By
Muhammad ibn Katebur Rahman
(Truth is from Allah, errors are from man and Satan,
The hand only expresses, the mind only receives, the heart realizes)
Bismillah
Preface
Praise be to our Loving Lord, giver of love, mercy and the feeling of ecstasy in our lives, and peace be upon our glorious Leader Prophet Muhammad and his true companions and may Allah mercy and forgive all the Muslims whose repentance is sincere. This book is a collection of paragraphs dealing with various issues of religion. May this book, by Allah’s help, be a help to minimizing our differences and accelerate our long needed unity. May Allah give us understanding and guidance. Amen
Bismillah
Wisdom of Islam on:
Science
Para 1
Islam doesn’t prohibit using medicines because diseases are created by Allah and so are cures for all diseases. The only thing is to identify what constitutes a disease and the best cure for such a disease. There are three types of medical approach: the accurate one where you know the disease and the cure for it, the probable one where you know the disease and the best cure from other probable cures, and the disease where there is no cure yet discovered by men. The example of first type is as pinpointed by Prophet (saas) "...You should not torture your children by treating tonsillitis by pressing the tonsils or the palate with the finger, but use incense." (Bukhari) The example of the second type is ‘The best medicines you may treat yourselves with are cupping and sea incense.’ (Bukhari) And the example of the last is ‘The Prophet allowed the treatment of poisonous sting with Ruqya (reciting Sura fatihah)." (Bukhari) But question is, are the medicines which prophet (saas) applied in His time specific to His time and that no other better medicine shall be discovered or not? It is absolutely possible that Allah may reveal to Prophet (saas) a certain cure which is specific for a certain disease specific to His time. It is because complicated medicines and treatments weren’t accessible at the time of Prophet (saas). Why do I say such a thing? I say this because extreme people in Muslims may absolutely bar use of modern medicines thinking that those medicines of the time of Prophet (saas) are the only medicines. This stance of these extremists will torture many innocent patients including children and women. Our failure to do research in medicines cannot be a reason for leaving use of advanced medicines, well in fact our leader Prophet Muhammad (saas) had given us a massive head start in medical front which we have failed to benefit from.
Para 2
The nourishment of the intellect comes with self study, knowledge of Allah, philosophy and logic. Without nourishment the intellect loses basic principles for intellectual dialogue, and religious studies.
Para 3
Legally, inability can be defined as the absence of mental and/or physical power or strength by which to advance actions or begin to advance it intentionally and by determination, and that which if coerced to attain this advancement in either mental or physical front harms the person by disabling him from mental activism and/or physical activism resulting necessary laziness, stagnation and hopelessness, highly probable of mental and/or physical harm even if the will arises for an action in this person he is unable to realize it (without coercing himself-under normal state) in determination and/or activation.
Para 3
Knowledge imparting is like building a building where you put bricks and frames architecting the design how it should be put and what it should look like at end. There are many buildings we see and not all of them have a good design or a good layer of bricks put in to it so it may look ugly and it may be weak and break down yet all these are bricks and layers and cements. Universities can make buildings of knowledge like this and they can also make buildings with grand design and strong frame. This is what differentiates universities from universities that are how it has put such bricks and cements and frames to erect a building of knowledge (which are courses, departments, way of teachings, books and lectures i.e. the total methodology of educational atmosphere). Looking at the creation of Allah will enlighten us even more how HE has created everything with design and beauty. Scholars must take an example from Allah's creation in formulating universities and university curriculum in its entirety. We can't just throw some books and lecture some ideas and sayings from these books to students, or prolong their study methods or study hours. The result will be a building with a bad look (incomplete knowledge) and weak frame (i.e. weak mind of the pupils).
God
Para 4
If attributing Allah literally takes to physical division of His oneness then such attributes are taken in the metaphorical sense.
