing sin in abusing them.
So,
if you yell at your Muslim brother or sister, if you assault, abuse and
humiliate him or her and he or she does not fight back, do not think this
person is coward, stupid weak, and worthless.
He or she might be a smart one, collecting merits from you. If you want
to be smarter, ask forgiveness from him or her, and do not repeat the same
mistake. If somebody wrongs you, cheats you, try hard to get back your right.
But if you cannot get it back for any reason, because the person disappears,
for example, do not be upset and lose hope. You will get it back in the
Hereafter. The cheater will realize that he is cheating himself unknowingly.
In
this world people wrong each other, cheat each other suck each other’s blood,
become “wolves to each other”. People could be worse than wolves. The wolves
themselves are not wolves to each other; they are gentle to each other, they
work and hunt together in a pack; they are even one of the most faithful animal
species to their mates.
In
the Hereafter none will be wronged. This is Allah’s promise. He said:
وَاتَّقُوا يَوْمًا تُرْجَعُونَ
فِيهِ إِلَى اللَّهِ ثُمَّ تُوَفَّى كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَا كَسَبَتْ وَهُمْ لَا يُظْلَمُونَ
(البقرة : ٢٨١)
“And fear the
day when ye shall be brought back
to Allah. Then
shall every soul be paid what it earned,
Allah also said:
وَمَنْ يَغْلُلْ يَأْتِ بِمَا
غَلَّ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ ثُمَّ تُوَفَّى
كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَا كَسَبَتْ وَهُمْ لَا يُظْلَمُونَ
(آل عمران : ١٦١)
“…. And if any
person acts dishonestly,
he shall, on
the day of Judgement, restore what he
misappropriated;
then shall every soil receive
its due
whatever it earned, and none
Everything,
however small it is, will be brought and shown in the Hereafter. Allah said:
فَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ
خَيْرًا يَرَهُ. وَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُ
(الزلزال : ٧-٨)
“Then shall
anyone who has done an atom’s
weight of good, see it! And anyone who has done
an atom’s weight of evil, shall see it!”[20]
In
one tradition the Prophet said that the real bankrupt is the person who lost
his merits and rewards as payment to the person he had wronged in this
world. If he has no more merit left and
still has to pay, he has to take the demerits of those whom he had wronged.
The Prophet was asked about the case
of a woman who was pious, but used to
hurt the feelings of her neighbours, and a woman who was not so pious, but did
not hurt others' feelings,what would happen to them in the Hereafter. It was
narrated byAbū Hurayrah that someone asked the Prophet:
إنَّ فُلَانَةَ
تَصُوْمُ النَّهَاَر وَتَقُوْمُ اللَّيْلَ وَ تُؤْذِي جِيرَانَهَا بِلِسَانِهَا فَقَالَ:
لَا خَيْرَ فِيْهَا
هِيَ فِي النَّار، قِيْلَ : فَإنَّ فُلَانَةَ تُصَلِّي اْلمَكْتُوْبَةَ وَتَصُوْمُ
رَمَضَانَ وَتَتَصَدَّقُ
بِأَثْوَارٍ مِنْ
أقِطٍ وَلَا تُؤْذِي أَحَدًا بِلِسَانِهَا قَالَ هِيَ فِي الْجَنَّةِ »
(رواه الحاكم و أحمد و البيهقي)
"So-and-so used to
do the (recommended) fasting in the day time
and (recommended) prayers at night but hurts her
neighbours with
her tongue"; he (the Prophet) said, "There
is no goodness with her,
she will go to Hell."; it was told to him,
"So-and-so prayed the
obligatory prayers (only), fasted (only)in the month
of Ramadan,
and used to give charity with her dried milk, but she
did
not hurt anyone with her tongue"; he said,
In another tradition the
Prophet warned us against mistreating our neighbours. Abū Hurayrah narrated that the Prophet said:
وَاللَّهِ
لَا يُؤْمِنُ وَاللَّهِ لَا يُؤْمِنُ وَاللَّهِ لَا يُؤْمِنُ قَالَهَا
ثَلَاثَ مَرَّاتٍ قَالُوا وَمَا ذَاكَ يَا رَسُولَ
اللَّهِ قَالَ الْجَارُ لَا يَأْمَنُ
الْجَارُ بَوَائِقَهُ قَالُوا وَمَا بَوَائِقُهُ
قَالَ شَرُّهُ
(رواه البخاري و أحمد)
“By Allah he does not believe [perfectly],
by Allah he
does not believe [perfectly],by Allah he
does not
believe [perfectly].” He said it three times. They
[i.e., his
companions] asked, "O Messenger of
Allah, who is that?”
He said: “The
neighbour who does not make his
neighbour
safe from his
annoyance.” They asked, “What is his
7. ARROGANCE
A good Muslim cannot be arrogant. How
could you imagine a Muslim is prayer bowing down and prostrating himself before
Allah in humiliation, then all of a sudden, after prayer, he turns to be
arrogant, putting himself up and putting other people down? Ignorance is another problem. The worst is
when arrogance and ignorance are combined in one person. Open any discussion,
and this kind of person turns into “a scholar”. As for scholars, they are
modest and humble, because they know their limitations. The more they know, the
more they realize that there are more things they do not know. The late Arab
immigrant poet Ilyā Abū Mād.ī said in the
last line of his poem al-T.alāsim (الطَّلاسِم, Mysteries) as
follows:
لَا
تُجَادِلْ، ذُوْ الِحجَى مَنْ قَالَ لَسْتُ
أَدْرِي.
“Do not argue, the man of understanding
is the one who says ‘I do not know.’”
Allah says in the Qur’ān:
وَلَا تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ إِنَّ السَّمْعَ وَالْبَصَرَ
وَالْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُولَئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْئُولًا.
وَلَا تَمْشِ
فِي الْأَرْضِ مَرَحًا إِنَّكَ لَنْ تَخْرِقَ الْأَرْضَ وَلَنْ تَبْلُغَ الْجِبَالَ
طُولًا
(الإسراء
: ٣٦-٣٧).
