Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wa salat wa salam ala Rasulullah

“Oh Allah. Make my best day be the Day of Judgment- the Day I meet You.

Allahumma salli ala Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim.
Alhamdulillahi rabbil Alameen. Ameen.
–

‘Imrān ibn Khālid said, “I heard al-Ḥasan saying, ‘A person’s religion is not completed until his intellect is perfected.’” [Al-‘Aql wa Faḍlih / 17]

Aḍ-Ḍaḥḥāk said, “‘That it (the Qur’ān) may give warning to him who is living’ 36:70, (refers to) the one with intellect.” [Al-‘Aql wa Faḍlih / 30]

The above quotes do not talk about knowledge, nor do they talk about memorizing- they speak about Intellect.

Intellect (‘Aql) is not simply something you are born with. It can be acquired. The best method is to employ key questions to hone one’s intellect. This requires asking not just general questions, but specific questions, increasing in nuance, increasing in detail, increasing in intellectual honesty and increasing in sincerity to truth. There is no room for reductionism. The more meaningful questions you ask, the more knowledge is drawn to you.

The following are guiding questions and lines of thinking which help one dig out the gems of the deen and to help you arrive at seeing through the lens of islam. They represent the foremost Islamization, the best ways to tarbiya and contemplation and developing the mental reality of Islam, the social and psychological world of the deen and the akhira.

When you learn something of Islam, whether it is a lecture, book or conversation keep asking yourself these questions:


-What if this never happened or was slightly different in some way? How would that affect the outcomes? Ex: If the Quran hadn’t mentioned the provisions and rights for women, or Ahlul Kitab?

-What is the depth of this? Is there something deeper being said? What do the words mean? Did I mishear what was said or misread what was said, and understood something else? (Sometimes you mishear something, and it is more profound than what the person actually said)

-Notice the language and context, also notice what is missing or not being mentioned and why that may be?

-When you read a hadith, put yourself in the position of the Sahabi or Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. If you were the speaker of this hadith, what had to have taken place in you or your life for those words or actions to come about (at that moment)? 2 examples: Consider the story of Abu Bakr when Nabi salallahu alayhi wasalam died and he said, “If you worship Muhammad know that he is dead, but if you worship Allah, know that He is eternal” and his quoting the Quran.

-How would this verse come to be? Why did Allah see the need to mention this in the Quran? Where in the world does this ayah relate? Search for the wisdom, not interrogate with a conclusion already in mind, but rather search for that conclusion…the reality of the verse. Ex: Consider the ayahs about the sun and the moon. Or the verses about hijab not being a word-for-word description. Doesn’t ease come from the broad nature of verses, and isn’t it often the most stubborn who wish the Quran were more specific?

-Not to read hadith and the words of the pious, openly and freely for feel-good purposes, but to read them with certain ideas or trends in mind, seen from other hadiths and then look for trends, or themes; as you read to discover, build up and clarify themes in Islam and Sunnah- to look for certain ideas and thereby, have a way in which you can discover and distinguish new themes that are related or indirectly related, and others which seem opposite but aren’t (you may create your own explanation to placate your misunderstanding, which may seem like a threat to your faith)- if you keep reading and thinking you’ll understand them sooner or later. And the more you do this, the closer you get to the spiritual reality of those who wrote those words. You can come to embody the eman of the author.

Reading generates a mental representation, or gist, of the text, which serves as an evolving framework for understanding subsequent parts of the text. As we read further, we test this evolving meaning and monitor our understanding, paying attention to inconsistencies that arise as they interact with the text. We come to texts with purposes that guide our reading, taking a stance toward the text and responding to the ideas that take shape in the conversation between the text and the self.
Reading does not simply understand facts; rather it’s a complex process of problem solving in which the reader works to make sense of a text not just from the words and sentences on the page but also from the ideas, memories, and knowledge evoked by those words and sentences.
Reading is influenced by situational factors, among them the experiences readers have had with particular kinds of texts and reading for particular purposes. And just as so-called good or proficient readers do not necessarily read all texts with equal ease. SOURCE

This is extremely important because words can only convey so much, and in writing, authors often forget or miss crucial aspects. They conceptualize it textually differently then they conceptualize it privately, to themselves. You will therefore get nowhere if you read mindlessly but will only enrich yourself if you read actively, participate with the text and try your best to pull out the different meanings.

Subhana kallahumma wa bihamdika ash-haduana la illaha illa ant astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk, ameen.

Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wa salat wa salam ala Rasulullah

Al-Khatib in Tarikh Baghdad, Ibn al-Jawzi in Manaqib Ahmad, al-Dhahabi in the Siyar and the Mizan and others related that Imam Ahmad wept to the point that he passed out upon hearing the discourse of the Sufi Shaykh, al-Harith al-Muhasibi for the first time. Al-Dhahabi comments: “The chain of this report is sound, and yet I can’t believe this on the part of Imam Ahmad!”

So who was this Sufi Shaykh? And what was so powerful about his words that Imam Ahmad (rahimullah) wept so hard that he fainted?

Read below for yourself from these select excerpts from Imam Zaid’s translation and commentary on Risala al-Mustarshideen (Treatise for the Seekers of Guidance). I highly suggest you purchase it and take the time to read through it! Alhamdulillah, Imam Zaid draws from a countless number of sources, from hadith to sayings of the Sahabas, Salaf, wives of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, Sufis, and drawing from scholars such as Ibn Qayyim, Ibn Rajab, Imam Shawkani, Imam Nawawi, Imam Ahmad, Imam al-Jurjani, Imam ash-Shafi’i, Imam Ghazali, Imam al-Marwadi and many more.

Indented and bolded are from Imam Muhasibi, the rest is commentary from Imam Zaid commentary/notes

—

He was born into a wealthy family. However, his father was a Qadarite, or one who rejected God’s ordainment as being the ultimate determining factor in human actions. Because of this, he broke relations with his father and urged him to divorce is mother, as in al-Muhasibis view his father had left Islam. He would subsequently move from his fathers house, and reject the considerable inheritance his father left for him upon his death, thereby exposing himself to a life of poverty. His stance demonstrates the depth of his personal convictions, and his firm belief that his father was astray.

The fulcrum of Imam al-Muhasibi’s moral psychology is God-consciousness as a phenomenon that manifests itself in purposeful actions. As the locus of God-consciousness is the heart, a human being aspiring to live a righteous life mu first cleanse and condition his heart so that it is a fitting receptacle for the moral messages that will then allow it to properly direct the limbs. The centrality of God consciousness in his schemes augmented by his view of asceticism. He saw detachment is necessary if we are to truly know and serve God, for the world, when overly indulged in, prevents us from His service annd veils us from His knowledge. Over indulgence in the world also empowers both our lower desires and Satan in their struggle to prevent us from realizing true servitude to God. It is only when our hearts are detached from the world that we gain mastery over Satan and our lower desires and are thus able to fully serve and worship God.

If one studies al-Muhasibi’s Risala one will find little difference between its style and that exhibited by Imam Ibn Taymiyya in works such as’his commentary on Shaykh ‘Abdul Qadir Jilanis, Futuh alGhayb (Openings to the Unseen Realities),’ Amrad al-Qulub wa Shifa’uha (The Diseases of the Hearts and Their Cures) or similar writings. Likewise, works such as Imam Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s, Kitab al-Ruh (The Book of the Spirit), Madarij al-Salikin (The Upward Leading Paths of the Spiritual Travelers), and many of his other works, differ little from Imam al-Muhasibi’s Risala. Sections of some of Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali’s works, such as Lata’ifal-Ma’arif fi ma li Mawasim al-A’mm min al-Wadha’if {The Subtleties of Knowledge concerning what Each Season Contains of Religious Duties), and Jami’ al-Ulum w’al-Hikam (The Compendium of Knowledge and Wisdom), employ most of the elements utilized by al-Muhasibi so effectively in many of his works.

SELECTED SAYINGS OF IMAM AL-MUHASIBI

‘One who rectifies his inner self with an awareness of God’s surveillance and sincerity; God adorns his outer self with devotional acts and adherence to the prophetic way {Sunnah)”

If half of humanity were to come towards me [in friendship], I would find no conviviality in that. And if the other half were to turn away from me I would feel no alienation in their distancing themselves from me.”

He said concerning the hadith, “The best of sustenance is that which suffices.” “That is the basic provision, which comes day to day, and you do not worry about the sustenance of tomorrow.”

“Anyone divested from the world finds his divestment in proportion to his knowledge, his knowledge in proportion to his intellect, and his intellect in proportion to the strength of his faith.

“Knowledge bequeaths fear, divestment from the world bequeaths comfort, and gnosis bequeaths self criticism.

‘The basis of obedience is impeccability. The basis of consciousness is God-consciousness. The basis of Godconsciousness is [balancing between] fear and hope. and the basis of those two is knowledge of the promise and the threat.’

“Good character is bearing abuse, rarely becoming angry, a pleasant face, and sweet speech.”

“Everything has an essence. The essence of a human being is his intellect, and the essence of his intellect is patience.

If you do not hear the caller to God, how can you answer his call?

“The oppressor is remorseful even if people praise him. The oppressed is safe even if people condemn him. The content person is wealthy even if he owns [plenty].”

“One who does not thank God for a blessing has called for its eradication.”

“The best person is one who does not a! allow his Hereafter to preoccupy him from his worldly affair nor does he allow his worldly affair to preoccupy him from his Hereafter”

“The tribulation of the seeker of the world is the idling of his heart from remembrance of the Hereafter.

‘Whoever emerges from the authority of fear into the haughtiness of security [from God's decree], the paths the places of [his] ruin have been greatly expanded.”

People differ in worldly divestment in proportion to the soundness of [their] intellects, and the purity of [their] hearts. The most virtuous are the most intelligent and those who best understand God.’


More excerpts and quotes:

This is what Imam al-Muhasibi means when he urges us to believe in those obscure scriptural statements. One of the best positions concerning such verses is conveyed to us from Imam Shafi’i. It is related that he said, “I believe in God and in what comes to us from God as God intended it. And I believe in the Messenger of God and in what comes to us from the Messenger of God as he intended it.’

Be ever mindful of the commandments and prohibitions of God. The Muslim is “one who keeps other Muslims safe from his hand and his tongue, and the believer is the one who keeps all people safe from his wickedness.”

Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wa salat wa salam ala Rasulullah

Breath in (yes, it’s a play on words with the title of this post, not a typo!) and out and imagine the sound of your breathing as if it were the breath of the Noble Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. How did that feel? The world is a truly beautiful and remarkable place, but when you breathed in and out like that, imagining the breath of the Prophet Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam to be similar, you probably felt your world shift a little. How different your world would be if the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam were among us!

How drastically does your conception of the world, of reality, of your very experience change when you realize, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam walked this Earth and the Sahabas after him, to the Muslims up until today. The world takes on a wholly new meaning, when you are conscious of the fact Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam walked this Earth. Jibril alayhi salam showed Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam his true form, with his countless wings filling the horizon…it has been 1,400 years since the time of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and history has documented how drastically the Nubuwah of Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam has shaped the world and yet we still won’t know the extent of his (salallahu alayhi wasalam’s) true form until we see him on Yawmul Qiyamah as an Intercessor for humanity before Allah.

In our society we view the world as largely utilitarian; having imbibed the Western views of the world every structure has some function. Nature is there for our taking. But consider Nabi salallahu alayhi wasalam’s mere presence and how the palm tree would miss the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam when he stopped making khutbah near it, or now the rocks and stones made sujud to him when he visited Syria as a young boy or how the mountain of Uhud trembled out of love, (hadith: Qatadah reported from Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: Allah’s Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Uhud is a mountain which loves us and which we love.”) The whole landscape of the world is transformed in its meaning when you consider the stature of Nabi salalallahu alayhi wasalam, the best of creation. The meaning is one of connectedness, a sense of home, a sense of community with all of creation and history, and there is a majesty in this, especially in how the natural world, the awliya, the Prophets, and the angels congregate around the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and find their truest, fullest and purest expression (of what they are) in the life of Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam. It is in Nabi Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam’s life do we find our part in the story of the universe. And it is only then do we really feel some ease. This is why tawakkul (trust in Allah) comes easy to the believers.