Para 5
God is free completely from the creation by genus or by singularity or by specifics, so for example if we take certain attributes in the literal sense it may necessitate the similarity by genus, for example Hand of God. We can say then the similarity by genus is that of body. If it is said that God has a hand unlike the creation then we are proposing dissimilarity in the specifics and singularity, but not by genus which is body. But some may say that just as we say Life of God unlike life of creation, so to Hand of God unlike hand of creation (i.e. humans). This is an improper analogy (qiyas maa Fariq). Where is the basis of analogy in the former? In the later the basis was body unlike in the former. Because some things do not fall under genus, such is the case of mercy, or life. Rather something exist in conjunctions and some individually. Life of human for example exists in conjunction of body, organs, blood, and lastly soul etc. Life of God however doesn’t exist in conjunction as that would make interdependence in God’s Being, so Life of God exists singularly, the reality of which we do not know and can never know. So God’s attributes are known firstly from His names which are positive attributes, then His attributes are known by negation which are attributes from the mutashabihat (allegorical) verses, and the basis of this ‘’knowledge by negation’’ is ‘’There is none like unto Him’’ (verse from holy Quran). Then His attributes are known by taking verses on their non-literal sense which if were taken literally would make His attribute/s similar to creation, and the proof of that is ‘And none knows its taweel except Allah...’’ (verse...). But this doesn’t give us an absolute permission to search for the correct interpretation. Lastly understanding of His attributes is known always in the minimal way due to our lack of understanding and the proof is ‘’Vision grasps Him not...’’ (verse...)
Para 6
We cannot possibly understand Allah's existence in absolutely full sense; neither can we come to explain His essence and attributes in the full sense. Whatever then is between Him and us in relation to His self and our mind then it is always incomplete in perception because of the limit of our mind and limit of our language. What then we need to do when our language is limited yet we want to know about Allah correctly as allowed by our mind? We then form concepts on the basis of multiplicity of language combinations, rather than abiding by a singularity of language. So when Allah wants to express an intended meaning through language, and such language has more than one meaning one used more than other one, yet the intended meaning is the less used one what are we to do? We need to take three steps as stated by the theologians of Ahl Sunnah wa jamah the followers of Imam Ashari and they are: understanding context of the language, evidence of other texts, or analogy. This is only then when the evident meaning of the language if taken will be improper for Allah, such as taking Hand of Allah in the literal sense.
Para 7
Know this that the Ahl Sunnah has stated that some attributes exalts Allah and some if attributed to Him belittles Him, thus they stated attributes of perfection and attributes of imperfection, necessarily, the mind perceives it. For example the Saq, which is attributed to Allah, how come when human is said to have one saq it points to a defective human, is attributed to Allah?! It is more befitting that He be not attributed with a Saq in the literal sense, because it contradicts the necessary exaltation of Allah, by the mind. You claim that just as human has mercy, so too Allah has mercy, thus just as human has hand, so too Allah has hand, but without how, and this is not tashbeeh. It is what you say to us. Know this that, the effect of attribute is different from having the attribute, thus we see that there are some who has been shown mercy by Allah, which points to His mercy, just as created points to His creativity, unlike having hands, eyes, saq, face, body, laughter, fingers, palm, settlement. That is to say it is possible for some attributes (of Allah) to be there without it being similar to the humans, because we see the effect of such attribute, and it entails anthromorphism, if certain attributes are said to be possessed by Allah, thus for the sake of exaltation and escape from belittling Allah, necessarily, literalism must be rejected.
Para 8
Every word has a reality in our existence, words which express a meaning, thus every attribute has a reality in our existence. How then such attributes we can connect and apply for Allah, the One true God, if its reality is connected to human existence? Will not it then imply a resemblance of God to our reality? The answer is no, it won’t because the premise ‘’every attribute has a reality in our existence’’ doesn’t necessarily mean, every attribute has its root in our existence. There are attributes which are rooted from God, and God has imparted an idea regarding it in our existence, so we may understand it such as the seven attributes of God. There are yet attributes which are rooted from our existence solely for our existence which when applied to God necessitate interpretation to live up with the Highness of God, such as attributes of hand, face, eye, laughter etc. So attributes are rooted from God’s reality and its partial image is applied to our existence so we may know God, and attributes which are rooted from our existence and applied to God in an indirect metaphorical way so we may understand the intention of such. The orthodox Islamic scholars of the ashaira school of thought by Allah’s mercy and guidance have understood this and thus they have named attributes of perfection and attributes of imperfection. So ponder well.
