18. OUT OF CONTEXT

18. OUT OF CONTEXT

There is no doubt that Islam is the fastest growing religion, not only because of mass conversion to it, but also because of rapid increase of already high birth rate of its followers. Even without conversion Islam would become one day the greatest religion in the world, while it is now still in the second position after Christianity. We have witnessed that many churches in the West (Europe, America and Canada) have been turned into mosques because of lack of church attendants. It is not an exaggeration that some Christians are only so by name, as they attend the church three times only in their lifetimes: (a) when they were born and brought to the church to be baptized; (b) when they got married and came by himself voluntarily to the church, and (c) when they die they are carried to the church.

 According to Pew Research Center concerning the Future of world religions on the Population Growth Projections from 2010 to 2050, the Christian world population will increase from

2.17 billion to 2.92 billion, but the percentage will remain, 31.4% of world population, whereas Islam in the same period will increase from 1.6 billion to   2.76  billion, the percentage will increase from 23.2 % to 29.7 %, so that in 2050 the number of Muslims will nearly equal the number of Christians around the world. Their number will be equal in 2070, approximately 32.3%, but in 2100 Islam (34.9%) will be ahead of Christianity (33.8%). In 2050 Muslims will make up 10% over the population of Europe, whereas in India although the Hindu religion will remain the majority, it will have the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, surpassing Indonesia.

          There is also no doubt that Islam is the most misunderstood religion, even by Muslims themselves, let alone non-Muslims. Some of the Muslims may think that the injunction of applying penalty against committed crimes should be applied individually rather than collectively, in this case, the ruler or the government. In other words, they may think that it is an individual duty rather than a collective one, so that they may take the law into their own hands. When the ruler acts slowly out of carefulness they may revolt against it and brand it an irreligious one. Although the Qur’an was revealed in بِلِسَانٍ عَرَبِيٍّ مُبِينٍ (الشعراء:195) “In the plain Arabic language” (Q. 26:195), it does not necessarily mean that everybody whose mother-tongue is Arabic can understand it clearly, because it was revealed fourteen centuries ago. Even English speaking people would have difficulty in understanding the language of the English poet and dramatist William Shakespeare (d. 1616) of the 16^th and 17^th century, let alone the language of the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400) of the 14^th century.

 One of many verses cited by non-Muslims to discredit Islam as an aggressive religion which promotes intolerance is as follows:

قَاتِلُوا الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَلَا بِالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَلَا يُحَرِّمُونَ

مَا حَرَّمَ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَلَا يَدِينُونَ دِينَ الْحَقِّ مِنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ

حَتَّى يُعْطُوا الْجِزْيَةَ عَنْ يَدٍ وَهُمْ صَاغِرُونَ (التوبة:29)

Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in

 the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden

 by Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad s.a.w.) and

those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e.,

 Islam among the people of the Scripture (Jews and

 Christians) until they pay the jizyah with willing

 submission, and feel themselves subdued. (Q. 9:29)

          This verse was revealed in the year 9^th of Hijrah when the Prophet had become the sole de facto ruler of the Arabian Peninsula. One year earlier he and his army had conquered Makkah without any resistance, and later that year subjugated the enemy at the battle of Ḥunayn, which was the last campaign. The conflict with the Quraysh idolaters had been settled as they entered into Islam. The Prophet as the head of the city-state Madinah had made a treaty with the Jewish people. Two years earlier the Jews of Khaybar were banish for their betraying the treaty.

          When the above verse was revealed there was no longer any threat or resistance or any danger from non-Muslims inside the country. It was revealed in the year called in Islamic history عَامُ الْوُفُود, “the Year of Deputation,” where over seventy delegations came to Madinah to meet the Prophet for various reasons. The delegates kept coming even after the 10^th of Hijrah. The delegates from Hawāzin and Tamīm tribes came to ask the Prophet to release the captives among their people. Others came to ask the Prophet’s guarantee of protection, that he would not attack them. Others came to express their intention to become Muslims. Some came to express their intention to pay jizyah (“protection” tax for non-Muslims instead of zakat for Muslims).  Some came to conduct a dialogue with the Prophet, such as the delegation from Christian Najrān consisting of sixty horsemen. Twenty-four among them were their chiefs, and three of them were their leaders. They were ‘Abdul Masīḥ (titled “al-‘Āqib”, “the Subsequent”) who gave advice and made decision, al-Ayham, also known as Sharahbīl (titled “al-Sayyid”, “the Master”) their leader in the journey and social gathering, and Abū Ḥārithah ibn ‘Alqamah (titled “al-Usquf”, “the Bishop”) their priest and religious leader. This Najrān tribe was big enough, consisting of 73 villages, having 100.000 men as its army.