“And as one who invites unto Allah by His permission, and as a lamp that gives light (Sirajum-Munira).” (Holy Qur’an, 33:46)

It is best put in the words of the Quran, that Nabi salallahu alayhi wasalam is Sirajum Muneera, one who has illuminated the way. Light is not simply a metaphor for guidance but also a reality. Nabi salallahu alayhi wasalam is also described as Rahmatil lil-alameen, as a Mercy to the Worlds, where his guidance, and blessedness extends to both the macro and micro-level and to areas we cannot even consider. The world is awash in the light of Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wasalam, when you truly appreciate he walked this Earth does existence and life make sense. Light not only illuminates but shows the contours and the distinctions of everything. In this way, he salallahu alayhi wasalam illuminates everything like a lamp in the sky, and it is by understanding Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam that we can come to fully appreciate and understanding the meaning of the world around us, where in human terms, God’s Majestic intentions are made known to the world.

The hadith mention, if it were not for Muhammad Habibullah, the beloved of Allah, salallahu alayhi wasalam, Allah would not have created the world. This is how heavy his role is! This is the context and understanding you should look at the world through. A mercy indeed he is, if his mere existence is the reason for the world’s existence! Look around. How does the world appear to you now?

There is another hadith where the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam is asked, “What was the first thing Allah created?” to which the reply is “Nur Nabiyika- the Light of your Prophet (salallahu alayhi salam).” It is out of this light that Allah made His creation, and brought forth our existence. If you understand this now, you see even more how essential Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasalam is in the fullest meaning of the word, ‘essential’. Our Noble Nabi salallahu alayhi wasalam is intimately tied to and connected with our existence. It is perhaps for this reason the hadith “utitu jawamil kalim,” that, “I was given comprehensive speech” and in his words we find a broadness of meaning and many different interpretations all equally true and profound, always creating an increased sense of profondity and amazement at the initial hadith. This comprehensive speech is mentioned by Imam Ghazali:

It is by experiencing, in other words, the truth of such Prophetic teachings as, ‘Whoever acts on the basis of what they know, Allah will grant them knowledge of what they do not know,’ or ‘Whoever assists an evil-doer (zalim), Allah will eventually turn the latter against them,’ that one comes to realize the truth of the Prophet’s message.

And it is this comprehensive speech, which encompasses truth in all its forms in this world, that is no surprise because his light is connected with the light of existence; if from his light existence was brought about, than who else among humanity could have words better to explain it?

How fitting is it that the Sunnah is called in the Quran as Hikmah, the Wisdom? How much more fitting is it to understand the Sunnah and all that it prescribes for us is not something for temporary moments, but that the Sunnah comes from the perspective of the light of wujud (existence) and therefore, can never be mistaken. The Sunnah has all of existence in mind, meaning all of space and all of time, so it transcends the ‘aql (mind) and in this sense you can understand why it is paired with the Quran, the Book of Allah. Why then is it amazing or remarkable to hear of how adherence to the Allah’s Quran and the blessed Sunnah is a reason for miracles?

Ah, but if this is what I have mentioned of the light of Muhammad (salallahu alayhi wasalam) than understand how much greater is the light of Allah, who is the “Nur as-samawati wa’l ardh- the light of the heavens and Earth!” Intellect fails me here.

Try this exercise: Stare out your window for a good period of time and bring what I have discussed here to mind. Take a good amount of time doing his and bring to mind what it would have felt like to have Nabi salallahu alayhi wasalam’s present. It will affect not only the landscape of the world, and how you see it, but in perceiving that change it will shift your social and personal landscape, how you interact with others and how you interact with yourself. Everything is put into its place, everything is given due propriety and you know how to be a true and full human being. Tranquility and peace is the end result.

Subhana kallahumma wa bihmadika ash-haduana la illaha illa ant astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk, ameen.

Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wa salat wa salam ala Rasulullah

Shaykh Hasan Le Gai Eaton

The Grandfather of Islamic development in the West

Last night I heard of the news that Gai Eaton, also known as  Shaykh Hasan Charles Le Gai Eaton, passed away. According to the comments on this website he passed away February 26th at 10am in London, I believe. I can’t describe the shock at hearing such news and from what it seems, the news is true. How can you deal with such a reality especially when someone has had such a powerful impact on your life? How much more when I am so weak in comparison?

Overwhelmingly, much of the good on this blog and website is inspired by his work. This man, by far, had the biggest impact on my Islamic and intellectual development. His ideas were influenced by the Perennialist school of thought, but largely he stood within orthodox Islam. A very rare master of the English language, his books, Islam and the Destiny of Man and King of the Castle represent the major work of Muslim thought on Modernity and Westernisation. I cannot find works that even come near to them. Islam and the Destiny of Man is THE premier single work, that has brought many swiftly into the fold of Islam, bringing myself much more closer to the deen.  If you were to ask around his work would be cited as one of the most influential and to my surprise a work too powerful that I’m surprised it hasn’t been banned. Some comments around the web have mentioned his role in Imran Khan’s return to Islam, and his writings being used by Christian priests. That is not surprising at all.

I don’t know how many realize what a giant has passed away. How many have even heard of him, I am not sure, especially in our age of Islamic illiteracy and tribalistic jahiliyya, but history will most definitely prove him to be a giant. In the past, we had great thinkers but this period of time squarely belonged to Gai Eaton, Rene Guenon and to Fritjof Schuon (they disagreed and varied on levels of orthodoxy and spiritual imagination). While the Saudis grapple with modernity using petro-dollars, the brain-dead mullahs back home with modernity using violence and ghadari and the fossilized Sufis and Salafis with isolationism and personality cults, Gai Eaton dealt with modernity on the basis of the mind and the dynamic capacity of tradition for growth and creativity. Had you read him or any of the thinkers he drew from, you realized how genuine of a teacher he really was, because in large part his story was so powerful because you knew exactly what he meant, because an agitation in your soul had told you something similar. In this way, he tapped into the fitra and the essential spirituality in every human being.

As a tribute I am going to share my excerpts from his two works. You can download them and read them to get a glimpse of his writings. I still remember reading them and highlighting just about every page and just whispering to myself, “wow!” How few are there today whose words can bring about such transformation!

Exerpts from Islam and the Destiny of Man

King of the Castle Notes

And here are a number of links I am collecting and downloading for review. It is best if I benefit from his works and perhaps thereby help as a sadaqa jariya in his grave.

Articles and other Publications:

From the Journal of Comparitive Religion

Interview: The Talented Mr Gai Eaton

Audios:

International Institute of Islamic Thought

Living Islam 1 2 3 4

Radical Middle Way lecture on the Drunkenness of Ignorance

I will try and find more and post here as I can find it.

May Allah bless this man, and allow us the mercy to better appreciate and benefit from his works, ameen.

Bismillah, alhamdulillah wa salat wa salam ala Rasulullah

Alhamdulillah, he summarizes the problems of what I call the shrinking of the Islamic imagination, the dying of the Muslim spirit and the increasing disability to live through Islam, to develop one’s imagination, personality, spirit and expression of Islam in original and spiritually authentic ways. This issue is at the heart of my philosophy with this blog.

“Imam Ahmad said that the happiest of his days was when he woke up and found nothing in his cabinets…The cell phone helps to eliminate the ghayb of this world because we can instantaneously find out where someone is or what they are doing. Global communications and transportation networks bring our food from the far corners of the earth so we do not have to rely on God to bring the rains that will irrigate our local crops.

The cognitive frames that allow us to deal with religious belief are rooted in our experience. When our everyday experiences do not reinforce fundamental religious lessons and concepts, we have to work extra hard to enliven those meanings in our hearts.

-Imam Zaid Shakir in Treatise for the Seekers of Guidance (Al-Muhasibi’s Risala al-Mustarshideen) Translation commentary and notes by Zaid Shakir pg. 43

Subhana kallahumma wa bihamdika ash-haduana la illaha illa ant astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk, ameen.

Bismillah, alhamdulillah, was salat wa salam ala Rasulullah

I’ve read about 3 books now on Imam al-Ghazali and I wanted to quote some of the really strong things he’s said. The points he hits are absolutely amazing. The commentaries on the side are from either Ebrahim Moosa or Dr. Sherman (Abdul Hakim) Jackson. The quotes themselves can be found in either his Faysal at-Tafriq (Sherman Jackson translated this, “On the Limits of Theological Intolerance in Islam”) or in Ebrahim Moosa’s “Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination.” Oh and yes, I am playing around with fonts to try and make reading easier…let me know your thoughts.

Take a read and mull it over!

Imam al-Ghazali’s most famous work, The Ihya Ulum ad-Din (The Revival of the Islamic Sciences)

1) Ghazali remorsefully remarked: “We went to the madrassa (ostensibly) to study law but in reality we attended it in order get food.” “We sought knowledge not for the sake God,” he inveighs against himself and his brother, before he delightfully mitigates his condemnation by adding, “but knowledge] refused to [surrenderj except to God [ talabna al-'ilm li ghayr Allah fa aba an yakuna illa liAllah)

2) Pure intention [ikhlas] does not exist on it on its own; rather, intention is the elixir that purifies both knowledge and practice. To bring about that change requires a psychological attitude that is fixed on intentionality. Only the catalytic elements of intentionality and purity of motive transform information into a sense of reality, so that knowledge becomes disciplinary practices which can straighten the prior distortions of the senses and the self that block the cognition of the ends of death. This is exactly what Ghazali set out to do during the rest of his life to reconstitute his physical senses. His obsession with purity of motive and sincerity shows that he preserved his childlike impressionability. Even on his deathbed, he advised his~disciples to conscientiously “cultivate sincerity of motive” (‘alaykum bial-ikhlas).

3) From this episode, Ghazali extrapolated a nugget of wisdom that he believed served Abraham well and from which he profited.   Abraham discontinued his first fine line of debate and adopted a more potent polemical line of argument for a good reason; his goal was “not to annihilate \ifna’hu\ him [Nimrod], but to resuscitate him [ihya'hu/

4) The Qur'an, in Ghazali's view, sufficed as a discourse to ensure doctrinal rectitude in public discourse. "The likeness of arguments from the Quran he says, "is like that of nourishment, from , from which every person can b can benefit; whereas arguments of the dialectical theologians are similar to medication, in that they only profit some individuals, and rather cause harm to to most people. He continues: "In fact, the similarity of the Qur'anic arguments is like that of water; they benefit a suckling infant as well as a strong person. All the other arguments are like regular foods: they are beneficial to the of those 10 who are fit in some instances, but they can also be the cause of their illness on other occasions, infants, it is clear, cannot profit from these food, that is, theological arguments] at all.”

5) “How can the secrets of the [angelic) kingdom enlighten people whose deity is their desires?" "when their rulers {salatin sing. sultan} [were] their object of worship; their direction of worship [qibla\ their dirhams and dinars [the currency of the time]; frivolity their law; glory and lust their intention; and serving the rich their act of worship; when evil whisperings [substituted for the remembrance oi God [dhikr]; when politicians [were] their treasure; and legal fictions [were] the sum total of their ideas to the extent that decency demanded [that they adhere to laws]. ‘ Such frightening levels of moral depravity e question, in his view, as to how such theologians could “differentiate between the darkness of heresy and the light of faith.”"

6) “Perhaps if you are fair,” he taunts his opponents, “you will realize that the one who believes that a single speculative thinker has the exclusive monopoly over the truth, such a person is closer to unbelief and contradiction. It is unbelief, because elevates such a a mortal to the status of a prophet. A prophet alone is infallible . For faith [doctrinally} is established by compliance with [the teachings of a prophet], and opposing him [his prophetic teachings] is a warrant for unbelief.”