“And pursue
not that of which thou hast no knowledge
[i.e., avoid
idle curiosity]; for surely, the hearing, the sight,
the heart, all
of those shall be questioned of. And do not walk
on the earth in
insolence. You cannot penetrate the
earth
He also says:
إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ (الحجرات
: ١٣)
“The most
honoured of you in the sight of Allah is
(he who is) the
most righteous of you”[24]
Luqmān the sage
advised his son as follows:
وَلَا تُصَعِّرْ خَدَّكَ لِلنَّاسِ
وَلَا تَمْشِ فِي الْأَرْضِ مَرَحًا إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ مُخْتَالٍ فَخُورٍ
(لقمان
: ١٨)
“And swell not thy cheek (for pride) at
men.Nor
walk in insolence through the earth.For
Allah loves not any arrogant boaster.”[25]
The Prophet
said:
لَا يَدْخُلُ الْجَنَّةَ مَنْ كَانَ فِي قَلْبِهِ مِثْقَالُ ذَرَّةٍ
مِنْ كِبْرٍ
(رواه مسلم وأبو داؤد
والترمذي وابن ماجة)
“He who has the
weight of a dust particle of
This means that
Allah will punish him first before he enters Heaven if he deserves it. Allah
alone deserves this haughtiness and calls Himself al-Mutakabbir
(literally means “the Haughty”, “the Arrogant, or “the Insolent”) which is one
of His ninety-nine names. He said about
Himself when he says:
هُوَ اللَّهُ الَّذِي لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْمَلِكُ الْقُدُّوسُ
السَّلَامُ الْمُؤْمِنُ الْمُهَيْمِنُ
الْعَزِيزُ
الْجَبَّارُ الْمُتَكَبِّرُ سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ
(الحشر
: ٢٣)
“Allah is He, than
there is no god other Allah;
the Sovereign, the Holy One, the Source of Peace
(and
Perfection), the Guardian of Faith, the Preserver
of Safety, the
Exalted in Might, the Irresistible, the
justly Proud:
glory to Allah! (High is He) above
the partners
they attribute to Him”[27]
The Western Orientalist D.B. Macdonald
translates the word al-Mutakabbir as “the Haughty”, but the Muslim
translators Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, due to their
modesty, translate it respectively as “the Supreme” (“the justly Proud” in the
revised translation, as above), and “the Superb”.
Allah is the greatest and we say it
several times in our prayer when we say Allāhu Akbar. The late Lebanese
poet Ilyā Abū Mād.ī said to the
arrogant:
يَا
أَخِيْ لَا تَمِلْ بِرَأْسِكَ عَنِّيْ
* مَا أَنَا فَخْمَةٌ وَلاَ أَنْتَ
فَرقَـدًُ
النُّجُوْمَ التِيْ تَرَاهـا
أَرَاهـَا * حِيْنَمَا تحْفُو وَ عِنْدَمَا تَتَوَقـَّدُ
“O brother, do not turn your head away
from me (out of
arrogance), I am not a lump of
coal and you are not
a bright star; the stars you see
I also see, whether they are twinkling (among
clouds) or radiant (in the clear sky)."
As we know, the first creature who
disobeyed Allah was Iblīs (devil) who refused
to bow in respect to Adam (p.b.u.h.) because of his arrogance. Allah says in the Qur’ān:
وَإِذْ قُلْنَا لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ
اسْجُدُوا لِآَدَمَ فَسَجَدُوا إِلَّا إِبْلِيسَ أَبَى وَاسْتَكْبَرَ وَكَانَ مِنَ
الْكَافِرِينَ
(البقرة : ٣٤).
“And behold,
We said to the angels:
‘Bow down to
Adam’ and they bowed down:
not so Iblis:
he refused and was haughty: he
was of those who reject Faith.”[28]
8. SOUND HEART
Among the du‘ā’ (supplication)
of Prophet Abraham (Ibrāhīm, p.b.u.h.) mentioned in the Qur’ān is:
وَلَا تُخْزِنِي يَوْمَ يُبْعَثُونَ.
يَوْمَ لَا يَنْفَعُ مَالٌ وَلَا بَنُونَ. إِلَّا مَنْ أَتَى اللَّهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ
(الشعراء : ٧٨-٨٩).
“And let me not
be in disgrace on the day when
(men) will be raised up;--the day whereon
neither wealth
nor sons will
avail, but only he (will prosper)
According
to Qur’ānic commentators “sound heart” means “free from shirk (associating
Allah with anything), hypocrisy, and envy”. Imām al-T.abarī
said that “sound heart” means "free from doubt of Allah’s oneness and of
the resurrection”. On the Judgement Day wealth and children would not avail,
and those who have “sound heart” is the person mentioned in the following h.adīth:
رَوَى أَنَسُ بْنُ مَالِكٍ
قَالَ كُنَّا جُلُوسًا مَعَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ
فَقَالَ يَطْلُعُ عَلَيْكُمْ الْآنَ رَجُلٌ
مِنْ أَهْلِ الْجَنَّةِ فَطَلَعَ رَجُلٌ مِنْ الْأَنْصَارِ تَنْطِفُ لِحْيَتُهُ
مِنْ وُضُوئِهِ قَدْ تَعَلَّقَ نَعْلَيْهِ
فِي يَدِهِ الشِّمَالِ فَلَمَّا كَانَ الْغَدُ قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ
وَسَلَّمَ
مِثْلَ ذَلِكَ فَطَلَعَ ذَلِكَ الرَّجُلُ
مِثْلَ الْمَرَّةِ الْأُولَى فَلَمَّا كَانَ الْيَوْمُ الثَّالِثُ قَالَ النَّبِيُّ
صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ
وَسَلَّمَ مِثْلَ مَقَالَتِهِ أَيْضًا فَطَلَعَ
ذَلِكَ الرَّجُلُ عَلَى مِثْلِ حَالِهِ الْأُولَى فَلَمَّا قَامَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى
اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ
تَبِعَهُ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ عَمْرِو بْنِ
الْعَاصِ فَقَالَ إِنِّي لَاحَيْتُ أَبِي فَأَقْسَمْتُ أَنْ لَا أَدْخُلَ عَلَيْهِ
ثَلَاثًا فَإِنْ رَأَيْتَ أَنْ
تُؤْوِيَنِي إِلَيْكَ حَتَّى تَمْضِيَ فَعَلْتَ
قَالَ نَعَمْ قَالَ أَنَسٌ وَكَانَ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ يُحَدِّثُ أَنَّهُ بَاتَ مَعَهُ
تِلْكَ اللَّيَالِي
الثَّلَاثَ فَلَمْ يَرَهُ يَقُومُ مِنْ اللَّيْلِ
شَيْئًا غَيْرَ أَنَّهُ إِذَا تَعَارَّ وَتَقَلَّبَ عَلَى فِرَاشِهِ ذَكَرَ اللَّهَ
عَزَّ وَجَلَّ وَكَبَّرَحَتَّى
يَقُومَ لِصَلَاةِ الْفَجْرِ قَالَ عَبْدُ
اللَّهِ غَيْرَ أَنِّي لَمْ أَسْمَعْهُ يَقُولُ إِلَّا خَيْرًا فَلَمَّا مَضَتْ الثَّلَاثُ
لَيَالٍ وَ كِدْتُ
أَنْ أَحْتَقِرَ عَمَلَهُ قُلْتُ يَا عَبْدَ
اللَّهِ إِنِّي لَمْ يَكُنْ بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَ أَبِي غَضَبٌ وَلَا هَجْرٌ ثَمَّ وَلَكِنْ
سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ
اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ
يَقُولُ لَكَ ثَلَاثَ مِرَارٍ يَطْلُعُ عَلَيْكُمْ الْآنَ رَجُلٌ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْجَنَّةِ
فَطَلَعْتَ أَنْتَ
الثَّلَاثَ مِرَارٍ فَأَرَدْتُ أَنْ آوِيَ
إِلَيْكَ لِأَنْظُرَ مَا عَمَلُكَ فَأَقْتَدِيَ بِهِ فَلَمْ أَرَكَ تَعْمَلُ كَثِيرَ عَمَلٍ فَمَا الَّذِي
بَلَغَ بِكَ مَا قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى
اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ فَقَالَ مَا هُوَ
إِلَّا مَا رَأَيْتَ قَالَ فَلَمَّا وَلَّيْتُ دَعَانِي
فَقَالَ مَا هُوَ إِلَّا مَا رَأَيْتَ غَيْرَ
أَنِّي لَا أَجِدُ فِي نَفْسِي لِأَحَدٍ مِنْ الْمُسْلِمِينَ غِشًّا وَلَا أَحْسُدُ
أَحَدًا
عَلَى خَيْرٍ أَعْطَاهُ اللَّهُ إِيَّاهُ
فَقَالَ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ هَذِهِ الَّتِي بَلَغَتْ بِكَ وَهِيَ الَّتِي لَا نُطِيقُ
(رواه أحمد و النسائي و البيهقي)
“Anas