          As the delegates did not want to embrace Islam even after the Prophet cited the Qur’an to them, they asked him about Jesus (‘Isā a.s.). The Prophet later received revelation answering the question, as follows:

إِنَّ مَثَلَ عِيسَى عِنْدَ اللَّهِ كَمَثَلِ آدَمَ خَلَقَهُ مِنْ تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ قَالَ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ.

الْحَقُّ مِنْ رَبِّكَ فَلَا تَكُنْ مِنَ الْمُمْتَرِينَ. فَمَنْ حَاجَّكَ فِيهِ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَكَ

 مِنَ الْعِلْمِ فَقُلْ تَعَالَوْا نَدْعُ أَبْنَاءَنَا وَأَبْنَاءَكُمْ وَنِسَاءَنَا وَنِسَاءَكُمْ وَأَنْفُسَنَا

وَأَنْفُسَكُمْ ثُمَّ نَبْتَهِلْ فَنَجْعَلْ لَعْنَتَ اللَّهِ عَلَى الْكَاذِبِينَ ( آل عمران:61)

Then whoever disputes with you concerning him [Jesus,

 ‘Īsā a.s.] after (all) this knowledge that has come to you

 [i.e., ‘Īsā being a slave of Allah and having no share in

divinity], say (O Muhammad): “Come, let us call our sons

 and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves

 and ourselves – then we pray and invoke (sincerely)

 the Curse of Allah upon those who lie.” (Q. 3:61)

          The next day the Prophet came with his daughter Fāṭimah, his grandsons Ḥasan and Ḥusayn to meet them, gave his answer according to the revelation, and challenged them with mubāhalah, (i.e., the act of invoking Allah for curses against whoever is not telling the truth among the two contenders, the Prophet and his daughter and grandsons on one side, and the delegations of Najrān on the other). Fearing for their lives and thinking the he might be a true prophet, they decided to cancel the mubāhalah. Instead, they remained Christians, conducted a peace treaty with him, and asked him to send them a trusted man as a judge and to collect jizyah, then returned home. It is said that both leader ‘Aqīb and al-Sayyid embraced Islam upon their return to Najrān. Islam spread among the people of Najrān the Prophet sent ‘Ali ibn Abī Ṭalib to collect zakat from the Muslims among them.

          Therefore, it is very wrong to say that the Muslims are enjoined to fight any non-Muslim based on the above verse. The above verse was revealed to indicate the second phase of Islam, to defend it from the outside threat. At that time the Romans killed people who converted to Islam in Syria. One example was Farwah ibn ‘Amr al-Judhāmī, the Roman Governor at Ma‘ān who converted to Islam. He sent a delegation to the Prophet to let him know of his conversion. The Prophet gave him a white horse in return of his conversion to Islam. The Roman emperor at that time wanted him to return to Christianity, but he rejected. He was arrested and imprisoned. Eventually, he was crucified in Palestine, and beheaded near a spring called ‘Afrā’ (عَفْرَاء).

For this reason Allah revealed the above verse to the Prophet for the first time to fight the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) in this case the army of the Christian Roman empire for their persecuting the Muslims in Syria. He called people in Madinah and surrounding areas to defend their Muslim brothers and to fight the Romans. They responded his call, and mobilized about 30.000 fighters and 10.000 horsemen. This was called in Islamic history the Tabūk expedition.

The campaign would eventually end with treaty, that they paid jizyah, namely head-tax willingly and obediently, provided that they can easily afford it.  The term jizyah literally means “a compensation” (in lieu of something else”) for the protection of non-Muslims under Muslim rule against foreign attack, especially the Romans. It is also a compensation for their being relieved from joining the Muslim army. It is for them less than what the Muslims have to pay as zakat (head tax and property tax) and others, such charity (ṣadaqah), solemn pledge (nadhr), penance for violating certain religious regulations (kaffārah), etc. Moreover, these non-Muslims under the Muslim rule called ahl al-dhimmah (people under protection), or simply dhimmī (protected person) are exempted from joining the Muslim army, and when they became old they would get assistance from the state treasury (bayt al-māl) like what Caliph ‘Umar did with poor dhimmīs. Abū ‘Ubaydah ‘Āmir ibn al-Jarrāh imposed jizyah on the people of Ḥimṣ for their protection against the Romans. When his army was infected with plague and was no longer able to protect the inhabitants of Ḥimṣ against the Roman invasion, he returned the jizyah to them.