7) “Rather,” he reveals, “it is by means of a light [nur] that God had cast in the bosom. And that light is the key to most knowledge. Therefore, anyone who thinks that the unveiling of truth depends on carefully formulated proofs has indeed placed the abundant mercy of God under restraint.” This form of ontic knowing, knowing from being, is what Ghazali and the Muslim tradition generally metonymically refer to as the “expansion of the bosom” [sharh al-sadr} a code for the essential vitalization of the self.

8 ) To shun an ignoramus is to make an offering to God!

9) Human beings and the universe around them, according to Ghazali, resemble a script {tasnif) and a composition [ta'lif). His description is delicate "The universe, and whatever mystery it hides, is God's script and His composition, His original creation and invention. And the spirit is a part of the many components of the universe. And every unit of its multiple parts teems with mystery."

10) Ghazali argued, fiqh meant the "knowledge of the path to the afterlife and cognition of the subtle perils afflicting the soul, as well as those actions that corrupt deeds; the capacity to grasp the insignificance of the world and the burning curiosity to experience the pleasures of the afterlife with a heart overwhelmed by reverential awe [for the divine].” Ascetic practices are necessary, but these must, as a matter of necessity, be coupled with discursive knowledge based on investigation and inquiry.

11) In a rhetorical interlude with a fictional interlocutor who asks if one can independently determine whether what the sufis say is true/false, Ghazali retorts: “This book is not about providing demonstrable proofs  but about /wasaya to alert the heedless ones.

12)  “Knowledge,” says Ghazali, “is the worship of the soul, and in the lexicon of revelation [shar"] it is called the worship of heart.”

13) “The pleasure an intellectual [alim, literally "learned person"] gains from his knowledge does not go unnoticed. He gains even more pleasure when he makes discoveries in the resolution of complex matters, especially when these relate to the kingdom of the heavens and earth and matters divine. This is an enjoyment that cannot be understood unless one has experienced the bliss of unveiling the mysteries. . . . This is an unending pleasure, because there is neither limit to knowledge nor any competition in this regard. For the true student, knowledge expands no matter how many may seek it. Affection, for an intellectual, grows in proportion to the growth of his conversation partners. It is especially delightful when knowledge is sought for its own sake and not for worldly gain and leadership.”

14) “In some parts of the world, whenever there is cohesion in the sect or discursive tradition [madhhab] and those who vie for political office fear that they will fail to engender subservience, they proceed to invent issues! They then create the impression that it is necessary to create division and promote prejudice. So some people will dispute whether the official flag should )e black or red. One group will say: “The true flag is black.” Another will it’s the red one!” And so the goals of the leaders are accomplished in making the masses subservient to the extent of getting them entangled in a false conflict. While the masses mistakenly believe it to be a vital matter, the leadership knows fully what the real purpose was in fabricating this matter.’*’

15) “Faith in God comes of a light that God casts into the hearts of His servants, as a gift and a gratuity from Him. True faith (al-iman al-rasikh) is the faith of the masses that develops in their hearts from childhood due to their constant exposure (to religious material), or that accrues to them after they have reached the age of majority as a result of experiences that they cannot fully articulate.’ “

–the difference between being informed and coming to a realization might be likened to the difference between hearing the words, “I love you,” after one and after forty years of marriage.

…speaks of the means via which one comes to realize the truth of the prophethood of Muhammad (salallahu alayhi wasalam). It is by experiencing, in other words, the truth of such Prophetic teachings as, ‘Whoever acts on the basis of what they know, Allah will grant them knowledge of what they do not know,’ or ‘Whoever assists an evil-doer (zalim), Allah will eventually turn the latter against them,’ that one comes to realize the truth of the Prophet’s message.

“this is the means by which you should seek certainty of (a claim to) prophethood, not by (a person’s) turning a staff into a snake or splitting the moon. For when you observe the latter alone without the benefit of extraneous corroborative indicators too numerous to count, you may think that you are observing a feat of magic or a phantasm or that this is simply a test from God via which He intends to lead people astray. For, indeed, ‘He leads astray whomever He wills and He guides whomever He wills.’”  —Munqidh

Subhana kallahumma wa bihamdika ash-haduana la illaha illa ant astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk, ameen.

Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wa salat wa salam ala Rasulullah

I am putting the Quran first here out of honor and respect and the Literary ideas second.  Read the literary ideas and then come back to the Quranic verses again and read them in their entirety in light of the elaborations in the Christian/Romanticist literature you’ll realllly appreciate what I want you to get out of this post.  It’s like getting a really close and really vast vision of the beauties of the world at the same time.

Hopefully this will help you unravel and appreciate some of the secrets and transcendental meanings of the Quran and give you a whiff of the scent of divine wisdom. This discussion is essentially on the door to witnessing thousands of miracles. My description of this is basically when its as if you see the Earth or Sky or any thing really, a door, stairs, a new house breathing. I may in the future try to delve deeper into this but for now, I’ve just boldened to help you contemplate!

Quran-ayat (signs), hayba (awe), tafakkur (reflection, contemplation), lutf (subtleties), Jalal (majesty), jamal (beauty)

He is Allah, the Creator, the Evolver, and the Bestower of Forms. To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names: whatever is in the heavens and on earth, doth declare His Praises and Glory: and He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.
(59:24)

“He Who has created seven heavens in full harmony with one another: no incongruity will you see in the creation of the Most Gracious.  And turn your vision (upon it) once more: can you see any flaw? Yea, turn your vision (upon it) again and yet again: (and every time) your vision will fall back upon you, dazzled and truly defeated.” (Quran 67:3-4)

He created the heavens without any pillars that ye can see; He set on the earth mountains standing firm, lest it should shake with you; and He scattered through it beasts of all kinds. We send down rain from the sky, and produce on the earth every kind of noble creature, in pairs. (Surah Luqman:10)

“O my son!” (said Luqman), “If there be (but) the weight of a mustard-seed and it were (hidden) in a rock, or (anywhere) in the heavens or on earth, Allah will bring it forth: for Allah understands the finest mysteries, (and) is well-acquainted (with them). (Surah Luqman 16)

“It is He who sends down water from the sky.  From it you drink and from it come the shrubs among which you graze your herds.  And by it He makes crops grow for you and olives and dates and grapes and fruit of every kind. Therein is certainly a sign in that for people who reflect.  He has made the night and the day subservient to you, and the sun, the moon and the stars, all subject to His command.  Therein are certainly signs in that for people who use their intellect.  And also, the things of varying colors He has created for you in the earth.  There is certainly a sign in that for people who pay heed.  It is He who made the sea subservient to you so that you can eat fresh flesh from it and bring out from it ornaments to wear.  And you see the ships cleaving through it so that you can seek His bounty, and so that perhaps you may show thanks.  He cast firmly embedded mountains on the earth so it would not move under you, and rivers, pathways, and landmarks so that perhaps you might be guided.  And they are guided by the stars.  Is He Who creates like him who does not create?  O will you not pay heed?” (Quran 16:10-17)

Literature- Inscape, Instress of the Trappist monk Gerard Manley Hopkins

27:93 And say: “All the praises and thanks be to Allah. He will show you His Ayat (signs, in yourselves, and in the universe or punishments, etc.), and you shall recognise them. And your Lord is not unaware of what you do.”

[Hopkins] felt that everything in the universe was characterized by what he called inscape, the distinctive design that constitutes individual identity. This identity is not static but dynamic. Each being in the universe ’selves,’ that is, enacts its identity. And the human being, the most highly selved, the most individually distinctive being in the universe, recognizes the inscape of other beings in an act that Hopkins calls instress, the apprehension of an object in an intense thrust of energy toward it that enables one to realize specific distinctiveness. Ultimately, the instress of inscape leads one to Christ, for the individual identity of any object is the stamp of divine creation on it.

The idea is strongly embraced by the famous Trappist monk and author Thomas Merton who admired both Scotus and Hopkins. In New Seeds of Contemplation Merton equates the unique “thingness” of a thing, its inscape, to sanctity. The result is that holiness itself is grounded in God’s idea of being. To the extent that any “thing” (include humans) honors God’s unique idea of them they are holy. Holiness thus connects to “vocation” (from the Latin vocare for “voice”) in two ways. First, God creates through the word; and second, when being responds rightly to God’s speech by expressing his unique word the result is Holiness.

Source: Wikipedia

By “inscape” he means the unified complex of characteristics that give each thing its uniqueness and that differentiate it from other things, and by “instress” he means either the force of being which holds the inscape together or the impulse from the inscape which carries it whole into the mind of the beholder:

There is one notable dead tree . . . the inscape markedly holding its most simple and beautiful oneness up from the ground through a graceful swerve below (I think) the spring of the branches up to the tops of the timber. I saw the inscape freshly, as if my mind were still growing, though with a companion the eye and the ear are for the most part shut and instress cannot come.

The concept of inscape shares much with Wordsworth’s “spots of time,” Emerson’s “moments,” and Joyce’s “epiphanies,” showing it to be a characteristically Romantic and post-Romantic idea. But Hopkins’ inscape is also fundamentally religious: a glimpse of the inscape of a thing shows us why God created it. “Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:/ . . myself it speaks and spells,/ Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came. “

His insistence that inscape was the essence of poetry (“Poetry is in fact speech employed to carry the inscape of speech for the inscape’s sake”)

Source: Hopkins on Inscape and Instress

Subhana kallahumma wa bihamdika ash-haduana la illaha illa ant astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk, ameen.

“The spoken sound is captured in memory as identical with meaning (thought).”

Is it possible to resurrect the oral culture of the early muhaddithun? Or the early poetic cultures which are so often found in Muslim societies? Here we are going to examine a number of determinants related to this project.

I have been thinking about trying to use technology (the web, Mp3 players, new media, other technologies) creatively in order to bring back, at least to some extent, the oral culture of Muslim societies. We have plenty of audio files online, but why hasn’t it picked up into usage of an oral culture? Why don’t we see forums or chatrooms of individuals exchanging hadith via their microphones?

Phonocentrism is the idea that sounds and speech are inherently superior (or “more natural”) to the written language. To adherents of this philosophy, spoken language is inherently richer and more intuitive than written language. Phonocentrism holds that spoken language is the primary, fundamental way of communicating, and writing is merely a “second-rate” attempt to capture speech.

“The spoken word… lends itself… to virtually everyone, the written word only to the select few.” -Walter Ong

(Wikipedia)

For my purposes, phonocentrism, orality, oral tradition and aurality here are used to mean the same things, but linguistic literature would probably disagree on this.

A few technological concerns come to mind. Firstly with a computer monitor you have a domination of the visual over the aural. You also have an over-competition of iTunes podcasts, Youtube music and stupid comic videos. But these are superficial concerns, let’s start to look at the deeper issues.

Orality’s role with Muslim Ideology

What I do understand is that ideology is shaped and influenced by whether a society is a collectivist or individualistic. In the West, everything is done on an individualized basis. In the Muslim world, we are largely collective and mobilize quickly for events like protests or riots, but this is also because we aren’t reliant on the written word as much. The ideological aspect is more diffuse in the Muslim world- to the extent ideology is almost synonymous to populism. Therefore, there is little muscling over ideology because there are so few ideologies. The foreseeable problem however is that in using the Internet to peddle oral Islam, one must inevitably employ literacy. So although the focus is on oral tradition, it is done through the aid of literacy (the written digital word).

The Mental Intimacy of Orality

Edward Said does something important here in this quotation. He points out the ‘intimacy’ of the spoken word between the speaker and those who listen. Said observes:

The importance of the spoken language is that it is a testimony (shahada) and carried to its ultimate grammatical form (shahid) it means martyr. To testify is to speak, and to speak is to move from yourself toward another, to displace self in order to accommodate another, your opposite and your guest, and also someone absent whose absence opposes your own presence. The irony of this is that you can never directly come together with another: your testimony can at best accommodate the other, and this of course is what language does and is, antithetcally—presence and absence, unless in the case of the (shahid) obliterated for the sake of the other, awho because of the martyr s love is more distant, more an Other than ever.”