b. Mālik related that while he and other companions
were sitting
with the Prophet, the Prophet said: ‘A man promised with Paradise (Heaven) will come suddenly
upon you’. Then a man among the ansar [lit. “the helpers”, i.e., the people of
Madīnah who helped the muhājirīn, the Muslim emigrants from Mecca] appeared,
his beard was clean from wud.ū' ablution)
and his sandals were hung at his left hand. The next day the Prophet said the
same thing, and the same person appeared. The third day the Prophet said the
same thing, and the same person appeared. When the Prophet left Abdullah
b.‘Umar followed the man and said to him: ‘I am on bad terms with my father and
I have sworn that I would not come to him for three days. I wish you
would let me be your guest for that period.’ The man agreed. Anas said that then Abdullah b.‘Umar reported what he
had seen from his host. In these three nights said that the man did not even perform night
sunnah (recom-mended) prayers other than that he mentioned Allah whenever he
turned in his bed until he got up for fajr (dawn) prayer. ‘Abd Allāh said
further that the man had never said anything except good things [i.e., never
said bad things]. After the third night
‘Abd Allāh almost looked down on what the man had done. He asked him: ‘Abd Allāh, [it was common
among the Arabs in the past to call anybody whose name was unknown “‘Abd Allāh”
which means“the servant of Allah”, like what ‘Abd Allāh did to this person] I
heard the Messenger of Allah said three times that a person promised with
Paradise would appear suddenly, and and
you appeared each time. So I would like to know what you did so that I could follow it, but I have not seen you doing
something great. What makes you reach
this high honour which has been mentioned by the Prophet?’ the man said: ‘Nothing but what you have seen.” ‘Abd Allāh said: ‘When I turned away he
called me and said: “Nothing except what
you have seen. Only that I never cheat any Muslim, and I never envy anybody of
what Allah has given him”. ‘Abd Allāh b. ‘Umar
said:
‘That makes you attain what the Prophet
9. AS.H...ĀB AL-UKHDŪD
(THE MAKERS OF
THE PIT OF FIRE)
There were three babies who talked
miraculously in their childhood. One of them was in the story reported by Imām
Ah.mad b. H...anbal in a long tradition narrated by S.uhayb al-Rūm [the Roman, being from
the Eastern Roman empire], that Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) said a story the
summary of which is as follows:
“There was a king in the past who had
an old magician. Being old and feeling that his death was approaching, the
magician asked the king to give him a boy whom he could teach his magic. He
found the boy, but the boy also learned secretly from a monk whom he admired.
Therefore, he always came late to the magician and came home late. He was
beaten by the magician and was asked, ‘What makes you late?’. At home he was
beaten by his parents and was asked, ‘What makes you late?’ When he complained
to the monk, the monk advised him to say to the magician, when he wanted to
beat him for being late, that he had been detained by his parents, and to his
parents, when they wanted to beat him for coming home late, that he had been
detained by the magician.
“One
day a huge animal [it was not mentioned what kind of animal it was] prevented
people from passing by. The boy said to himself: ‘Today I shall see which of
the two, the monk of the magician, is loved by Allah.’ He took a stone, saying,
‘O Allah, if You prefer the monk to the magician, kill this monster, so that
people can pass by.’ Then he threw the
stone at it. The monster was killed and the people could pass by. He told the
monk what had happened. The monk said to him: ‘Now you become better than me,
and you will be tested. When this
happens don’t tell people about me.’
“The boy became a healer. He
healed the blind and the lepers, and other ill people. The king had an
associate who heard about the boy. He was blind, so he told him: ‘Cure me and
I’ll give you a present.’ The boy said: ‘I don’t heal anybody. It is Allah who
heals. If you believe in Him, He will heal you.’ The man did, and he was healed.
‘The king was surprised to see that
his friend could see again.
‘Who healed you?’ asked the king.
‘My Lord,’ said the man.
‘Me?’, asked the king.
‘No, Allah, my Lord and your Lord.’
‘Is there any Lord other than me?',
asked the king.
‘Yes, my Lord
and your Lord is Allah,’ said the man.
“The man was tortured until he
mentioned the boy. The boy was summoned and was interrogated. He, too, was
tortured until he mentioned the monk. The monk was summoned, interrogated, and
asked to abandon his religion, or he would face persecution. He refused. He was
persecuted in a terrible way. His head was cut off with a saw. The king’s
associate, refusing to abandon his faith, was also persecuted in the same way.
“Now it was the boy’s turn. He was to
receive a special treatment. He was sent
to a high mountain where he would be dropped from a cliff. But his prayer was
accepted. The mountain shook, and the people who where assigned to carry the persecution
perished. The boy was saved. He told the king that Allah had saved him.
“The
king sent the boy to the sea where he would be dropped and drowned. Again Allah
saved him. The waves drowned the king’s men. The boy said the to king: ‘You
cannot kill me until you do what I say’.
‘What
is that?' asked the king.
‘Collect
people, crucify me on a trunk of the tree, take an arrow from my quiver, and
say [before shooting me] بِسْمِ اللهِ رَبِّ هَذَا
ْالغُلَام
(“In the name of Allah,
the Lord of this boy”).
“The
king did what the said. He hit the boy in his temple with his arrow. He felt
the wound with his fingers and died. The crowd cried, ‘We believe in the boy’s
Lord’. The king’s adviser said to him: ‘I have warned you not to do what the
boy had suggested. Now it has happened.
You see, all people have become believers.’
“So
the king blocked the road with a huge pit, put fire in it, and said: ‘Whoever
abandons his faith will be spared. But nobody listened to him. They had solid faith. They pushed each other
into the burning pit. A woman with a baby in her arms looked hesitant to
jump. Her baby suddenly talked to her:
‘Be patient, mom, you are on the right way.’” (A similar version was also
reported by Muslim and al-Nasā’ī).
This
is one of many examples of solid faith. This reminds us of Bilāl, ‘Ammār b.
Yāsir, and the magicians of the Pharaoh who defied threat and punishment.