                Some of the dhimmis are exempted from paying jizyah. They are: (a) all women (b) all males who have not reached full maturity (c) old men (d) all sick or crippled men, and (e) priests and monks. Non-Muslims citizen who voluntarily join military service are also exempted from paying jizyah. Like the Jews and the Christians the Magians also pay jizyah, because the Prophet said that they have to be treated like the people of the Book (the Jews and the Christians). All Muslim scholars agree with it. Abū Ḥanīfah said that all non-Muslims under the Muslim rule have to pay jizyah, disregarding their faiths, because, according to him, all disbeliefs belong to one religion, namely, disbelief(الْكُفْرُ كُلُّهُ مِلَّةٌ وَاحِدَة)  “all infidelity belong to one religion". Most of the followers of Imām Mālik hold this view, but according to al-Shāfi‘ī the jizyah should be imposed on exclusively the Jews, the Christians, and the Magians.  

          In conclusion, the injunction of fighting the Jews and the Christians was basically directed to the Romans among them who started hostility by persecuting Muslims in their territories. Muslims have right to defend their Muslim brothers. When the enemies surrendered they were asked to pay jizyah if they could afford it, and they did not have to pay war reparation as Germany and Japan did after the Second World War. The kind of “humiliation” and the “burden” of paying jizyah they suffered would be removed automatically when they become Muslims. Let those who used to attack Islam as an aggressive religion citing this above verse avoid it, and let those who abandon Islam based on this verse return to it.

                                                          (CIVIC, 13 November, 2015)

المصادر:

المكتبة الشاملة

تفسير الطبري (ت. 310 هـ(

تفسير القرطبى (ت. 671 هـ(

تفسير ابن كثير (ت. 774 هـ(

 : محمد أبو زهرة.(ت139هـ). زهرة التفاسير. دار الفكر العربي

Asad, Muhammad. The Message of the Qur’ān. Gibraltar: Dar al-Andalus, 1964.

Abu Khalil, Dr. Shauqi. Atlas of the Qur’ān. Riyadh, Maktaba Dar-us-Salam, 2003

https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/فروة_بن_عمرو_الجذامي

 http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/  

17. DID THE PROPHET EVER CONTRADICT THE QUR’ĀN?

17.  DID THE PROPHET EVER CONTRADICT THE QUR’ĀN?

          Did the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. ever say something contradictory to what is in the Qur’an? One of the duties of the Prophet mentioned in the Qur’an was to explain it to people. Allah says,

وَأَنْزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ الذِّكْرَ لِتُبَيِّنَ لِلنَّاسِ مَا نُزِّلَ إِلَيْهِمْ وَلَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ (النحل:44)

And We have also sent down to you (O Muhammad)

the Dhikr [reminder (i.e., the Qur’an)], that you may

 explain clearly to men what is sent down to them,

 and that they may give thought (Q. 16:44)

          The Prophet was ordered by Allah to explain the rulings, the promise and the threat mentioned in the Qur’an orally and practically. He would explain and specify what Allah mentions in general sense in the Qur’an, such as the rulings dealing with prayer, zakat and others (al-Qurṭubī’s commentary).  Allah ordered the Prophet to explain what He meant in the Qur’an, because the Prophet knew what He meant, because he adhered to it, and because he was the best of creation and the leader of the Children of Adam (Ibn Kathir’s commentary). His sayings and statements, actions and tacit approvals which we call ḥadīth (Prophet’s tradition) reach us through chains of narrators, some are reliable, and others are not. Through studying the biography of each of these narrators scholars evaluate the ḥadīth whether it is accepted as sound, or doubted, or even rejected, because of the narrators’ weak memory, dishonesty, etc.

           Before answering this question, we also learn that beside the Prophet, the Qur’an also explains itself, so that verses of the Qur’an dealing with one topic have to be studied to know which verse explain what. Therefore, there is no contradiction in the verses of the Qur’an, and those who claim its existence have not learned extensively the Qur’an and its tools known as عُلُوْمُ الْقُرْآن  (Sciences of the Qur’an). Allah does not contradict Himself in the Qur’an.

          Back to the topic, one of the ḥadīths which seems to contradict the Qur’an is as follows:

عَنْ أَبِى هُرَيْرَةَ أَنَّ النَّبِىَّ -صلى الله عليه وسلم- قَالَ « مَا

مِنْ أَحَدٍ يُدْخِلُهُ عَمَلُهُ الْجَنَّةَ . فَقِيلَ وَلاَ أَنْتَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ قَالَ

وَلاَ أَنَا إِلاَّ أَنْ يَتَغَمَّدَنِى رَبِّى بِرَحْمَةٍ  (رواه مسلم).