And another related quotation that illustrates the intimate nature of the spoken word, especially in its relation to eliciting creativity and discussion:

Yet even witnessing and observing occur under conditions of continuous play “between the excess of thought over language and the excess of language over thought,” so that what may appear as commentary actually “translates” the residual latent inings into new formulations.’

I would make the point that memorizing from audio has much to do a lot with the speaker, the gift of his voice, speaking style, the intonations, the rhythm, the connection he has with his audience and the coherence and relevance of his talk.

Assuming that one can meticulously preserve, reconstruct, and retrieve all the conditions surrounding original utterances, there still remains the challenge of creating audiences with subjectivities and conditions of heteroglossia that are identical to those that were available at the time the original speeches were produced. It is exposed to the erosion of original meaning.

“What deconstruction does is force as to enhance our understanding by searching for other elements that mediate meaning.”

The challenge with oral cultures is not so much in merely saying a hadith or quote, one has to also understand the audience one is speaking too. So the one obstacle we have is, a people who do not value the oral speech, are stuck relying on texts alone or cannot grapple or implement new information into their worldview or understanding of Islam. My presumption, relating to the first quote at the start of this article (“The spoken sound is captured in memory as identical with meaning (thought).”)  is, if someone is a deep thinker or intellectual, they will be able to better utilize, contemplate and creatively implement new information that they have learned orally, far more effectively than if it were merely textual.

The Clarity/Ambiguity of Orality

An oral soundbite spoken in the moment, is much harder to manipulate than images as if a drawing board. Instead, audio is living and direct. It is interactive knowledge. It has a better way of transformation and is much more real than a copy-pasted fatwa or graphic illustration. In that way, its felt much more acutely but yet at the same time, we have the obstacle of grappling with issues of the linguistic meaning, etymologies, and the social context. Especially in the West we have a disconnect with those original social conditions that have been so well-preserved via the method of isnad and chains between the scholars.

There is also the related problem of what you could call the stereotyping of Islamic knowledge that comes from externalizing Islamic knowledge. If you mention a hadith you memorized from an audio lecture, which I often do, people ask for the source, but 9/10 the speaker in those audio khutbahs never use sources since they are very commonly known hadith. The other obstacle that comes about is a fear then of people saying whatever they wish, and a reluctance to accept real Islamic knowledge because it does not concord with the image of Islamic knowledge the Internet has given us (fatawa) and the questioning of credibility of a normal Muslim who says a hadith, but not questioning a scholar who says a hadith.

My proposal for students of Islamic knowledge to focus on audio is also on the fact it is much more immediate, direct, memorable and is the primary method of transmission in Islam (the Quran was taught by tongue, not by pen).

Related readings:

Pakistan’s ‘Oral’ Society

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Sources for quotations:

Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination by Ebrahim Moosa

Subhana kallahumma wa bihamdika ash-haduana la illaha illa ant astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk, ameen.

I think we have this idea that Jannah is where things end…but it’s where things begin. We are just in the trailer and the film…

-Break dance with all the Prophets.
-Myself, Ibrahim alayhi salam, and all the little kids that are with him, would go around pulling pranks on everyone in Jannah
-Talk to all those people that Muslims called “deviant!” who got into Jannah and ask them, “so, like what happened, man?”
-Bungee jump from the seventh heaven to the first
-Find out the truth about aliens, Mayan calendars, freemasons and all that craziness
-Read every book in existence and then write many, many more
-Have my own theme song
-Shoot my own Bollywood film and be my own cheesy hero
-Sleep upside down
-Surf a black hole
-Have my own version of the Deen Show
-Ride a T-rex
-Learn all the languages of the world, especially Aramaic, Hebrew and Syriac (the languages of the Prophets)
-Do what Muslims love to do which is argue incessantly on haram and halaal…even though, it is irrelevant what you say
-Never lower my gaze
-Show off how religious I am
-Invent swear words
-Take a dump on the people of Hell

There is a hadith about the Prophet salallahu alayhi salam being asked if he wanted to visit Damascus, since the Muslims had just conquered it. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam refused saying, “A man should only enter Jannah once.” Subhana Allah! Now, Damascus itself is said to be the oldest city in the world and the amount of history their is sooo rich, going back to so many civilizations of old. This makes me think, that Jannah itself will contain relics, signs and momentoes of our human history.

-Jokingly ask Imam al-Albani which one of the sayings of the Prophets are authentic, while in the presence of Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wasalam
-Listen to Dawud alayhi salam sing with the mountains
-Hear Rumi recite poetry
-Ask Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Ata’illah, the kalam (Ashari, Maturidi) scholars and the Athari scholars, about the religious feuds and arguments, “So…what now?”
-Fall in love with a thousand houris
-Invent 100 new languages and teach them
-Recite the Quran 1 million times in a second and write 500 books of Tafsir on it
-Study astrology, magic and all those haram sciences and then invent my own versions of them!
-Create and pioneer 50 new branches of social science, write my own theories
-Build perpetual motion machines
-Build a thousand Taj Mahals, combined into one grand building
-Film a feature film on the biography of Jibreel alayhi salam, get the inside scoop on all the hidden and special things…
-Learn all the prime numbers that exist (or don’t now, but will in Jannah) and all the digits Pi goes up to
-Eating contest with the jinns
-Have my own surveillance system to spy on people
-Start my own university of Muslimology
-Learn to cook every style of food
-Graffiti
-Invent new technology
-Have a fist-fight with every fictional super-hero
-Make all the Greek myths come true and live as each character…from Narcissus to Prometheus and then have a party

I don’t think “religion” will exist in Jannah…so we can just live.

The point of this article was to connect your imagination with the idea of Jannah and to strive and achieve….just about anything you want therein! We want Islam to have a Golden Age once again…and I can tell you, if it doesn’t happen in this lifetime, it will definitely happen in Jannah!

Subhana kallahumma wa bihamdika ash-haduana la illaha illa ant astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk, ameen.

Some brief thoughts and links.

PBS aired a documentary on this you can watch to get an idea of the shocking nature of concern related to technology. You can watch it here.

They talked about how young children can’t distinguish between virtual and real world…so if they see themselves swimming with dolphins in virtual reality- they think one week later that was real. They showed how people die from video games, how video games are used by the US Army to recruit teens, and unmanned airplanes are used like video games in Iraq, and how Second Life is used for business meetings so people rarely ever talk to each other in person. It’s sickening.

My concern is our sisters who are stuck at home overuse the Internet and I’m wondering what implication that will have. One brother mentioned they need to get their “kicks” somehow…so they sisters live through the Internet. I know how heavily sisters use the web, via forums and twitter and Facebook (even without their pics) and how easily they can pose as someone else. Of course, sisters may not misbehave at all, but even then the danger is there of how easily photos get moved around. I don’t know what sisters think, so if they want to comment, I’d love to hear it. My 2 cents is technology exacerbates modesty into desperation, digging that desperation deeper because they lack a real world experience, and instead take the online or media view on relationships as the ideal, whereas in the past, before so much technology, this electronically fleshed out ideal didn’t exist, and that this “relative virtual ideal” robs us because reality can’t compete with the virtual ideal- whether its on TV or the web.

Personally, I find a correlate for our community among the males and females- the more religious someone is, the more wired they are. And personally, I think minorities, especially black people use the web much, much more as an escape from their alienated realities. And that means, the less capable they are in face to face interactions, the less empathic they are, its harder to have compassion, be sincere, the more their Islamic experience is stripped of the real life world…the application of Islam to the minute aspects. The result is the Internet is not allowing us to experience our own religion and therefore, an increasing number of Muslims today haven’t truly experienced Islam- but are under the illusion that they have experienced it. We feel we have experienced Islam because it’s visible (in the form of Youtube, Islamic junk mails, etc.) and we believe this superficial experience is real Islam, and associate that with authenticity. What is missing is the magical ingredient of sincerity- ikhlas or sidq- and you cannot experience that online, because the Internet makes it irrelevant. All experience is flattened out, everything is convenient and easy, so nothing really is as special as putting in a unique effort, and so we are robbing ourselves of the real stuff of humanity that religious sincerity brings out- sacrifice, emotion, adversity and development of patience and struggle. I’ll give an example: most dawah is done online now, with advertising and emails. Now, that is seen as Islamic work, but it sadly has become the major component of dawah- so now if you are doing dawah outside the web, you won’t use more effort than you did in sending that email- so you will hand out a flier, as ineffectual as that is, and are unable, and don’t see the necessity in making dawah to someone face to face. Very often, a sister will do something wrong, another sister will pick up on and then she will note it in her head, go home, write up a big long email to that sister, but will not have the guts to say it to her face or talk to her in person. Where is the barakah in that? If you are giving advice in ease, at your own convenience and comfort, then how do you expect that advice, which by comparison, is more difficult to apply than just sending an email, to be taken seriously?

Consider how the Quran talks about people preferring the immediate pleasures (ajila) over what is more enduring (the akhira), their love and chase after illusory worldly pleasures and frivolities, and ultimately how people oppress themselves. “They forgot Allah, so He caused them to forget their own selves.”

My argument in short about technology: We think we are becoming more religious, the reality is we aren’t. We just have made Islam more visible, just as we have made social life more visible and have used the Internet to multiply the experience of the dunya exponentially, distracted from Allah, and therefore divide the experience of the akhira into ever-smaller bits. You will not only deal with one person face to face, but also deal with them on the cellphone, Facebook, Twitter, texting, and email. So we live our days behaving with an awareness that seems to say, “the dunya is more All-Seeing and All-Encompassing than Allah is or ever was to us,” (astaghfirullah). That means, we have to deal with more arguments (and I would say arguments happen much more often in digital text than in real life), more distractions, more ideas, aimless curiosities, more pseudo-events in our day, and therefore more worrying, indecisiveness, dissatisfaction than ever before because digital technology has begun to suffocate us. Technology’s metallic coldness is constantly scratching at our psyche, wiring our desires ever-closer to us, constantly and forcefully making us confront and oblige to our desires, whims and what ever else entertains our minds, than ever before.

Wa ma hayatud-dunya il-la mata’ al-gharoor

And this life is but the enjoyment of a deception (Surah ale-Imran)

Nabi Sallalhu alayhi wasalam said that one of the signs of the End of Time is “takhtariful ahwa”- desires will be diversified or multiplied. (This means, they don’t just want a coffee, they want a mocha-latte, with 3 creams, 2 sugars, with artificial sugar…and in terms of Internet and virtual self, we want more and more new experiences, the next big thing, or try out the new Google Wave or new Ipod and choose if we want to talk, chat, text or email each other. So we create new choices and thereby create new desires, text now or call or shout across the street, and use advertising to inculcate those desires and stress their importance, even though in reality they are empty and void of meaning.)

More readings:

What sociologist Erving Goffman could tell us about social networking and Internet identity

Being online: identity, anonymity, and all things in between

Subhana kallahumma wa bihamdika ash-haduana la illaha illa ant astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk, ameen.

Bismillah, alhamdulillah wa salat was salam ala rasulullah.

The following are 20 some reflections on this ayah. The reflections are metaphorical, philosophical and imaginary in nature…not tafsir, so they are expansive and for pondering.

I should point out why this is special to me. I spent a good 2-3 days reading a 400 page book of quotations, obviously from Western sources (I think it was Bartlett’s). But then on the last day, I spent some time relaxing reading the Quran. Well, it wasn’t so relaxing because this ayah was more strenuous, more sapping of my mental abilities because it was much more meaningful than that 400 page book!

Concentrate on the imagery of this ayah!

“And among His Signs are the ships, in the sea, like mountains. If He wills, He causes the wind to cease, then they would become motionless on the back (of the sea). Verily, in this are signs for everyone patient and grateful. (Surah Shuara: 33)

wasiya kulli shay- My mercy encompasses all things

-A conversation amongst the righteous broke out as to which form of sabr (patience) is the hardest? After guessing…the answer came: Sabr (patience) WITHOUT God. The man gave a shriek and died at the thought. How can one have patience to even live without Allah?

- One can wonder: if the ship stops in the middle of the sea, has the ship arrived? Will it ever arrive? That is to say, how do we know when we are there, perhaps a detour or stopping in the middle of the sea is the goal of the journey.