Allah said in the Qur’ān:
وَالسَّمَاءِ ذَاتِ الْبُرُوجِ. وَالْيَوْمِ الْمَوْعُودِ. وَشَاهِدٍ
وَمَشْهُودٍ.
قُتِلَ أَصْحَابُ
الْأُخْدُودِ. النَّارِ ذَاتِ الْوَقُودِ. إِذْ هُمْ عَلَيْهَا قُعُودٌ. وَهُمْ عَلَى
مَا
يَفْعَلُونَ
بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ شُهُودٌ. وَمَا نَقَمُوا مِنْهُمْ إِلَّا أَنْ يُؤْمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ
الْعَزِيزِ الْحَمِيدِ. الَّذِي
لَهُ مُلْكُ
السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاللَّهُ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ شَهِيدٌ. إِنَّ الَّذِينَ
فَتَنُوا الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ
ثُمَّ لَمْ يَتُوبُوا فَلَهُمْ عَذَابُ جَهَنَّمَ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابُ الْحَرِيقِ
(البروج : ١-٠١).
“By the sky,
with its constellation; by the promised day
(of judgement); by one that witnesses and the subject of the witness,
woe to the makers of the pit (of fire), the
fire supplied (abundantly)
with fuel; Behold! They sat over against the
(fire)and they witnessed
(all) that they were doing against the
believers. And they ill-treated
them for no other reason than that they
believed in Allah exalted in
power, worthy of all praise! Him to Whom belongs the dominion
of the heavens and the earth! And Allah is
witness to all things.
Those who persecute [i.e., burning alive] the
believers, men
and women, and do not turn in repentance, will
have
chastisement of the burning fire.”[31]
Another interpretation is that the
above verses referred to the following story: One of the kings of the Himyarite
dynasty in Yemen was Dhū Nuwās (490-525 C.E.). After visiting Yathrib (now
called Madinah) where many inhabitants were Jews, he converted to Judaism. Then
he invaded Najran (now a small town in Saudi Arabia located near the border
with Yemen), to crush the flourishing Christianity there. He made a trench
filled with fire and threw the Christians into it. The Orientalist historian
Sir William Muir said that there were no less than twenty thousand Christians
perished.
Then
persecution of the Christians in Yemen (not only in Najran) made the prince of
Abyssinia (Ethiopia), who was a Nestorian, to revenge. He sent an expedition in
525 C.E. ending with the death of Dhū Nuwās and the subjection of Yemen.
However, in general sense, the above verses refer to any people who tortured
and burned the believers alive, Allah will punish them in the same way, with
fire, unless they repent.
10. THE
POSITION OF FUQAHĀ’ (MUSLIM JURISTS)
During
my stay in this city (Edmonton) I notice that disagreements and discussions
among our Muslim brother sometimes occurred which led to hot debates.
Fortunately, the issues did not deal with the essence of Islam, namely, the
faith. I wonder why we do not consult the fuqahā’ (Muslim jurists) in
the Islamic world instead of leading a discussion which does not lead anywhere.
It
is normal to have different views. It is natural to be different. There is no
harm in being different as long as we are tolerant and broad-minded. The following h.adith
will hopefully give us a lesson.
After the campaign of al-Ah.zāb the Prophet
on his way to Madinah Jibrīl (Gabriel) came to him and told him that Allah
ordered him to march towards Banī Qurayz.ah. He asked
Bilāl to announce it to people which he did and said:
مَنْ كَانَ سَامِعًا فَلَا يُصَلِّيَنَّ
الْعَصْرَ إِلَّا فِي بَنِي قُرَيْظَة
(أَخْرَجَهُ الطَّبَرَانِيُّ وَالْبَيْهَقِيُّ)
"Whoever
heard this (announcement) should not
Some
companions, by using ijtihād and reasoning, prayed on the way before ‘As.r time was over and said that the
Prophet merely wanted them to arrive early at Banī Qurayz.ah,
not to delay the ‘As.r prayer. In
other words, they did not stick to the text of the Prophet’s order, but
followed what they thought the Prophet meant by his order. The other group
stuck to the literal meaning of the Prophet’s order, namely, whatever happened
they should not pray ‘As.r until they
reached Banī Qurayz.ah. When the
Prophet heard this discrepancy, what did they say to them? He did not blame any
of the two groups. He did not say that one of the two groups was right and the
other was wrong. Why? Both groups were obeying the Prophet according to their
understanding.
Dr.
Muhammad ‘Abd al-Karīm al-Jazā’irī told us the following story: Sufyān b.
‘Uyaynah said: “Abū H...anīfah and
al-Awzā‘ī met each other at دَارُ
الْحَنَّاطِيْن (the barn) at Mecca.
Al-Awzā‘ī asked Abū H...anīfah: ‘Why don’t you raise your hands when you bow
down and when you raise from bowing in your prayer?’ Abū H...anīfah answered: ‘Because there is no
sound report stating that the Prophet did it.’ Al-Awzā‘ī asked: ‘How? Al-Zuhrī
narrated to me from Sālim from his father (Ibn ‘Umar) from the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) that he raised his hands when he
started the prayer, when he bowed down and when he raised from bowing.’ Abū H...anīfah said:
‘H...ammād narrated to me from Ibrāhīm
al-Nakhā‘ī from ‘Alqamah and al-Aswad that the Messenger of Allah (p.b.u.h.)
did not raise his hands except in starting the prayer.’ Al-Awzā‘ī said: ‘I told
you about the h.adīth narrated
by al-Zuhrī from Sālim from his father, and you told me the h.adīth from H...ammād
from Ibrāhīm.’ Abū H...anīfah said:
‘H...ammād knew more about fiqh (Islamic
law) than al-Zuhrī; Ibrāhīm knew fiqh more than Sālim; al-‘Alqamah was
not less knowledgeable in fiqh than Abdullah ibn ‘Umar; if ‘Abd Allāh
had a merit of being a companion of the Prophet, al-Aswad had also many merits.
‘Abd Allāh is ‘Abd Allāh.’ So, al-Awzā‘ī kept silent.”
Another
story is found in Qād. ī ‘Iyād. ’s book al-Ghunyah related by ‘Abd
Allāh b. ‘Umar who said: “We were with al-A‘mash when he asked Abū H...anīfah about his judgement on certain
legal issues. When Abū H...anīfah gave
him his legal judgments, al-A‘mash asked: ‘Where did you get these answers
from?’ Abū H...anīfah said:
‘From the h.adīth narrated
by Ibrāhīm you have told me, and from the h.adīth
narrated by al-Sha‘bī you have also told me.’ Al-A‘mash then said: ‘O Muslim
jurists, you are the physicians and we [the traditionists] are the druggists.
These
two stories indicate the prominence of the Muslim jurists over the
traditionists. The h.adīths in
solving legal issues are like medicines in curing diseases. The use of medicine
without the physician’s prescription could be dangerous. A h.adīth
without a jurist could lead us astray.
Knowing
the different kinds of medicine does not make you a physician, and knowing many
h.adīths does not make you a jurist.