Abū Hurayrah narrated that the Prophet s.a.w.

said: “Nobody will enter Heaven by his deeds.” He

was asked: “Even you, O Messenger of Allah?” He

said: “Not even me,  except that my Lord protects

 me with His grace.”(Reported by Muslim)

          This means, based on this ḥadīth, despite our good deeds, our effort to enter Heaven would be without avail, except with Allah’s grace. This ḥadīth is apparently contradictory to the following Qur’anic verse:

الَّذِينَ تَتَوَفَّاهُمُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ طَيِّبِينَ يَقُولُونَ سَلَامٌ عَلَيْكُمُ

ادْخُلُوا الْجَنَّةَ بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ  (النحل:32)

Those whose lives the angels take while

they are in a pious state (i.e, pure from all evil,

and worshipping none but Allah Alone) saying

(to them): Peace be on you enter you Paradise

because of that (the good) which you used to

do (in this world).” (Q. 16:32)

          According to this verse the angel will tell pious people to enter Paradise for their good deeds in this world, either as a good tiding, or it will be said to them in the Hereafter (al-Qurṭubī’s commentary). Allah will recompense pious people who have been made good by Allah with “cleanness in their faith and purity in their practicing Islam in their lives and in their death.” (al-Ṭabarī’s commentary).

          The above ḥadīth does not object totally the validity of good deeds for the condition of entering Paradise, but rather it gives conditions and restrictions for their validity. In other words, people with good deeds in this world will not automatically enter Paradise as if they have the key of it. There are conditions for the acceptance of good deeds. Any good deed has to be done with ikhlāṣ, sincerity, for the sake of Allah Alone, not for the worldly gain, not for riyā’ (show off). It has to be done with tawāḍu‘ (humbleness, humility), that it is done for Allah’s pleasure with worry and uncertainty that He might not fully accept it, because of its shortcomings. People who fulfill these conditions would definitely enter Paradise with their good deeds as mentioned in the above verse and as promised by Allah in the Qur’an, namely, the reward of accepted good deeds will be Paradise.

          With regard to people who do good deeds without fulfilling these conditions, their good deeds will not be accepted, and therefore they will not enter Paradise, unless Allah forgives them, and this is what is meant by the above ḥadīth. Without Allah’s mercy and forgiveness, people who do good deeds with arrogance, thinking that Allah would automatically admit them to Paradise disregarding the quality of these deeds will be disappointed in the Hereafter that these deeds would not be acceptable.

          Like the Qur’an which has sciences (عُلُوْمُ الْقُرْآن) to study in order to understand it, the ḥadīth of the Prophet also has sciences  (عُلُوْمُ الْحَدِيْث)to understand it. For the asbāb al-nuzūl (occasions which led to the revelation of the verse of the Qur’an), we also have asbāb al-wurūd (occasions which led to the statement/saying/ḥadīth of the Prophet) which shall be dealt with in due course. The Ḥadīth or Sunnah[1] of the Prophet cannot be fully understood literally by people who have no background in Islamic knowledge. The Prophet had talked to different kind of people in different occasions and times about different subjects within 24 years, and it is the duty of Muslim scholars to explain what the Prophet meant in his statement, or he would be misunderstood by Muslim laymen, let alone non-Muslims who keep trying to find any shortcoming in the Qur’an.

          One of the things that hinder the progress of Islam is the presentation of Islam by people who have no sufficient background of Islam, so that they explain the ḥadīth out of context, and give their personal judgment based on it. For example, they say that Islam is the a continuous arm struggle between Muslims and non-Muslims, as the Prophet said: إِنَّ أَبْوَابَ الْجَنَّةِ تَحْتَ ظِلاَلِ السُّيُوفِ (رواه مسلم) Verily, the doors of Paradise are under the shadows of the swords (Reported by Muslim), whereas, in fact, the Prophet said it when the Muslim army are facing their enemy in the battlefield.[2] Others may think that having wealth is the opposite of piety, or zuhd, whereas poverty is the right way to the Hereafter. Some others misunderstand the term taqdīr, so that they would never try to improve their condition morally, physically, socially, economically, etc. because they associate taqdīr with fatalism.