-Does this ayah describe the ummah today? We are simply waiting…complacently and lazily or is it a trial? If so, then where is the patience and gratefulness we need to endure this?

- If we were in this scenario, we would wonder, “What is the time? And what place are we at?” It is like an existential vacuum, we are marooned from God, like a cripple that has feet but is paralyzed, blind/deaf/dumb.

- In this ayah we also see a warning on transportation and the excesses in our usage of it. Traffic congestion today occur regularly. We have cars that can go to 200km/h but when its a traffic congestion, where everyone has cars, the average speed of a car slows to about 5 km/h. So despite the ability to move fast, we are powerless. Just as this verse demonstrates, that no matter how capable we are, Allah can prevent us very easily, bringing all our might to a futility.

- Verse prior to this one: “And among His Signs are the ships, in the sea, like mountains.” Are then mountains moving or are they stationary and the Earth and mountains are moving alltogether, as if the ships and ocean are moving togather- both with Allah’s will? (Consider the Quran and Science articles on how mountains stabilize the Earth).

-This ayah relates to 2 other ayahs in the Quran: Fa’aina tafkhoon (So where are you wandering?)/Fa’ina tadhaboon (So where are you going)?

-There is a saying that it takes the same amount of stress to be a success as it does to be a failure. Here its the same stress- but failure and success are contingent upon God.

- I imagine this ayah represents a figurative representation of people’s progress in their journey towards Allah.

- Perhaps this ayah speaks of a representation of people’s growth and maturity, in dealing with relationships and life’s difficulties- and how they make the same mistakes over and over, not learning from them and so are always at a standstill in life. But with sabr and gratefulness, they succeed in maintaining successful relationships.

- “Nothing really happens when it happens all the time” so when the wind stops, something feels like its happening, because its challenging. And that is the utility of sabr. Similarly, then, when the wind picks up its as if something new is happening. There is then more gratefulness.

- The soft wind is considered in Islam to be a blessing and closely related to Allah’s Will. So stranded in the sea is like imprisonment and hell is where there will be no breezes or calming winds

- Now and on judgment day, our khayr is at a standstill before the ocean of the akhirah.

- Consider the phrase, “sea with out a shore” (I can’t recall the Arabic phrasing). Muslims used this term to describe great things in the past. The scholars were afraid of fighting the Crusaders and described them as a sea with out a shore, but Saladin, refused and went and fought. So the wind stopped and the Crusaders glory stood still and was destroyed by the Muslims.

- Consider the ayah above along with this ayah from Surah Kahf:109 “Say (O Muhammad SAW to mankind). “If the sea were ink for (writing) the Words of my Lord, surely, the sea would be exhausted before the Words of my Lord would be finished, even if we brought (another sea) like it for its aid.” And so we can only advance because of His Words (commands) and even that depends on his mercy (wind).

- How does the story of Nuh alayhi salam and the Ark relate to this?

- A ship marooned in the middle of the ocean without a wind is like a brain without a thought, a catatonic state.

- Or imagine a ship (marooned?) carrying sabr and shukr driven by the mercy of Allah (we can only have these through His mercy and help) stuck out in the middle of the sea and we swim so hard to get some of that constancy in sabr and shukr, but on the way there swimming hard towards that ship, we develop sabr and shukr when we arrive and it is that journey itself, that when we arrive on that ship we find ourselves with sabr and shukr; shows how hard sabr and shukr are so hard to obtain and maintain (that in reality, one must turn in on oneself, applying sabr and shukr in order to be able to give life to it).

- The sea water represents the ease with which we can move…but the absence of wind is showing how without the mercy, even ease is difficult.

- If it then rains when you are marooned like this…you may think it is not the mercy you need, but it could be only to let you survive and live, or do wudhu and pray for rescue.
- “And (it is) a Quran which We have divided (into parts), in order that you might recite it to men at intervals. And We have revealed it by stages. (in 23 years)” (17:106) …it is a mercy to have sabr and shukr and in this situation of being stuck in the middle of the sea, you would exhaust your sabr and shukr (hopeless and hateful to God), but Allah moves the ship forward bit by bit, so you make sabr and shukr in intervals and develop sabr and shukr bit by bit, in ways that are easy and within your limit (shaytaan makes you think reverse, that it is hopeless and be hateful) until you can handle much much more.

- but with your sabr, you show shukr (show gratefulness in expectation) and with your shukr you have sabr (when you are still waiting! it isn’t so bad yet)- they exist together (given time to show shukr and without theose periods of sabr, you wouldn’t show shukr and without shukr you wouldn’t be ready to show sabr)

Subhana kallahumma wa bihamdika ash-haduana la illaha illa ant astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk, ameen.

Maybe I’m an idiot but there is something I totally missed. Somehow I find wherever I read- Muslim scholars and thinkers have made their primary concern not Islam, but reconciling Islam with modernity, post-modernism, science and democracy. They talk more about modernity, science and democracy, than they talk about Islam! Isn’t this a slippery slope?

My question is where does this urgent project come from? Allama Iqbal embarked on it and between today’s Tariq Ramadan and Iqbal’s time, what progress has been made? What progress will ever be made?

Modernity’s Necessity: A Wild Goose Chase?

There is, I believe a false obligation to reconcile these two, fueled by the Muslim inferiority complex. Too often the rhetoric has base presumptions of Muslim inferiority, when in reality this is a new phenomenon. They mention how Muslims want to take over Europe from us, (who is us?) in revenge for the fall of al-Andalus. They mention how Islam’s Golden Age planted the seeds of the Renaissance. All this is mentioned, by Muslims and non-Muslims, in order to appease Euro-centric views of the world. It was all for the West. Fi sabil Rum- for the sake of the Romans. This is NOT a rational view of things- nor a sociologically sound view.

A rational, logical view of things would take into account the facts that the Muslim world has always been the daddy to Europe. Muslims took the fruits of European intellect- they didn’t purposefully carry the “torch of knowledge” for the sake of Europe,  as historians try to make things out to be- no, we carried it for ourselves. It was Muslims who ruled half of Europe. It was Muslims who kept slaves, of all races, included white-skinned slaves. It was not that long ago that Europeans came to Muslims asking for monetary aid and relief due to their famines. This facts are undeniable yet pleasantly “spun” in contemporary discourse to suit a Euro-centric narrative of the world.

A sociological view of things states, there are often historical reasons (subjugation) that led to resentment and future conflict. But today, no one will say that the West’s war against Islam/ic terrorism, has to do with this previous history. No one will say that the West resents the past history of being subordinated by the Muslim world. No- the “White Man” doesn’t resent, any of that past history- after all he is above that, since he carries the “White man’s Burden”- he is nobler. And its this false humility which is characteristic of the interaction between the West and the Muslim world today. The ideology of the White Man’s Burden cannot exist, knowing, that Muslims ruled over them, knowing Muslims are the only threat, the only equal to Western hegemony.

Imagine if China were to occupy and rule half of Europe, take Europes best ideas, and keep white people as slaves…and then if the Chinese went back to China- wouldn’t Europeans want revenge?

To put it bluntly historically Europe was the Muslim world’s b*tch. The media and Muslim scholars who have internalized this inferiority complex, by being bought and sold to believe all this fancy industrial machinery (i.e. dunya)  is better than the Poverty and Zuhd of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. This false obligation has been used to make Islam come to and grovel to modernity, for conciliation and to combine with it. Honestly speaking, there really is no measure for this project of reconciling modernity and Islam- how can you measure the success of it? Its really akin to worshiping Allah one day of the week and another on another day of the week- because the modern world has its gods too, and it worships them with great devotion. No- rather, modernity and the West should come to Islam and solve this riddle they have posed themselves- the Muslim thinkers should not go to them.

But alas, how many would prefer to run to America instead of staying in the villages and tyrannies of the Muslim world?

Yet the more I read of Western commentators (Chris Hedges in particular) the more I realize they are admitting the West is in complete and total decline, from the very top of the theatrical plays of terrorism and democracy and patriotism, to the very bottom of suicide, meaninglessness, cultural genocide, and increasingly a failure of the white man, to carry his own humanity and cope with the responsibilities of the human condition.

This false obligation needs to be recognized as nothing more than a chimera. Its a ruse, a red-herring or wild goose chase, to distract the Muslim world and intended to consume the energies of the minds of Muslim thinker and scholars. To make concessions bit by bit, decade by decade, year by year to modernity, until, these thinkers have been so caught in the modernity-Islam project, Islam gets crowded out all together, withers and dies. Forgotten. This may seem an exaggeration- but look at how Islam has historically interfaced with village superstitions and rituals, which characteristically have the same romantic allure as industrial machinery and technology. You’ll find those ancient rites and superstitions have never been Islamisized or absorbed into Islam- they have remained separate with people recognizing they are contradictory to each other. And Islam has always remained the superior. Similarly, the worldly lifestyle, the complications of living in the West is conflicting with the Zuhd of the Sahabas, and one reason why Fiqh is so challenging to Muslims now is because Fiqh is designed for simple lifestyles- not hectic, adventurous, “dunya-flooded” lifestyles, were you are inundated with advertising and other forms of worldly meaninglessness.

Rotten fruits of the Muslim minds and Akhira- consciousness

Every high-caliber Islamic work today, is deemed high-caliber because of its underlying Western thought, terminology and values employed- not because of anything particularly Islamic. How often have we seen uniquely and entirely Islamic content- works that aren’t tainted with Western ideas, but rather represent wholly the Muslim imagination and the spirit of Islam? It is as if they are writing for an audience of educated, white, non-Muslims. Works of poetry, artwork, social design and even at the substance level of education- we resemble the West. From the very get-go we are walking in the footsteps of a watered down, impaired, vision of Islam. We pride ourselves on people converting to Islam, but all of this has the (un) intentional (depending on who it is) effect of converting Islam itself into something else. Its a type of fabrication- a plagiarism of the West but produced by Muslims, who probably love it more than they love Islam all on its own.

Muslim comedians and Muslim rock and roll singers, are only so popular because they imitate the American egotistic love for spectacle, of the self and represent the true life (al-hayawan), as a life of fame or visibility- not as a pursuit of Jannah. The Muslim love of sloganeering, jihadist theater, and the wealth of conspiracy theories all demonstrate Muslims are internalizing  what has been called the  “American spectacle,” of being in the spotlight, of knowing you exist, and matter and are important, in some way, because you are on the stage of the world. The stage before the entire world, to Muslims, is higher and greater than the stage before Allah. That’s where deen and dunya collide today. And our religious leaders, scholars and thinkers quietly acquiesce to this Muslim spectacle, so today, what we see as reality was a fantasy a few decades ago, and yet it carries all the consequences and fruits of a fantasy: delusion. Because Muslims are on some sort of platform or mainstream medium, whether its the news or being published in some American journal- this somehow feels like progress, when it is a decline of Islam, a ruse and fantasy of the dunya Shaytan has arranged to delude us. We forget there is more ajr in obscurity than there is in fame. And it is these pseudo-events, where we think something has been achieved when it really hasn’t (RIS?) that will help foster passivity, and over a period of time, become permanent, until we Muslims see the West as the standard and lose the capacity to think in other ways- ways which are more harmonious to the deen. And this is not necessarily to call us away to obscurity and hide away from the world- but rather to push us to develop Muslim creativity, and develop a Akhira-consciousness, cognizant of spirituality, our mortality, and the temporary stay we have in this world. Our creativity will have the safety net of piety and be guided to innovate in ways that “thrive inside Islam” and not outside it or foreign to its spirit.