You could kill a patient if you are not a physician, and you could make h.alāl (something permissible) h.arām (prohibited) and vice-versa.
Let us have a moral lesson from the following German story:
A
medical student was having an oral-examination. His professor asked him the
symptoms of a certain disease and the medicine to cure it. The student answered
correctly. But when he was asked the amount of medicine he should give to the
patient he said “one tea-spoon”. On his way out of the room he remembered that
he was giving a wrong answer. He came back and said to the professor: “Professor, the patient should be given three
drops of the medicine instead of one-tea-spoon.” The professor said: ‘Es tut
mir leid, der Patient ist schon gestorben” (I am sorry, the parent has
passed away). The student failed. Had he
been a physician he could have killed his first patient.
Many
commercial advertisements of TV mislead people. For example, it was said that
such-and-such medicine is stronger than the others. But this does not
necessarily mean that it is better than the others, because it is stronger. On
the contrary, it could be worse if your body cannot tolerate it. Physicians know this trick. That is why we
consult them. If you want to kill a mouse, for example, a small stone could be
sufficient. You do not have to use a bomb or dynamite, which is much stronger
than a piece of stone.
In
one tradition the Prophet said that having a bath on Friday is wājib (obligatory),
but the jurists say it is recommended strongly as if it were obligatory. They
interpret وَاجِب (obligatory) as كََالْوَاجِب
(like
obligatory), something necessary. So, if you have not taken your bath this
week, it is time now to have it, because you will go to the mosque for the
Friday prayer and mingle with people and we do not want people to be disturbed
with your odour.
According
to the Arabic language, the expression wājib could mean “highly
recommended”, while h.arām
could mean “strongly disproved”. The late Sayyid Darwīsh
in his song said:
زُوْرُوْنِيْ
كُلَّ سَنةٍ مَرَّةً * حَرَامٌ تَنْسُوْنِي بِاْلمَرَّةِ
which means “visit me once each year,
it is h.arām to forget me
completely.”
A
traditionist (a h.adīth collector)
is like a food supplier, and the faqīh (a jurist) is like a cook. He
cooks the traditions supplied by the traditionist and makes his legal judgement
out of them. He knows the tradition in which the Prophet prohibited people from
drinking while standing, and in the meantime he knows also that it happened
that the Prophet himself drank while he was standing.
Dr. Muhammad ‘Abd al-Karīm al-Jazā’irī
said that there are some h.adīths
which are temporary and deal with a particular time, such as the h.adīth narrated by ‘Abd Allāh b.
‘Umar that the Prophet said:
خَالِفُوا
الْمُشْرِكِينَ وَفِّرُوا اللِّحَى وَأَحْفُوا الشَّوَارِبَ
(رواه البخاري ومسلم)
“Do not imitate the idolaters, let your beard
In
his commentary on this h.adīth
‘Abd al-Wahhāb Khallāf (d. 1375/1955), the former professor of Islamic Law at the Faculty of
Law, Cairo University, in his article “Mas.ādir
al-Tashrī‘ al-Islāmī Marinah” at Majallat al-Qānūn wa ’l-Iqtiqād (May, 1945), as follows: “The
construction of the text itself indicates that this h.adīth
is about temporal law when the dress of idolaters was respected, the intention
of which is to be different from them, while people’s dress changes
continually.” However, many Muslim scholars consider that growing beards and
clipping moustaches remains obligatory or highly recommended for Muslim males
till the Judgment day, and Muslims should tolerate this difference of
opinion.
Another temporal h.adīth is narrated by Ya‘lā b.
Shaddād that the Prophet said:
خَالِفُوا
الْيَهُودَ فَإِنَّهُمْ لَا يُصَلُّونَ فِي نِعَالِهِمْ وَلَا خِفَافِهِمْ
(رواه
الحاكم و البيهقي وأبو داءود ).
“Do not imitate the Jews, they pray with
This
tradition indicates that Muslims are enjoined to pray with their footwear on if
they are clean. The reason is clear, to be different from the Jews in their
prayers, even though the Jews were following Prophet Moses (p.b.u.h.) in taking
off his shoes. Allah says in the Qur’ān:
إِنِّي أَنَا رَبُّكَ فَاخْلَعْ نَعْلَيْكَ إِنَّكَ بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ
طُوًى (طه : ١٢).
“Verily I am
your Lord! Therefore put off thy shoes:
In another h.adīth
Abū Sa’īd al-Khud.arī said:
صَلَّى بِنَا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ
صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ ذَاتَ يَوْمٍ فَلَمَّا كَانَ فِي بَعْضِ صَلَاتِهِ
خَلَعَ نَعْلَيْهِ
فَوَضَعَهُمَا عَنْ يَسَارِهِ فَلَمَّا رَأَى النَّاسُ ذَلِكَ
خَلَعُوا نِعَالَهُمْ فَلَمَّا قَضَى صَلَاتَهُ
قَالَ مَا بَالُكُمْ أَلْقَيْتُمْ نِعَالَكُمْ قَالُوا رَأَيْنَاكَ أَلْقَيْتَ نَعْلَيْكَ فَأَلْقَيْنَا
نِعَالَنَا فَقَالَ رَسُولُ
اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ
وَسَلَّمَ إِنَّ جِبْرِيلَ أَتَانِي فَأَخْبَرَنِي
أَنَّ فِيهِمَا قَذَرًا أَوْ قَالَ أَذًى
فَأَلْقَيْتُهُمَا فَإِذَا جَاءَ أَحَدُكُمْ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ فَلْيَنْظُرْ
فِي نَعْلَيْهِ فَإِنْ رَأَى فِيهِمَا
قَذَرًا أَوْ قَالَ أَذًى فَلْيَمْسَحْهُمَا
وَلْيُصَلِّ فِيهِمَا
(رواه أحمد وأبو
داءود والبيهقي وابن حزيمة وابن حبان)
“While the Prophet was praying with us he took off
his shoes and put
them on his left side. Seeing that,
people
also took off their
shoes. After the prayer the Prophet asked:
‘Why did you take off
your shoes?’ They said: ‘We saw you
taking off you
shoes.’ The Prophet said: ‘Gabriel came to me
and told me that my
shoes were dirty, so I took them off.
Therefore, if any of
you come to the mosque, he has
to look at his
shoes. If they are dirty he should
The
jurists did not stop here and stick to this h.adīth
without further study and say that wearing shoes is obligatory in prayer, in
order to be different from the Jews who prayed barefoot. The Prophet himself
sometimes prayed barefoot and sometimes with his shoes on. He used to put them
on his left side. Narrated by Abū
Hurayrah the Propet said:
إِذَا صَلَّى أَحَدُكُمْ فَلَا يَضَعْ نَعْلَيْهِ عَنْ يَمِينِهِ وَلَا
عَنْ يَسَارِهِ
فَتَكُونَ عَنْ يَمِينِ غَيْرِهِ إِلَّا أَنْ لَا
يَكُونَ عَنْ يَسَارِهِ أَحَدٌ وَلْيَضَعْهُمَا بَيْنَ رِجْلَيْهِ
(رواه أبو داءود والبيهقي والحاكم وابن
حبان وابن حزيمة).