Para 9
If the lexical (literal) meaning of a word is allowed to be decided by the authority of custom usage of people then it is more entitled to be decided by the custom usage (urf) of the intellect, because intellect is more precise and authoritative than social custom, so for example if a certain scholar interprets the Hand of Allah, for example as His power then we should never say it is heresy, because the custom of the rational mind find it detesting to give Allah a literal sense of the hand, and so on.
Para 10
The scope of meaning of language or for that matter words can be extended through conceptual extrapolations and broadening and thus language is not only limited to usage in a certain dimension of concepts and perception. This is general rule of language but not universally applicable in a certain language's mode of activity because that would call for changes of the established basics, and also denying this as a general rule would call for the end of conceptual extrapolation and new perceptible entities through this language. For example "hand" can be used as hand with flesh and bone but if we apply the general rule then it can be used in many other situations and frame-set of concepts and perceptions.
Para 11
Laws of creation doesn't bind or is applicable on Allah for He is beyond all limitations thus when Allah wills that He interacts with His creation He creates conditions which may or may not be understood by created beings. Such will be the way of His vision by the believers as stated in Hadeeth as Ashari school of thought has hinted to.
Soul
Para 12
The nature of sin in connection with the human soul is in two ways: The face of conflict and the face of habit. The face of conflict is when a human yearns for a sin yet his inner self yearns not to do it thinking it as evil then at this point between doing and not doing rises the face of conflict and the jihad of nafs (self struggle). If he succeeds then he has won in defeating evil for a while. The other type is when human does sin whenever it comes up without there, rising a conflict in him and this point is the point of habit when he does it without an inner struggle, and this is the phase when he starts losing the consciousness of evil as evil, and evil becomes to him another type of human freedom. In Holy Quran there is three types of human self: the self which is compliant with the will of Allah, obeying Him and finding the pleasure in obedience and righteousness, this is the point of the self dissolving itself with good. The other is the self in struggle i.e. point of conflict and the last is the evil self, i.e. the habitual self. The two extremes are decided by the self depending on the basis of the point of struggle. Allah has made many ways and many escapes for us to attaining the positive extreme from the point of struggle, for example he has made lawful marriage to leave the sexual evils, he has made many food lawful to leave the evil resulting from food and wasting, he has made many systems of religion to check the appearance of evil in human societies and human self and this is the practical law of Islam dealing with human social existence. The existence is the war between the Satan and the Righteous, between good and evil. This is the universal cause of our existence and the point which makes us the ally of Satan or of Righteous, is the worship of Allah. Allah has thus ordained the universal system of Divine bondsmanship so that we, man attain the victory over evil, and this system of Divine success is the religion of Allah, His formula for the soul to attain its goal. So we have the system of Islam and the system of non-Islam, the existence of Islam and the existence of non-Islam. Whatever conflict exists is between good and evil, and the nature of conflict is determined by the balance of Islam in practical implementation and the balance of non-Islam in practical implementation. Islam in this sense the Divine religion from Adam till Muhammad (saas), i.e. the obedience to divine will. The universal goal of humanity is thus his return to this Divine Will thereby attaining the success of loftiest peace and ecstatic pleasure in their selves.
Servitude of the Divine
Para 13
All religions almost speak about moral good and justice and self purification but by destroying the essence of human nature and failing to uphold the balance of human mind and emotions, individual and society, due to its lack of understanding and vision. Only Islam has a guidance universal dealing with moral virtues, human nature, justice, society, existence, and most important God, as to say Islam has given the universal balance for human existence. A religion which is from God is far greater than religion which is from men's follies and emotional responses, such as Christianity, Judaism, or Hinduism etc.