          The late Shaykh Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (d. 1996)[3] in answering question no. 40 out of 100 questions in his book مائة سؤال عن الاسلام (One Hundred Questions about Islam, pp. 177-178) gives us more explanation about this issue. He said that misunderstanding the Sunnah of the Prophet will cause confusion among Muslims. These people, who do not know about the wisdom of the Qur’an, do not have any sense of the Arabic literature, have no knowledge of human spirit and the condition of the community, never learned extensively about the biography of the Prophet and various situations he had gone through, either favourable or miserable. They are unable to make distinction between daily routine and religious acts. For these people, what they consider the Sunnah are eating with sitting cross-legged on the floor and not at the table, brushing teeth with siwāk (a small stick used for cleaning and polishing the teeth) rather than with toothbrush, washing after urinating or defecating with stone rather than with toilet paper (and of course cleaner with water); they stick the end of their turbans outward till the napes of their necks,  they give priority to wearing white and loose garments, and for women to covering their whole body, including their faces.

          Shaykh al-Ghazīlī said further that these people consider that all customs and traditions of the Bedouin Arabs are in general the Sunnah of the Prophet. As the customs of the Arabs put women in the second position within the community in the name of Islam, they are not allowed to frequent the mosque, are not allowed to seek knowledge at schools, to participate in propagating and defending Islam in military field, etc. The case is contrary to people who fully understand the Ḥadīth of the Prophet. They know that these customs and traditions are wrong and contradictory to the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet. However, some of those who consider themselves experts of Islam defend their “self-claimed truth” fanatically, and claimed that those who are not with them to be strongly influenced by modern culture.

          According to Shaykh al-Ghazālī, although the Sunah of the Prophet is the second source of Islam after the Qur’an, in order to avoid confusion, there are some people only who are required to learn it extensively. They are the ‘ulamā’ (Muslim scholars) who have learned religious knowledge extensively, those who are involved directly with it, such as Muslim leaders, judges, dā‘iyah (Islamic propagators), and experts in the special fields where mastering the knowledge of Ḥadīth is highly required. As for laymen, if they can understand just forty ḥadīths it would be sufficient for them. In any case, people who do not understand the Qur’an should not cite ḥadīths or give fatwa (formal legal opinion) on Islam concerning the affairs of other people.

          Shaykh al-Ghazālī had ever witnessed a group of errand lads who made themselves busy in teaching the Sunnah. Then they moved to Yemen hoping that the revival of Islam would start from there. It is the revival which is extremely far away from reality in life and from the possibility of conquering the world. They might hope that some pious jinn would help them and provide them with bombs in war time and with food, clothes and medicines in peace time. He said that this is a kind of madness which has many varieties and manifests itself in many ways (الْجُنُوْنُ فُنُوْن).

                                                          (CIVIC, 6 November, 2015)

المصادر:

المكتبة الشاملة

 تفسير الطبري (ت. 310 هـ(

تفسير القرطبى (ت. 671 هـ(

تفسير ابن كثير (ت. 774 هـ(

محممد الغزالي. مائة سؤال عن الاسلام. القاهرة: نهضة مصر, الطبعة الرابعة, 2005 م

https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/محمد الغزالي

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[1] Sunnah (pl. sunan) is properly a custom or practice, and later narrowed down to the practice of the Prophet or a ḥadīth. Sunnah includes the Prophet’s sayings, deeds and tacit approvals. In this respect it is often synonymous with Ḥadīth in general sense. Sunnah dealing with legal judgment  means meritorious.

[2] A similar ḥadīth indicating that the Prophet said it when he was facing the enemy is this. He said لَا تَمَنَّوْا لِقَاءَ الْعَدُوِّ وَسَلُوا اللَّهَ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ الْعَافِيَةَ فَإِذَا لَقِيتُمُوهُمْ فَاصْبِرُوا وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ الْجَنَّةَ تَحْتَ ظِلَالِ السُّيُوفِ (رواه البخاري و مسلم و أحمد و أبو داؤد و غيرهم)  “… do not wish to meet the enemy, and ask Allah the Almighty well-being, so when you meet them be patient, and be informed that Paradise is under the shadows of swords …” (Re[ported by al-Bukhārī, Muslim, Abū Dū’ūd, Aḥmad and others)

[3] Shaykh Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (1335-1416/1917-1996) was an Egyptian Muslim scholar and thinker, and one of prominent and influential Muslim scholars of the 20^th century who called for Islamic concepts in modern time and opposed religious extremism and exaggeration. He wrote over fifty books, and his criticism over the ruling systems in the Muslim world was one of many problems he was facing during his stay in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.