“If anyone of you prays he should put his shoes
neither on his right nor on his left; otherwise [if he puts
them on his left]they
will be on somebody else’s right,
except if nobody is on his left.Therefore,
he should put them between his legs.”[37]
The
above h.adīth is supported by the
following h.adīth,
narrated by Abū Hurayrah, that the Prophet said:
إِذَا صَلَّى أَحَدُكُمْ فَلْيَلْبِسْ نَعْلَيْهِ
،
أَوْ لِيَخْلَعَهُمَا بَيْنَ
رِجْلَيْهِ، وَلَا يُؤْذِيْ بِهِمَا غَيْرَهُ
(رواه الحاكم و إبن حبان و إبن حزيمة).
“If
any of you prays he should put his shoes on,
or take them off and put them between his
These temporal h.adīths are for the Muslims’
benefit as individuals as well members of the community. When the reason for
the ruling does not exist any longer the ruling also does not exist. This kind
of traditions deal with mu‘āmalāt (behaviour towards others) and ethics
only, and not with īmān (faith) and ‘ibādāt (worship). Therefore,
the rulings of these temporal h.adīths do
not always apply permanently. They have, according to Ibn al-Qayyim
al-Jawziyyah’s term, tashrī‘ ‘ām (general ruling).
11. BALĀ’
(TEST)
Allah says in
the Qur’ān:
وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيْءٍ مِنَ الْخَوْفِ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ
مِنَ الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَنْفُسِ
وَالثَّمَرَاتِ وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ.
الَّذِينَ إِذَا أَصَابَتْهُمْ مُصِيبَةٌ قَالُوا إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ
رَاجِعُونَ.
أُولَئِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ صَلَوَاتٌ
مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ وَرَحْمَةٌ وَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُهْتَدُونَ.
(البقرة
: ١٥٥-١٥٧).
“Be sure We shall test you with
something
of fear and hunger, some loss in goods,
or lives and
the fruits (of your toil), but give glad tidings to those who patiently
preserve,--who say, when afflicted with
calamity: ‘to Allah we belong,
and to Him is our return.’-- They are
those of whom (descend)
blessings from their Lord, and mercy,
and they are
the ones that
receive guidance.”[39]
Balā’ literally means “test” either with good or
with bad things. In the Qur’ān, it has
two meanings: test and blessing. Balā’
as a test is in the verse we have just
mentioned before. Another example is in
the following verse:
وَنَبْلُوكُمْ بِالشَّرِّ وَالْخَيْرِ فِتْنَةً وَإِلَيْنَا تُرْجَعُونَ (الأنبياء
: ٣٥)
“…
and We test you by evil and good by way
Balā’
which means “blessing” is found also in the following verse:
وَإِذْ نَجَّيْنَاكُمْ مِنْ
آَلِ فِرْعَوْنَ يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوءَ الْعَذَابِ يُذَبِّحُونَ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ
وَيَسْتَحْيُونَ نِسَاءَكُمْ وَفِي ذَلِكُمْ بَلَاءٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ
عَظِيمٌ
(البقرة : ٤٩).
“And remember,
We delivered you [i.e., the Israelites] from
the people of
Pharaoh: they sent you hard tasks and
chastisement,
slaughtered
your sons and let your women-folk live:
therein was
a tremendous trial [here means “blessing”] from your Lord.”[41]
The
Pharaoh of the oppression, Ramses II, had a dream that fire came from Jerusalem
entering the houses of the Egyptians but not those of the Israelites. Therefore he knew that one of the Israelites
was born and would threaten his kingdom. So, he killed the babies, and gave
hard labour to the Israelites. But through Prophet Moses (p.b.u.h.) Allah
delivered the Israelites from Pharaoh’s hard labour and this was a tremendous
blessing.
A
test is not easy, either good or evil. A man can lose hope because of a test.
He might say like the atheists used to say: “If there is any god who is kind,
merciful, why did He let this disaster happen? The prolific writer Mah.mūd
Must.afā gives us the following
answer:
1.
Judging a play by watching only
one act of it is misleading. A boy will cry when his father takes him to the
hospital for an operation and will consider it an evil deed. But when the boy
grows up he will understand that behind this accidental evilness there is a
permanent goodness, for the sake of which forbearance is necessary. Man’s life
is similar to this. His life is still going on, and his death does not unveil
the curtain, because the play goes on after his death where there are still other
acts. Therefore, the play of life cannot be judged by witnessing only one act
of it, i.e., the presence of evil in this world.
2.
Man’s personality, character,
firmness (صَلَابَة)
, and determination (عَزْم) , are firmly
related to his suffering. Without wrongdoing (إسَاءَة), hurting (أَلمَ), and injustice(ظُلْم)
,
there would be respectively no forgiveness, mercy and justice.
3.
A thing which seems to be a
defect in a partial view is actually a blessing and goodness in the whole
sight. What seems to be a dirty spot in a picture might in fact, looked at very
closely, be a shadow without which the picture will not appear beautiful.
Earthquakes, volcanoes’ eruptions and other natural disasters, in spite of
destroying thousands of people, have a good function in keeping the balance
between the disrupting and boiling inner part of the earth and its stable hard
peel. Earthquakes restore mountains to
their proper places after they have slowly moved. And mountains are like props
protecting the peel of the earth from exploding, because of the hard pressure
of the inner part of the earth.
4.
Evil is one aspect of the nature
of freedom given to man by Allah.
Freedom of will has no significance if it is exclusively for doing good. Man will become compelled to do good
things only. Therefore, doing evil is another aspect of man’s freedom of
will. Allah says:
أَلَمْ نَجْعَلْ لَهُ عَيْنَيْنِ. وَلِسَانًا وَشَفَتَيْنِ. وَهَدَيْنَاهُ
النَّجْدَيْنِ
(البلد
: ٣)
“Have We not
made for him a pair of eyes?--And a tongue,
and a pair of lips? And shown him two highways?” [42]
The two highways of life, as explained by A.Y.
Ali, are: (1) the steep and difficult path of virtue, and (2) the easy path of
vice.
5.
Good and evil are two sides of
one coin. Floods and wars, for example, are evil on one side,
but they mean life on the other. Wars divided people into families, clans,
tribes, nations, and finally brought them to one international table in the
Security Council of the United Nations. Through scientific research during the
war people made discoveries and inventions: penicillin, blood transfusion,
atomic energy, rockets, jet engines, submarines, radar, etc.
6.
Evil in its pure origin does not
exist. There is only absence of goodness, the absance that accompanies the
limitations of man as well as of other creatures. Otherwise, man will
become free from defect, and in turn, will
become god, i.e., every man is created to be a god, and this is
impossible.