Para 14
The ultimate gift of worship in this world is inner peace and inner pleasure, which many may not acquire except whom Allah wills. Indeed worship is the relationship between you and Allah and as we see depth of relationship varies among humans so too it varies with Allah. This inner peace is ecstasy, and vision of enlightenment, where as the inner pleasure is continuous rejoice and joy. This cannot be obtained unless one worships Allah with balance and correct framework of worship without extremism or laxity. Understanding of the universal frame of Islamic worship is a necessity. Only correct Sufism can probably be a help to this.
Para 15
Just as the capability of the physical form of humans is limited even though the intent for action is there so too the mind/heart of the human has its capability limited even though there is the intent of further inner decisions resulting in to actions. That is why human self can attain ''malal'' (boredom) as stated in hadeeth in Bukhari, while dictating that ''actions are done as much as is able''. Therefore we shouldn't force anyone or irritate anyone by continuous or regular sermons and/or advices of religious deeds.
Para 16
Any blessing or mercy Allah has done on His servants generally or specifically, essentially or suddenly must be thanked. This thanking is then an act of worship whose norm must be established by Holy Quran or Sunnah Saheeh (established), free from disagreement as to its validity. A general blessing or mercy such as giving us two eyes, or marriage partner and so on and also the specific mercy or blessing must be thanked generally/specifically through obeying Allah's Commands and also by doing established voluntary acts such as tahajjud (night) prayer, fasting, or being charitable. As to specific blessing or mercy the thanking is given in the specific day the blessing was or mercy was given such as the night of Miraj when Allah made our prayer from 50 to 5 times and so on, on the condition that the worshipper remembers the blessing or mercy and acts on it, without any belief attaching to his thanking as to being prescribed in the Holy Quran or Sunnah directly unless it is done so. So for example one cannot believe that thanking in the night of Miraj ascent), is established Sunnah, and so on. Any new form of worship and new way of discharging it cannot be made in to Islam. This is heresy.
Ethics
Para 17
Men are superior to women in position, authority and dominance. All of these words are somewhat in the same degree but implication of these words has sharp differences. Most verses which demand discharge of a duty are directed to the male sex in the Holy Quran showing greater role and importance of the male sex, even including the matters regarding women such as the inheritance, for example in Surah Nisa the wording used by Holy Quran regarding female inheritance is ''wa lahun'' in the third person sense while as male ''wa lakum'' in the second person sense. These shows among other verses of Holy Quran that Male are superior in position and authority. One more example is the verse 19 of the same Sura, even Allah commands male not to inherit women forcefully ''la tarisu nisa karha..'' but doesn’t say ''la yarisukun rijal karha'' meaning, the men shouldn’t inherit you forcefully, or similar to it, thus showing the superiority of male sex in human existence, in position and authority.
Para 18
Marriage is a blessing of Allah which breaks boundaries and maps, social classes and colour, because it is based on love which Allah has placed in our hearts and the love is best safe guarded in a pious bond where the man and woman are Islamic and humble to Allah. But there are people these days who do not believe in such wholly. Such people are destroying the mutuality of human race and their affirmation towards the servitude to Allah.
Para 19
Verily this religion of ours teaches us good behaviour and self dignity. Today when a Muslim talks with a westerner he/she talks in great awe thereby losing his/her dignity and religious pride but when a westerner talks with one of us he/she doesn't lose her western dignity and doesn't give in to awe and behavioural glorification. Our children must be taught to attain dignity by teaching them the greatness of Allah, the proud history of Islam and Muslims. Without our religious dignity what are we? A Muslim needs to realize that the power and wealth they posses are temporal and Allah given, and the style and culture which come forth from such wealth and power are arrogance and denial (of humility).