Muslims need to ignore and give up on the modernity-Islam project and all the baggage it carries. They need to realize democracy and modernity are not ascendant, but rather Islam is ascendant and transcendental. They need to focus their creative energies on something wholly Islam-ic, with our values, terminologies and spirit.  We don’t need Muslim thinkers to do the thinking of the West for them. We need Muslim thinkers, for Muslim thought. We don’t need Muslim thinkers thinking about modernity or paying literary tributes to the project of the West. That can only happen if they stop regurgitating Western thinkers, study their own tradition and have the courage to be creative. And that will happen when Muslims start questioning the necessity of modernity, rather than questioning Islam and our own tradition. If we do that, we’ll come closer to Islam and realize, modernity and the worldly life it represents, cannot compare with Islam, and all it enables for humanity to achieve.

Subhana kallahumma wa bihamdika wa ash-haduana la illaha illa ant astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk, ameen.

More reading:

The Decline of the Decline of Arabic Science

Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wa salat wa salam ala Rasulullah

Know this no nobler means will you find, no knowledge of which you may master that will aid you more than Fear of God. Remind yourself of Him, your grave, that Day of 500 years with God waiting for the Judgment on the Plains, those 500 years of panic, and then the standing before your Lord in the face of Judgment. How can it not be, when, “there are rocks which fall down for the fear of Allah.” (Surah Baqara: 74)

Know that your Death is too close! It is imminent and near. And it is as if the Judgment is being rendered now and here. Know that you will be accountable for not just your sins, but also your glances, steps and gestures. And fear that even your good deeds will not be accepted. And know that Fear of Allah (at-Taqwa or khawf) is of 3 ranks: the fear of a bad deed, the fear of the Death (dying not in a state of Islam) and the fear of the Seal (fearing what was written as ones destiny in the womb of the mother).

‘ulkiha ulahi fin-nar wala ubari

I throw these into the Fire and I have no concern, (no emotion)

wa ‘ulkiha fi Jannah wala ubari

And I put these into Jannah and I have no emotion

-Hadith

The fear of God is the guide of the Sahabas and the Salaf and those Righteous who have followed them. Know that the fear of God is the foremost guide that has been forsaken by the teachers and students of our times. Instead they wait and seek in vain some illusive miracle, a shortcut to Heaven, as if the Sahabas were ignorant of this. Even in the search of God, they follow their desires.

Enclosed are a selection of quotations from Hujjatul Islam, Imam al-Ghazali’s Book of Fear and Hope. Of the 100 page English translation by William McKane, I have included only 10 short pages of excerpts below but it is recommended the reader read the entire text. Upon reading it, one should make note of key quotes, write them out by hand and memorize them and remind oneself of them often.

A WARNING: Know that this fear of God is manic, it will induce anxiety, chase away your sleep, forcing you to stand in prayer at night and chase away your appetite the more you consider it in your thoughts. You may chase after worldly thoughts and pleasures, but they will evaporate like a phastasm, a shadow that barely existed, gone with nothing of benefit remaining, with no attachment or care for you. And then you will find yourself left alone…with what is more real and more frightening and more present: the Fear of an All-Powerful God. Contemplate Him and you will find your fear of God will increase infinitely. Know then that what you read and hear of this fear of God, is not mythical, fantastic or vain tales but it is all the more real.

Embark for the time is short!

Entire text  16471358-Al-Ghazali-Bookof-Fear-and-Hope

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Ghazali’s Fear and Hope Quotes
Keep your wits. God has never had a saint who was mentally deficient.
-Sahl at-Tustari speaking against excessive fasting

Yahya b. Mu’adh [G. 77, S. 61-2, d. 258/871] said: The person who magnifies self-deceit is, in my opinion, the one who prolongs his sins, while he hopes for pardon without repentance and expects to draw near to God without obedience, and expects the crops of the Garden with the seed of the Fire, and seeks after the dwelling-place of obedience with the deeds of disobedience, and expects the reward without the deed, and has wishful thoughts of God in company with remissness.

This then is the exposition of the state of hope and how knowledge produces it and how action is produced from it. And a tradition of Zayd al-Khayl [I.H., iv, 245 (Guillaume, 637).] is a pointer to its producing these actions; when he said to the Messenger of God: I have come to enquire of you about God’s way of identifying the person who aspires and the person who does not aspire. So he (Muhammad) said: How do you go about it? He said: I have made a practice of loving virtue and its people, and, whenever I have the capacity for anything belonging to it, I make haste towards it and I believe firmly in its reward. And, when anything belonging to it eludes me, I am grieved thereby and yearn after it. So he said: This is God’s identification mark in respect of the one who aspires, and, if He had desired you for other things, He would have prepared you for them; then He would not be concerned in which of their wadies you perished. So he (Muhammad) has mentioned an identification mark of the person by whom virtue is sought, and, consequently, whoever hopes that there may be the intention of virtue without this mark is self-deluded.

Sufyan [T.T. iv, III (199), d. 161/777; T. 190; E. 72 f.] said: Whoever commits a sin and knows that God has assigned it against him, and (yet) hopes for His pardon, God will pardon him his sin. He continued: For God upbraided a group of people saying: That then, the supposition which you have entertained with respect to your Lord has caused your destruction. (Q. xli, 22). And He said: And you entertained evil suppositions and you were a people of perdition. (Q. xlviii, 12). And he (Muhammad) said: Truly God will say to His creature on the Day of Resurrection: What obstructed you from loathing the hated thing, when you saw it? So, if God has given him a grasp of his defence, he will say: O Lord, I hoped in You and I feared the people. He (Muhammad) said: So, God will say: I have forgiven you it.

And according to the tradition God revealed to David: Love Me and love whoever loves Me and commends Me to My creatures. So he said: O Lord, how do I commend You to Your creatures? So He said: Mention Me for My gracious goodness and commemorate My bounties and well-doing and their recollection of that, for they know Me only as One who is gracious.

And Aban b. Abi `Ayyash [T.T., I, 97 (174), d. 138/755-6] had a vision in his sleep (he was in the habit of recollecting again and again the categories of hope) and he said: God halted me in front of Him and said: What is it that has spurred you on to this habit? So I said: I desired to commend You to Your creatures. So He said: I have pardoned you. And Yahya b. Aktham [T.T., xi, 179 (311), d. 142/759-60] was seen in a vision after his death and it was said to him: How did God deal with you? So he said: He halted me in front of Him and said: O Shaykh, you have repeatedly committed evil. He continued: Then trembling took hold of me with respect to what God might know. Then I said: O Lord, this is not the report I had of You. So He said: And what was reported to you about Me? So I said: `Abd ar-Razzaq [T.T., vi, 310 (608), d. 211/826-7; T. 331] related to me from Ma’mar [T.T., x, 243 (439), d. c. 153/770; T. 178], from az-Zuhri [T.T., ix, 445 (732), d. 124/742; T. 102], from Anas [T.T., i, 376 (690), d. c. 93/711; T. 42], from Your Prophet, from Gabriel, that You said: I am in accord with what my creature supposes about Me, so let him suppose about Me what he will. So I supposed of You that You would not punish me. God said: Gabriel has spoken the truth, likewise My Prophet and Anas and az-Zuhri and Ma’mar and `Abd ar-Razzaq and yourself. He continued: And I was fitted out with clothes and the two attendants walked before me to the Garden and I exclaimed: What joy! [Wright, ii, 53 d.].

‘Ali said: The knowledgeable person is simply he who does not make people despair of the mercy of God and does not make them feel secure from the strategems of God.

And according to certain traditions: The believer is preferred more than the Ka’ba. Also: The believer is good and pure. Also: The believer is preferred more than the angels in the sight of God. And according to the tradition: God created Gehenna out of the excess of His mercy as a whip. With it God drives His creatures to the Garden. And in another tradition: God says: I have created men solely that they might exploit me and I have not created them to exploit them. And according to a tradition of Abu Said al-Khudri [T.T., iii, 479 (894), d.c. 65/684; T.41] on the authority of the Messenger of God: God has not created anything but He has matched it with what dominates it, and He has made His mercy to dominate His wrath. And according to the celebrated [mashhur According to A. Guillaume (The Traditions of Islam, 1924, p. 181) a tradition vouched for by more than two Companions] tradition: Truly God inscribed mercy on His Self before He created men; truly, My mercy dominates My anger.

And he (Muhammad) said on a certain day: O generous Pardoner. So Gabriel said: Do you know what the interpretation of generous Pardoner is? It is as follows: Surely He has pardoned evil deeds in mercy; in His generosity He has substituted good deeds for them. And the Prophet heard a man saying: O Lord I ask You for the completion of blessing. So he said: Do you know what the completion of blessing is? He said: No. He said: The entrance into the Garden. The Scholars said: God has completed His blessing for us in His approving Islam for us, when He said: I have completed My blessing for you and have approved Islam as your religion. (Q. v, 5)…

And Muhammad b. al-Hanafiya [T.T., ix, 354 (586), d. 80/699; I.S., v, 66 f.] related on the authority of `Ali that he said: When He sent down His saying: Be magnanimous on a handsome scale, (Q. xv, 85) he (Muhammad) said: O Gabriel, and what is a handsome magnanimity? He (Gabriel) said: When you have pardoned whoever has wronged you and do not upbraid him. So he (Muhammad) said: O Gabriel, God is too magnanimous to upbraid the one whom He has forgiven. So Gabriel wept and the Prophet wept, and God sent Michael to them both and he said: Truly, your Lord sends both of you His compliments and says: How would I upbraid the one whom I have pardoned? This would not be like My magnanimity. And the traditions which have to do with the means of hope are more than can be numbered.

And Ibrahim b. Adham [T.T., I, 102 (176), d. 160/777; E. 73; S. 36-8] said: I was performing the circumambulation in solitude on a certain night, and it was a dark rainy night, and I halted at the obligatory place beside the gate and said: O my Lord keep me from sin so that I am never disobedient to You. And the voice of One unseen called out to me from the House [i.e. the Ka'ba]: O Ibrahim, you are asking Me to keep you from sin, and all My believing creatures seek that from Me. But, if I should keep them from sin, upon whom should I bestow My bounty and to whom should I grant pardon?

And it is said: There was a certain tippler who gathered together a party of his cronies and tossed to his boy four dirhams and bade him buy some fruit for his party. And the boy passed by the door of the sitting-room of Mansur b. `Ammar [K. 126-7], while he was begging something for a poor man and saying: Whoever tosses him four dirhams, I shall offer four petitions for him. So the boy tossed the dirhams to him and Mansur said: What is it you desire that I should ask for you? So he said: I have a master from whom I desire to be released. So Mansur prayed. Then he said: Next request. That God would replace my dirhams. So he prayed and then said: Next. He said: That God would bring my master to repentance. So he prayed; then he said: Next. He said: That God would pardon me and my master and you and the multitude. So Mansur prayed and the boy returned and his master said to him: What detained you? So he told the tale to him. He said: And what did he pray about? So he said: I asked freedom for myself. So he said to him: Go your way, for you are a free man. He said: And what was the second prayer? He said: That God would replace the dirhams. He Said: You possess four thousand dirhams. And what was the third prayer? He said: That God would bring you to repentance. He said: I have repented towards God. He said: And what was the fourth prayer? He said: That God would pardon me and you and the multitude, and him who spoke the prayer. He said: This one is not in my power. So, while he was passing that night, he had a vision in sleep, as if someone were speaking to him: You have done what was in your power, do you then think that I shall not do what is in My power? I have pardoned you and the boy and Mansur b. ‘Ammar and the crowd which was present, all of them.

And it is related on the authority of ‘Abd al-Wahhab b. `Abd al-Hamid ath-Thaqafi [T.T., vi, 449 (931), d. 194/809-10; T. 294. Hamid which appears in both the 1908 and 1939 editions is apparently a mistake for Majid] who said: I saw three men and a woman bearing a bier. So I took the place of the woman and we went off to the cemetery, and we prayed over the corpse and buried it. So I said to the woman: What was the relationship of the deceased man to you? She said: My son. I said: And did you not have any neighbours? She said: Yes, but they despised his condition. I said: And what was it? She Said: He was a mukhannith [A mukhannith is a male who dances so as to simulate a female]. So I had compassion on her and brought her to my house and gave her money and corn and clothes. That night I had a vision. It was as if someone came to me, like to the moon on the night when it is full, wearing white robes. And he began to thank me and I said: Who are you? So he said: The mukhannith whom you buried today. My Lord had compassion on me for that the people contemned me.