In one tradition narrated by Suhayb
the Prophet said:
عَجَبًا لِأَمْرِ الْمُؤْمِنِ
إِنَّ أَمْرَهُ كُلَّهُ خَيْرٌ وَلَيْسَ ذَاكَ لِأَحَدٍ إِلَّا لِلْمُؤْمِنِ إِنْ أَصَابَتْهُ
سَرَّاءُ شَكَرَ فَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَهُ وَإِنْ
أَصَابَتْهُ ضَرَّاءُ صَبَرَ فَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَهُ
(أخرجه
مسلم).
“How amazing
the condition of a believer
Is! If good
fortune befalls him, he thanks Allah and this is
good for him.
And if ill-fortune befalls on him, he becomes
But for people who lack faith, let us hear what
Allah says:
وَلَئِنْ أَذَقْنَا الْإِنْسَانَ
مِنَّا رَحْمَةً ثُمَّ نَزَعْنَاهَا مِنْهُ إِنَّهُ لَيَئُوسٌ كَفُورٌ.
وَلَئِنْ أَذَقْنَاهُ نَعْمَاءَ بَعْدَ ضَرَّاءَ مَسَّتْهُ لَيَقُولَنَّ
ذَهَبَ السَّيِّئَاتُ عَنِّي إِنَّهُ لَفَرِحٌ فَخُورٌ.
إِلَّا الَّذِينَ صَبَرُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ أُولَئِكَ لَهُمْ
مَغْفِرَةٌ وَأَجْرٌ كَبِيرٌ.
(هود
:٩-١١)
“If We give man a taste of mercy from Ourselves, and then
withdraw it from him, behold! he is in despair and (falls into)
ingratitude. But if We give him a taste
of (Our) favours after adversity hath
touched him, he is sure to say, ‘All evil has departed from me.’ Behold! He falls into exultation and
pride. Not so do those who show patience
and constancy, and work righteousness; for them
is forgivenes(of sins)
12. KUFR
(INFIDELITY)
There is a story about a hunter and
his bear. One day the hunter went hunting. When he became tired he took rest
under a tree and fell asleep. His bear
watched and guarded him. A fly started disturbing the hunter and stayed on his
forehead. The bear wanted to kill it and took a piece of stone. Fortunately the hunter had woken up before
the bear hit the fly on his forehead. The moral lesson in this story is that
good action with good intention but with ignorance could end with an undesirable
consequence.
Speaking about people who are
extremely enthusiastic about Islam but with lack of knowledge and understanding
of this religion, the prominent Egyptian scholar Shaykh (Sheikh) Muhammad
al-Ghazālī tells us the following story:
It happened that the chief of a village
sent a message to the imam of a mosque asking him to tell the people in
the mosque that an agricultural engineer was coming, and a meeting would be
held with him, so that he could give them important directions concerning
agriculture. When the imam took the microphone, a pious student
protested and said that the Prophet had prohibited people from asking about
straying camels in the mosque, and argued that the mosque was exclusively for
the purpose of praying; he prohibited the imam from using the
microphone. When the dispute became intensified, the student grabbed the
microphone and said, “The microphone can be taken from me only after my dead
body.”
Shaykh al-Ghazālī’s comment on this
incident is that the use of analogy by comparing the agricultural directions
with looking for a straying camel is not correct. Even if it were correct, it
would be easier than sacrificing a person. He said further that strangely
enough, this extremity occurs in covetousness and disputable matters, such as
being fastidious on where and how you put your hands and legs in praying,
instead of being active in social services which will give more benefit to the
community. When religious extremists find any wrong-doing with people, they
hasten to brand them with rebellion (fisq) or infidelity (kufr) as if they consider a person to
be sinful until he is proved to be innocent which is contrary to the Islamic
law.
The extremists say that whoever leaves
the obligatory prayers becomes kāfir (infidel), citing many h.adīths
(traditions) from the Prophet, such as: “Prayer is the prop
of the religion (of Islam); whoever leaves it is kāfir.” Arguing with them, Shaykh al-Ghazālī said
that the person who leaves the obligatory prayers commits a great sin, but he
becomes a infidel only if he denies what is known in religion by necessity,
such as the oneness of Allah, the messengership of Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.),
and the obligation of fasting in the month of Ramadan. With regard to those who
leave the obligatory prayers out of negligence, they are not infidels because they
affirm the injunction of these obligatory prayers.
Rejecting the extremists’ view that
the neglectors of prayers should be treated as apostates, al-Ghazālī said that
we should not forget the tradition reported by h.adīth
collectors that the Prophet said about a person who left his prayers out of
negligence, that he had no‘ahd (covenant, protection) with Allah; Allah
might forgive or punish him. Al-Ghazālī contends that this is also the view of
the majority of the Muslims, and the H...anafīs
(followers of the H...anafī school
of law) do not persecute this kind of people. We should be kind to him, give
him advice and lead him to the mosque.
The wordكَفَرَ (kafara) literally
means “to cover”. The expression كَفَرَ
دِرْعَهُ بِثَوْبِهِ
means “he covered his coat of arms with his
dress (robe)”. The expression كَفَرَ
اللَّيْلُ الشَّيْءَ means, “the night covered the thing”.
The pre-Islamic poet Labid said in his poetry فِيْ لَيْلَةٍ كَفَرَ
النُّجُوْمَ غَمَامُهَا which means “in a night when its cloud
covered the stars.” The wordكَافِر
(kāfir), infidel, originally
means “a coverer”, namely, something that covers; it could also
mean: a dark night, a sea, a grand valley, a big river, a distant place, a dark
cloud, a coat of arm, a plant, a person who covers his coat of arm under his
garment, a farmer, and many other meanings. In the following Qur’ānic verse the
word كُفَّار (kuffār, pl. of kāfir) means
“farmers, the tillers.”
كَمَثَلِ غَيْثٍ أَعْجَبَ الْكُفَّارَ
نَبَاتُهُ (الحديد : ٢٠)
“(It is) as the
likeness of vegetation after rain, thereof
Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s comment on this verse is
as follows:
“Kuffār is here used in
the unusual sense of ‘tillers or husbandmen’,
because they
sow the seed and cover it up with soil. But the ordinary
meaning,‘Rejecters
of the Truth’, is not absent.
The allegory refers to such men”
So, here the
word kuffār means “farmers”. However, in another verse, the word kuffār
means “infidels”, “unbelievers”, namely “coverers of the truth.” Allah said:
ِ وَمَثَلُهُمْ فِي الْإِنْجِيلِ كَزَرْعٍ أَخْرَجَ شَطْأَهُ فَآَزَرَهُ
فَاسْتَغْلَظَ فَاسْتَوَى عَلَى سُوقِهِ يُعْجِبُ الزُّرَّاعَ لِيَغِيظَ
بِهِمُ الْكُفَّارَ...