Para 20
People taste of women through marriage then they come to know their luxury and taste. This taste is fuelled by some other factors. Firstly it is in human nature to desire women, yet this desire has some catalysts where this desire is fuelled and men seek to rush to taste women. To ease accessibility to this taste people form groups and perform organized crime through women trafficking or governments allow brothels. It is not in the dignity and honour of Muslim women to be a tool in being a food of these hungry men. Their honour and dignity must be safeguarded. Muslim women cannot be the catalysts that will fuel men's desires thus they must be under veil and their movements restricted. It is from herself to safeguard her for her true love i.e. husband and it is on the Islamic leader of the state to impose law of veiling on its women citizens so that organized crime cannot find its way in this nation by preying on women, attracted towards them by their manifestation of beauty. All technological means as well as social and economical means by which women may be exposed to be a lure for men must be cleverly and diligently halted by the Islamic state. A just and wise leader will do that in this age.
Para 21
The matrimonial bond is dissolution. This bond is validated by law of Allah, and this dissolution is the unity of two souls through the pleasure of sex starting with admiration and foreplay. All other except this is not dissolution but annihilation. Thus only matrimonial sex must be sought by the human kind.
Para 22
Islam is a religion of balance which necessitates justice in the entire picture of its essence. For example a virgin girl is not allowed to marry without her guardian's permission, and also the Islamic judge must break the marriage of a virgin girl which she was forced to do from her guardian. What does this hold of balance? Well without the permission of her guardian would mean that she doesn't marry out of haste to someone she chooses, and virgin girls may do it out of impatience of their lust or desire or knowing the first impression of manly love which can be deceptive, thus her guardian who is wiser than her in such a matter holds the right to deny her permission when she wants to marry someone who may seem to be good and nice to her. Also the guardian may not force her to marry because the prophet (saas) broke such a marriage. It is her right to enjoy the marriage life and live in peace thus she will marry one she loves and her guardian will permit her when they think such a man is truly loved and loves her. Such is an example of balance in the most important part of human existence: marriage.
Para 23
Man's mind must be free from the subjugation of woman and her deceptions, because man must lead and leadership cannot be attained through subjugation. That is why Man is Qawwam (absolutely authoritative) on women.
Law
Para 24
A mazhab (school of Islamic legal thought) is based on years of evolved principles which culminate a body of Islamic intellectual heritage. The furu (sub branch) of mazhab (school of Islamic legal thought) can only be abandoned when it directly contradicts the purpose of an well established saheeh hadeeth, and that this hadeeth has no disagreement in its being saheeh, and/or when a furu of a mazhab has a weaker prove than that of another mazhab, a prove which is decisive in its weakness, and strength. Being able to realize this is the act of Mujtahid among other acts.
Para 25
Mazhab is the majority agreement of scholars on a certain issue or ruling whether legal, judicial, theological or historical.
Para 26
When the jurist face a certain issue then he needs to connect the risen issue with the Islamic Texts of Holy Quran and must try to understand the purpose of the root legislation of Allah regarding the issue at hand. So the jurist will break down an issue in many parts through questioning and comparison of the issue and then elaborate these broken parts in the light of the Texts.
Para 27
To follow a mazhab is to follow the usool (principles) of that mazhab and this can only be done by scholars thus only scholars can follow a mazhab in the sense of understanding inferred opinions in that mazhab as well as giving new opinions, based on those usool of this mazhab. One who thus understands the inferred opinions and pass down fatwa by it is not a mujtahid but a mufti and one who does both is a mujtahid.
Theology
Para 28
The one who understands religion free from rationalism will not understand it and the one who understands religion purely on basis of rationalism will destroy it and one who understands religion with the balance of rationalism and non-rationalism will understand it as much as Allah wills. The ashaira is the only sect who has been able to done so and the ashaira as religious sect based on the ashaira as the intellectual sect is the sect who has understood religion properly, Allah willing. Those who name themselves ashairas from the misguided Sufis and other deviant religious sects are sects which are not based on the intellectual Ash’arism.
Para 29
The service of Islam stands on three fronts and only the united cooperation of Muslims can serve these three fronts and they are: Defence of Islam (intellectual, political and armed), Islah (purification of the Muslim mind, soul and thoughts and actions by calling them to Islam and worship of Allah sincerely and with simplicity free from extremism and burden), and Dawah (Preaching Islam to non-Muslims with knowledge and vast wisdom and cleverness).