And Abu ‘l-Qasim al-Hakim [G. 63, d. 513/1119-20] said: Whoever fears anything flees from it, and whoever fears God flees to Him. And it was said to Dhu ‘l-Nun [E. 80 f.; S. 52-4, d. 246/861]: When is the creature a person who fears? He said: When he has brought himselfdown to the level of the sick man who is abstemious for fear that his sickness may be prolonged. In the attributes by stifling the lusts and blackening the pleasures, so that the disobediences beloved by him become abhorrent, just as honey becomes abhorrent to the man who desires it, when he ‘knows’ that there is poison in it. So the lusts are burned up by fear and the members are trained, and self-abasement and humility and submissiveness and lowliness obtain in the heart, and pride, rancour and envy abandon it.

And, for that reason, al-Fudayl b. `Iyad [T.T., viii, 294 (538), d. 187/803; T. 225; E. 74; S. 41-2] said: When it is said to you: Do you fear God?, keep silence. For, if you say: No, you are an unbeliever; and, if you say: Yes, you are a liar. And he indicated by this that it is fear that restrains the members from deeds of disobedience and binds them to deeds of obedience, and whatever does not take effect in the members is no more than an impulse [hadithul nafsi] and a fleeting motion which does not deserve the name of fear.

God said: And guidance and mercy to those who reverence their Lord. (Q. vii, 153). And He said: Only the knowledgeable among God’s creatures fear Him. (Q. xxxv, 25). He attributed to them knowledge in respect of their fear and said: God was satisfied with them and they with Him. This refers to whoever fears his Lord. (Q. xcviii, 8). And everything which points to the merit of knowledge points to the merit of fear, because fear is the fruit of knowledge. For that reason it has come down in a tradition of Moses: As for those who fear they possess the Highest Companion [i.e. God]. So observe how he has singled them out for the fellowship of the Highest Companion, and that is because they are knowledgeable and the knowledgeable possess the rank of the fellowship of the prophets, because they are the heirs of the prophets, and the fellowship of the Highest Companion belongs to the prophets and whoever overtakes them. And for this reason, when the Messenger of God was given the option during his mortal sickness of remaining in the world or going to God, he said: I ask of You the Highest Companion.

And Muhammad said: The head of wisdom is the fear of God [Cf. Ps. cxi, 10; Prov. ix, 10]. And he said to Ibn Mas’ud: [T.T., vi, 27 (42). d. 32/652; T. 13]. If you are desirous of meeting me then multiply fear after me. And al-Fudayl said: If a man fears God, fear points him to every good. And ash-Shibli [G. 35, 49, 127. d. 334/945-6] said: There is no day that I have feared God, but that I have seen in respect of Him a category of wisdom and admonition which I had never (previously) seen. And Yahya b. Mu’adh said: No believer performs an evil deed but two good deeds overtake it, namely, the fear of punishment and the hope of pardon, just like a fox between two lions. And in a tradition of Moses: As for the abstemious, there remains no one except the abstemious but that I make the closest examination of him and scrutinize what is in his hands, for I feel embarrassment on their account (i.e. on account of the abstemious) and have (too much) respect for them that I should halt them for the reckoning.

Yahya b. Mu’adh said: If Miskin b. Adam had feared the Fire as he feared poverty, he would have entered the Garden. Dhu ‘l-Nun said: Whoever fears God with his whole heart, his love to God is intense and his most inward part is right with Him. Dhu ‘l-Nun said again: It is fitting that fear should be more dominant than hope, for, when hope is dominant, the heart is disordered. And Abu’l-Husayn ad-Dirrir used to say: The mark of bliss is fear of being a reprobate, because fear is a rein between God and His creature, and, when his rein is severed, he perishes with those who perish. And it was said to Yahya b. Mu’adh: Who of God’s creatures is most secure for the morrow? He said: Those of them whose fear of today is most intense. And Sahl said: You will not experience fear, until you eat what is permitted. And it was said to al-Hasan: O Abu Said, how can we set about sitting down with parties who threaten us, so that our hearts almost fly away with terror? So he said: By God! if you mix with parties who threaten you until security overtakes you, it is better for you than that you should fraternize with parties who make you feel safe until fear overtakes you.

Abu Sulayman, ad-Darani [E. 76 f., d. 215/830] said: Fear has never abandoned any heart but a ruin. And `A’isha [T. 26, d. 57/676-7] said: I said: O Messenger of God: Those who give what they give and their hearts are fearful (Q. xxiii, 62). Does this refer to the man who steals and commits adultery? He said: No, but to the man who fasts and prays (the statutory prayers) and gives supererogatory alms and fears that it may not be accepted of him.

And `Uqba b. `Amir [T.T., vii, 242 (439), d. 38/658-9; T. 119] said: What is salvation O Messenger of God? He said: Keep a rein on your tongue, keep to your house and weep for your sins.

It was customary with Muhammad b. al-Munkadir [T.T., ix, 473 (767), d. c. 130/755; T. 119] when he wept to wipe his face and beard with his tears and to say: I have heard that the Fire will not consume a place which tears have wiped.

So the most ultimate objective of the believer is that his hope and fear should be in equilibrium, and the dominance of hope with the most of people would be a leaning on self-deceit and a dearth of ‘knowledge’. For this reason God has united both of them in the description of the persons whom He has eulogized. For He said: They pray to their Lord through fear and yearning. (Q. xxxii, 16). And He said: They pray to Us through yearning and awe. (Q. xxi, 90).

So Yahya b. Mu’adh said: Whoever serves God with undiluted fear is drowned in a sea of reflection. And whoever serves Him with undiluted hope goes astray in a desert of self-deceit. And whoever serves Him with fear and hope is established in a highway of recollection. And Makhul [T.T., x, 289 (509), d. 113/731-2; T. 101] of Damascus said: Whoever serves God with fear is a Kharijite [Haruri. Dozy, in loc., who says that the meaning is strong, generous, alluding to the Kharijites who fought under the name of Harurites], and whoever serves Him with hope is a Murjite [One who defers, that is, who postpones judgement, until it is pronounced by God on the Day of Judgement. See M.T., r22-7], and whoever serves Him with love is a free-thinker [Or, perhaps, Manichaean. See L.H.A., 375, n. 2, for observations on zindiq], and whoever serves Him with fear and hope and love is a Unitarian. Therefore these three conditions cannot but be united, and the dominance of fear is most salutary, except at the point of death. At death the dominance of hope and optimism are the most salutary, because fear has the effect of the whip which urges to action, and the time of action has passed away, and so the person who is at the point of death has no power over action. Then the means of fear do not avail, for they cut the sinews of his heart and assist the hastening of his death.

And, when death was present with Sulayman at-Taymi [T.T., iv, 175 (304), d. 172/788-9], he said to his son: O my son, tell me about the indulgences of God and remind me about hope, so that I may meet God supposing the best of Him. Similarly when death was present with ath-Thawri [Sufyan, p. 7, n. 3] and his pangs were intensified, the Scholars gathered around him lending him hope. And Ahmad b. Hanbal [H.A., 399, d. 241/855] said to his son at death: Remind me of the traditions which have hope and optimism in them. And the goal of all that was that he should commend God to himself.

`Ali said: Whoever longs for the Garden is diverted from lusts, and whoever guards against the Fire recoils from things forbidden.

Dhu’l-Nun said: The fear of the Fire in comparison with the fear of alienation is like a drop which is shed in a fathomless sea. And this is the fear of the Knowledgeable [See p. 10, n. 2] according as He said: Only the knowledgeable among His creatures fear God. (Q. xxxv, 25).

And Abu ‘l-Darda’ [T.T., viii, 175 (315), d. 32/652-3; T. 23] was in the habit of swearing by God: There is no one who thought himself secure because of his faith from being plundered by God at death, but He plundered him. And Sahl used to say: The fear of the Sincere at the evil of the Seal is present at every impulse and motion, and they are those whom God has described when He said: And their hearts are quaking. (Q. xxiii, 62). And, when Sufyan was at the point of death, he began to weep and be grief-stricken, and so it was said to him: O Abu `Abd Allah, keep hoping, for the pardon of God is greater than your sins. So he said: Is it then because of my sins that I weep? If I knew that I should die a Unitarian, I would not be concerned should I meet God with sins the like of mountains.

And Sahl used to say: The novice fears lest he may be tried by disobedience, and the Gnostic fears lest he may be tried by unbelief. And Abu Yazid [R.R., 90-103, d. 261/875] used to say: Whenever I repair to the mosque, it is as if a girdle were around my middle [i.e. the belt of a Christian monk], and I am afraid that it may lead me to the Church and the House of Fire, until I enter the mosque and the girdle is severed from me. And this happens to me five times every day [i.e. in connection with the five statutory prayers].

And it is related concerning the Messiah that he said: O band of disciples, you are afraid of deeds of disobedience, and we of the band of the prophets are afraid of unbelief.

And if you say: Surely the fear of many of these people goes back to the evil of the Seal, so what is the meaning of the evil of the Seal? Know that the evil of the Seal has two degrees, one greater than the other. As for the major degree which most inspires dread, it consists in the fact that at the throes of death and the appearance of its terrors, the heart is dominated either by doubt or apostasy, and the spirit is snatched away when apostasy or doubt is the dominant state. And so what has gained ascendancy over the heart on account of the binding of apostasy is a veil between it and God forever. And that decrees alienation in perpetuity and everlasting punishment.

And the second and lesser degree is constituted by a man’s heart being dominated at death by the love of some worldly affair and lust, and this is imaged in his heart which is swamped by it, so that, in that state,there is room for nothing else.

Nor have they inclined to the different kinds of systematic theologians, accepting on authority their divergent sayings; and, for that reason, he (Muhammad) said: The majority of the people of the Garden are simple folk. And, for that reason, the Fathers proscribed research and enquiry and the wading into systematic theology and the examination of these matters.

And, when the throes of death come, the weakness of that love is intensified in impotence, I mean the love of God, with reference to the terror of separation from this world which appears, since it is the object of desire which is dominant over the heart. So the heart is afflicted with the terror of being separated from the world, and sees that it is from God, and so its most inward occupation is the dislike of the power of death over it-and loathing of it in so much as it is from God. So he is afraid that it may arouse in his inner self a loathing of God in the place of love. Just as the person who loves his son with a weak love, when his son has seized his possessions which are dearer to him than his son and has consumed them, this weak love is turned into loathing. And, if the departure of his spirit should happen to fall at that instant in which he is affected by this impulse, then he has been sealed with evil and has perished with an everlasting death. And the cause which leads to a Seal like this is the dominance of the love of the world and reliance on it, and joy in the means to it, together with weakness of faith which determines the weakness of the love of God.

Hence whoever finds the love of God in his heart more dominant than the love of the world (even if he should be in love with the world also) is more remote from this danger. And the love of the world is the head of every sin and is the incurable disease, and includes in its scope different classes of people. And all of that is due to paucity of the ‘knowledge’ of God, since only he who ‘knows’ Him can love Him. And, in reference to this He said: If your fathers and your sons and your brothers and your wives and your clan, and properties which you have acquired, and trade which you fear may grow slack, and dwellings in which you find satisfaction, are dearer to you than God and His Messenger and spiritual combat in His path then wait until God brings His command. (Q. ix, 24).

Therefore everyone whose spirit is severed from him in a state when the impulse of distaste towards God was in his mind and the hatred of the action of God was visible in his heart in respect of its effecting a separation between him and his family and his wealth and the remainder of his objects of desire, his death will be an advance upon what he loathes and a separation from what he loves, and so he will advance upon God as would a runaway slave who is odious, when he is brought forward to his master by force. And there is no concealing what he deserves of chastisement and punishment.

As for him who dies in a state of loving God, he will advance upon God as would the well-doing servant who longs after his master; who has endured the difficulties of actions and the toils of journeyings out of a yearning to meet him. And there is no concealing the joys and delights which he will encounter simply from his reunion, apart from what he will merit in the way of kindnesses of preferment and new benefits.