(الفتح
: ٢٩)
“… But their
description in the Gospel is like a
(sown) seed
[of Islam]
which sends forth its shoots, then makes it strong, and
becomes thick
and its stands straight on its stem, delighting
the
sowers[i.e., the Prophet and his companions], that
There
are four meanings of كُفْر (kufr) and its
derivatives in the Qur’ān: الإنْكَار
(rejection), الجُحُوْد
(denial), كُفْرُ النِّعْمَة
(ungratefulness), and البَرَاءَة
disown). The examples in
the Qur’ān are as follows:
1. Kufr which means
“rejection” is as in the following verse:
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا سَوَاءٌ عَلَيْهِمْ أَأَنْذَرْتَهُمْ أَمْ
لَمْ تُنْذِرْهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
(البقرة:
٦)
“As to those
who reject faith it is the same to them whether thou
Kufr which means
“denial” is as in the following verse:
وَلَمَّا جَاءَهُمْ كِتَابٌ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ مُصَدِّقٌ لِمَا
مَعَهُمْ وَكَانُوا مِنْ قَبْلُ
يَسْتَفْتِحُونَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا فَلَمَّا جَاءَهُمْ مَا
عَرَفُوا كَفَرُوا بِهِ فَلَعْنَةُ اللَّهِ عَلَى الْكَافِرِينَ
(البقرة: ٨٩).
“And when there
comes to them a Book from Allah [i.e., the Qur’ān],
confirming that
is with them [i.e., the Torah]—although from the
old they had
prayed for victory against those without faith
—when there
comes to them that which they (should)
have
recognized, they refused to believe in it; but
The occasion which led to the revelation of
the above verse is as follows: The Jews of Madinah used to threaten the Arab
idolaters, saying: “A prophet will come at the end of time and will assist us
fighting against you.” But when Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) came they denied
him, although they knew him as they knew their own sons. Allah says:
الَّذِينَ
آَتَيْنَاهُمُ الْكِتَابَ يَعْرِفُونَهُ كَمَا يَعْرِفُونَ أَبْنَاءَهُمْ
وَإِنَّ فَرِيقًا مِنْهُمْ لَيَكْتُمُونَ الْحَقَّ
وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ
(البقرة: ١٤٦).
“The People of the Book [i.e., the Jews of Madinah] know
this
[Prophet Muhammad] as they know their own sons, but some
A.Y. Ali’s
commentary on this verse is as follows:
“The People of
the Book know Muhammad
as they know
their own sons: they know him to be true
and upright:
they know him to be in the line of Abraham: they know him to correspond to the
description of the prophet foretold among themselves: but the selfishness
induces some of them to act
against their
own knowledge and conceal the truth.”
Mu‘ādh bin
Jabal told the Jews: “O Jewish people, fear Allah and become Muslims; when we
were still idolaters you used to threaten us with Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) whom you
told us about his characters and traits. Now he has come.” One of the Banū
al-Naz.īr Jewish tribe said: “The one we know
has not come yet, and Muhammad is not the one we mentioned to you.” So Allah revealed the above verse.
2. Kufr, which means
“ungratefulness”, is as in the following verse:
فَاذْكُرُونِي أَذْكُرْكُمْ
وَاشْكُرُوا لِي وَلَا تَكْفُرُونِ (البقرة: ١٥٢)
“Then
do ye remember Me; and I will remember you. Be grateful
In another verse Allah says:
وَلَقَدْ آَتَيْنَا لُقْمَانَ الْحِكْمَةَ أَنِ اشْكُرْ لِلَّهِ
وَمَنْ يَشْكُرْ فَإِنَّمَا يَشْكُرُ لِنَفْسِهِ وَمَنْ كَفَرَ فَإِنَّ
اللَّهَ غَنِيٌّ حَمِيدٌ
(لقمان: ١٢)
“We bestowed
(in the past) wisdom on Luqman: ‘Show (thy)
gratitude to
Allah’. Any who is (so grateful does so
to the
profit of his
own soul: but if any is ungrateful,
verily
Kufr which means
“disown” is as in the following verse:
ثُمَّ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ يَكْفُرُ
بَعْضُكُمْ بِبَعْضٍ (العنكبوت : ٢٥)
These
are some examples in the Qur’ān where the term كُفْر and its derivatives should be
understood and translated in its contextual meanings rather than its literal,
basic, or textual meanings. Failing to do this could mislead people. Moreover,
the term كُفْر
which
means “unbelief” and its derivatives is divided into major kufr and
minor kufr. In his book مَدَارِجُ السَّالِكِيْن
(The Ways of Path Followers) Ibn
al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah of the H...anbalī school
divided kufr into two categories: the major kufr, namely,
rejecting and denying Allah and His Messenger, and the minor kufr,
namely, committing sins, disobedience without rejecting Allah and His
Messenger. The example of minor kufr
is as in the following verse:
وَمَنْ لَمْ يَحْكُمْ بِمَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ فَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْكَافِرُونَ
(المائدة : ٤٤).
“If any do fail
to judge by (the light of) what
Allah hath
revealed, they are unbelievers.”[53]
A group of people calledجَمَاعَةُ
التَّكْفِيْرِ وَالْهِجْرَة (a
party which charge people of being unbelievers and departing from Islam) whose
leader is Shaykh Shukrī considers whoever commits a major sin as a kāfir,
an unbeliever. In his book ذِكْرَيَاتِي مَعَ جَمَاعَةِ
الْمُسْلَمِيْنَ التَّكْفِيِْر وَ ْالهِجْرَة (My Reminiscence with the Muslim group
al-Takfīr wa 'l-Hijrah) ‘Abd al-Rah.mān Abū
al-Khayr says that according to these people the Muslim rulers are unbelievers
because they do not judge according to what Allah has revealed, as mentioned in
the above verse: the people (the Muslim rulers’ subjects) are also unbelievers,
because they obey the rules which are not revealed by Allah. The ‘ulamā’
(Muslim scholars) are also unbelievers, because they do not condemn their
rulers as unbelievers. Those who reject their views are also unbelievers, even
if they accept their view but do not pay allegiance to their emir, are still
unbelievers. Those who accept the view of the founders of the Islamic schools
of law, ijmā' (the consensus of
opinions of Muslim scholars), qiyās (analogy), istih.sān (the method of finding the law which
for any reason is contradictory to the usual qiyās), and other sources
of the Sharī‘ah are all unbelievers.
This is extremity in branding the
Muslims with infidelity. Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) had warned us against
practicing this kind of accusation when he said:
مَنْ قَالَ لِأَخِيهِ
يَا كَافِرُ فَقَدْ بَاءَ بِهَا أَحَدُهُمَا
(رواه أحمد)
“Whoever
says to his brother ‘O kāfir’ it [i.e., being
Therefore,
since the accused is not a convicted apostate then the accusation will turn
back to the accuser. This is the danger of having insufficient knowledge of
Islam and making fatwā (a personal legal judgement, which should be
given exclusively by Muslim judges and scholars) out of it. An unqualified physician is dangerous to his
patients, and an unqualified ‘alim is dangerous to the Muslims.
[10] It was invented by Philipp Reis in Dec. 1861, and
called it in German, Telephon. It was applied to the electrical speaking
telephone of Alexander Graham Bell who introduced it in 1876, and to its
various modification by Elisha Gray, Edison, Hunnings, etc. See Oxford
English Dictionary, at the Clarendon Press, 1933, vol. 11, p. 150, s.v.
telephone.
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