Para 30
One of many form of extremism in the name of Islam is that choosing and acting on some part of Islam and leaving or forgetting other parts thinking it as not important or other way of denial, and seeing down with contempt to those who do not follow this way. This is a cause of sectarianism. Our approach to religious duty must be clear-viewed and flexible in adopting without twisting its importance and value.
Para 31
Almost all of the commands of Holy Quran and Sunnah relates to the mind and the body. The obligatory ones relate to the benefit of Mind and body which we may come to understand or not and the forbidden ones relate to the two also but in the negative way of which we may come to perceive or not. For example, music is forbidden and it is considered an entertainment yet also some companions played chess yet it is also a type of entertainment but the effect of the two on the mind is different that is why one is forbidden and the other is permissible but the question is, does our understanding or realization of the mind and body benefit and harm, make a law obligatory or permissible or forbidden or not? The answer is: no.
Para 32
Preaching is the dialogue of the minds where one mind is in conflict with the other or is in submission. When there is a submission the preaching is a success and when there is conflict then the success is either in submission or in the intellectual win over the opposite. The example of the submission would be a preacher calling a person to Islam and he submits realizing the light of Islam, and the example of the conflict would be when a preacher engages with a person who either submits or has his intellectual position intellectually defeated through arguments and reasoning. There is no place of force or stubbornness in preaching except that it takes time and varies from mind to mind and society to society and class to class. Preaching is then an art.
Para 33
The theology of Ashari (orthodox Islam) is defensive and negative ensuring that Allah doesn't resemble creation and this is a defence of God's Highness, where as the theology of the today salafis sect)is positive and affirmative not drawing the line between the creation and Creator thereby making it difficult for the general masses to digest the concept of Creator. The belief of the early theologians among Tabeen and Companions was in the general norm that of belief in what Allah has affirmed His self without adding the word Haqiqi or Majazi, even though some companions were well versed about Allah's Names and attributes such as Ali, Ibn Abbas.
Politics
Para 34
All change, revolution and leap starts in the mind, in the working of the thoughts. Therefore our Islamic intellectuals must have a mind of activism and not passivism because passivism hazes our thoughts and makes us ignorant about the threats and our enemies. Activism in the mind is the resistance from the mind and thoughts resulting in actions and deeds.
Para 35
The rise of the khawarij relates to a certain political and social context of Muslims and these ignorant rebels were breakers of peace and stability. Are we to relate the Islamic political activists or parties today in that category where as today what we need is a political entity of Muslim intellectuals to represent Islam as a government and religion and way of life. Are these political entities rebels and breakers of peace and stability or are the Arab leaders the cause of chaos and instability in Muslim lands? If they are the reason and they are, then how to deal with them? Through violence or through means of politics and diplomacy? The latter is what is conforming to Islam. We can only bring the end of Islamic parties through violence. That is why Islamic parties of the world cannot be ruled by fools and ignorant just as khawarij were. It must be lead by people who champions piety and knowledge of the two worlds.
Para 36
All Sunnis must help the Iranian government and vice-versa. This help is very spacious. This help and support includes among most important aspects economic, military and political. The Iranians and the Sunnis will form an alliance on conditions where Iranians will help Sunnis establish Sunni rule on Sunni land and Sunni won't interfere in Iran or Lebanon, or Shia Iraq territory. We cannot support the enemy of Islam i.e. the Israel and USA against Iran neither Iran will support any other nation or itself against us.
Education
Para 37
Knowledge is two types: innovative or creative, and informative. A good scholar is one who innovate knowledge from informative knowledge. For example history is informative knowledge and making a claim and judgment on history is innovative knowledge. Our students must learn to be creative along with being informative. Thus our system of Islamic education is to be based on mental variablelism where we need mental stability and longevity of constancy for the thinking mind, on the subjects of knowledge.