For a man dies as he has lived and is gathered (to judgment) as he has died, and, for that reason, it is related concerning a greengrocer that he was concentrating at death on the Two Words [i.e. the two affirmations of the Shahada, there is no god but God, and Muhammad is His Messenger. See Ihya', i, 95-9] while he was saying five, six, four, and was preoccupied with counting with which he had long familiarity before death.

And, for that reason, Mutarrif b. `Abd Allah [T.T., x, 173 (324), d.c. 95/713; T. 60] used to say: Truly I do not wonder at the man who perishes how he perishes, but I wonder at the man who is saved how he is saved.

Exposition of the States of the Prophets and Angels in respect of Fear

`A’isha related that whenever the air was stirred and a tempestuous wind blew, the countenance of the Messenger of God would alter and lie would rise up and pace up and down the room and would go in and out. All that because of the fear of the chastisement of God. And he (Muhammad) recited a verse in the Sura al-Waqi’a and then he swooned. And God said: And Moses fell in a swoon. (Q. vii, 139). And the Messenger of God saw the form of Gabriel at Abtah [Y., i, 92], and fell in a swoon. And it is related that when he (Gabriel) engaged in prayer, there was heard in his breast a bubbling like that of a cauldron. And he (Muhammad) said: Gabriel never came to me but he was trembling because of his separation from the Almighty.

And Abu’l-Darda’ said that the bubbling of the heart of Abraham, the Friend of the Merciful, through fear of his Lord, was heard at the distance of a mile, when he engaged in prayer. And Mujahid [T.T., x, 42 (68), d.c. 100/718] said: David wept for forty days prostrate in worship, without lifting his head, so that the pastures sprouted because of his tears and his head was covered over. So he was addressed: O David, are you hungry? If so, you may eat. Are you thirsty? If so, you may drink. Are you naked? If so, you may be clothed. Then he wept so bitterly that he energized the lute, and he was burnt up with the heat of his fear. Then God revealed to him repentance and pardon and he said: O Lord, set my sin in my palm. So his sin was inscribed on his palm, and he did not extend his palm for food and drink or for any other purpose without seeing it, and it made him weep. He (the narrator) continued: And he was brought a bowl two thirds full, and, when he took it, he saw his sin, and would not put it to his lip until it overflowed with his tears. And it is told of him that he had not raised his head to heaven up till the time of his death out of reverence for God. And he used to say in his supplication: O God, when I recollect my sin, the earth, for all its breadth, hems me in, and, when I recollect Your mercy, my spirit is restored. Praise be to You O God, the physicians among Your creatures have come that they may nurse to health my sin, and they all point me to You. So may reprobation overtake them who despair of Your mercy.

And al-Fudayl said: I have heard that David recollected his sin on a certain day and bounded away shrieking, with his hand laid on his head, until he reached the mountains. And the wild beasts gathered to him [See G. 50-51] and he said: Return, I do not desire you. My only desire is for the person weeping because of his sin. So let no one confront me except weeping, and whoever is not a sinner let him not contrive sin for David. And he was chided for his prolific weeping and so he said: Leave me alone. I am weeping before the exit of the day of weeping, before the tearing apart of the bones and the burning of the intestines, and before the angels ordain severe penalties for me. They do not disobey God in respect of what He commands and they perform what they are commanded. And `Abd al-`Aziz b. `Umar [T.T., vi, 349 (670), d. c. 150/767] said: Whenever David committed a sin, his voice was diminished and he said: O Lord, my voice is hoarse among the pure voices of the Sincere. And it is reported that, whenever he wept for a long time and it did not benefit him, his power was straitened and his perplexity intensified and he would say: O Lord, will You not pity my weeping? And God revealed to him: O David, you have forgotten your sin and remembered your weeping. So he said: My God and my Master, in what way do I forget my sin? And yet, when I recited the psalms, the running water desisted from its flow, and the blowing of the wind was stilled, and the birds furnished shade to my head, and the wild beasts were intimates at my palace. O my God and my Master, what then is this alienation which is between me and You? And God revealed to him: That was the intimacy of obedience and this is the alienation of disobedience. O David, Adam was one of My creatures. I created him with My hand and I breathed into him of My spirit and I made My angels do obeisance to him; and I clothed him in the robe of My preferment, and I crowned him with the unique crown of My dignity and image, and I gave him to wife Eve, My handmaid, and settled him in My Garden. He disobeyed Me, and so I expelled him from My precincts naked and abased. O David, listen to Me and I shall speak the truth. You obeyed Us and We obeyed you; you asked Us and We gave to you; and you disobeyed Us and We showed forbearance to you. And, if you return to Us in your former state, We shall receive you.

And Yahya b. Abi Kathir [T.T., xi, 268 (539) d. c. 130/747] said: I have heard that it was David’s custom when he desired to engage in weeping to pass the time for seven days beforehand neither eating food nor taking drink, nor approaching women. And, when it was a day beforehand, the pulpit was brought out to him to the desert, and he commanded Solomon to cry out with a voice that would cross the countryside and its environs of thickets and hills and mountains and deserts and monastic cells and churches [Note the anachronisms]. And in it he proclaimed: Are there not those who desire to hear David’s wailing for himself? Let them then come along. He went on: And the wild beasts come from the deserts and the hills and the lions from the thickets and the reptiles from the mountains and the birds from the nests and the virgins from their bowers. And the people assemble for that day and David comes to ascend the pulpit, and the children of Israel surround him, and every kind according to its class surrounds him, and Solomon stands by his side.

So David launches into an encomium of his Lord and breaks into weeping and shrieking. Then he launches into the recollection of the Garden and the Fire, and the reptiles die together with a group of the wild beasts and the lions and the people. Then he launches into the terrors of the Day of Resurrection and into wailing over himself and a group of every class dies. And, when Solomon saw the large numbers of the dead, he said: O father, you have decimated your audience. They are all decimated and sections of the children of Israel and of the beasts and reptiles have died. So he launches into petition, and, while he is in this posture, one of the devotees of the children of Israel calls out to him: O David, you are over-hasty in seeking your reward from your Lord.

He went on: And David falls in a swoon, and, when Solomon noted what had overtaken him, he brought a mattress and carried him on it. Then he commanded someone to call out: Is there not someone who had a friend or relative with David? Let him then bring a mattress and carry him off, for the recollection of the Garden and the Fire has killed those who were with him. So a woman would bring a mattress and would bear away her relative saying: O you whom the recollection of the Fire has killed. O you whom the fear of God has killed. Then, when David revived, he stood up and placed his hand on his head and entered his chapel and locked its door, saying: O God of David, are You angry with David? And he communed ceaselessly with his Lord. So Solomon arrives and squats at the door and asks for permission to come in. Then he enters and has with him a barley bannock and he says: O father, build up your strength with this according as you desire. So he eats of that cake what God wills and then he goes out to the children of Israel and is in their midst.

And Yazid ar-Raqqashi [T.T., xi, 309 (597), d. c. 115/733] said: David went out among the people on a certain day to preach to them and inspire fear in them. And about forty thousand went out and thirty thousand of them died and only about ten thousand returned. He went on: And he had two slave girls whom he had appointed, so that, when fear came to him and he collapsed and was agitated, they squatted on his breast and legs for fear that his limbs and joints would be dismembered and he would die.

And Ibn `Umar said: John, the son of Zachariah [i.e. John the Baptist], went into the Jerusalem temple (he was a lad of eight years) and looked at their devotees who were clad in shirts of hair and wool; and he observed their zealots who had bored through their clavicles and inserted chains in them, and fastened themselves to the extremities of the temple. And that filled him with awe. So he made to return to his parents and passed by two lads at play and they said to him: O John, come and play with us. So he said: Truly I was not created for play. He went on: So he came to his parents and asked them to clothe him in hair and they did so, and he returned to the temple, and served in it by day and kept the lamps trimmed by night, until he attained his fifteenth birthday.

Then he went out and haunted the lofty mountains and sub-terranean paths of the earth. So his parents went out in search of him and they overtook him by the river Jordan, and he had soaked his feet in the water until the thirst was almost killing him, saying the while: By Your Might and Majesty, I will not taste a cool drink, until I know where I stand with You. So his parents asked him to breakfast on a barley bannock which they had with them and to drink some of that water. So he did it and made expiation for the breaking of his oath and commended filial piety.

Thus his parents brought him back to the temple, and, when he stood praying, he used to weep so that the trees and clods would weep with him, (and Zachariah would weep because of his weeping) until he (John) would go into a faint. And he would weep without remission so that the tears pierced the flesh of his cheeks and his molars were visible to the onlookers. So his mother said to him: O my son would that you would permit me to fetch for you something to cover up your molars from those who look on! So he gave her permission and she procured two pieces of felt and stuck them to his cheeks. So it came about that, whenever he got up to pray, he wept, and, when his tears saturated the two pads, his mother came to him and wrung them out; and, when he saw his tears flowing over his mother’s forearms, he said: O God, these are my tears and this is my mother and I am Your creature, and of those who are merciful You are the most merciful. So Zachariah said to him one day: My son, I have asked my Lord to bestow you on me, that my eyes might be refreshed with you. So John said: O my father, Truly Gabriel has reported to me that between the Garden and the Fire there is a desert which only those who weep will cross. So Zachariah said: O my son in that case weep on.

And the Messiah said: O band of disciples, the fear of God and the love of Paradise produce patience in the face of difficulty and keep you at a distance from the world. In truth I say to you: Surely the eating of barley and sleeping on middens with the dogs is a small price in the quest for Paradise. And it was said: Whenever the Friend [i.e. Abraham] recollected his sin, he went into a faint and the commotion of his heart would be heard for miles. Then Gabriel would come and say to him: Your Lord greets you with peace and says: Do I see a friend who fears his Friend? So he would say: O Gabriel, truly, when I recollect my sin, I forget my friendship.

So these are the states of the prophets and see to it that you reflect on them, for they are the most ‘knowledgeable’ of God’s creatures concerning God and His attributes. May God’s blessing be on them all and on all the creatures of God who are brought near. And our sufficiency is God and the grace of the Trustee [i.e. Muhammad].

And it used to be the case with `Ali b. al-Husayn [T.T., vii, 304 (520), d. c. 94/712; T. 70] that, whenever he performed his ablutions, his colour became pallid and his family would say to him: What is this that has become habitual with you, whenever you perform your ablutions? So lie would say: Do you know before Whom I am minded to stand? (in prayer) And Musa b. Mas’ud [T.T., x, 370 (657), d.c. 220/835] said: Whenever we granted an audience to ath-Thawri, we were as if the Fire had surrounded us in respect of what we saw of his fear and grief. And Mudar [L. vi, 46 (178)], the Reader, recited on a certain day: This is our Book which speaks the truth against you – to the end of the verse. (Q. xlv, 28). And `Abd al-Wahid b. Zayd [T.T., vi, 434 (912), d. c. 170/786; T. 237. Ziyad in T.T. and T] wept until he swooned; and, when he revived, he said: By Your Might, I have never disobeyed You so far as in me lies, so assist me with Your furtherance that I may obey You.

And there was recited in the presence of Yahya al-Bakka’ [I.S., vii, 13]: If you were to see when they are halted by their Lord. (Q. vi, 30). And he gave a shriek and remained ill because of it for the space of four months, being visited from every corner of Basra.

And Malik b. Dinar said: I was circumambulating the House, when I came upon a little slave girl performing her devotions and clinging to the curtains of the Ka’ba, while she said: O Lord, how many a lust there is whose pleasure has departed, and whose consequences have remained! O Lord, do You not possess any other correction and punishment save the Fire? And she was weeping and maintained this her posture until dawn broke. Malik said: So, when I saw that, I placed my hand on my head, shrieking: I am saying may his mother be bereft of Malik!

And `Umar b. `Abd al-`Aziz [T.T., vii, 475 (790), d. 101/720; T. 112] said: It was for nothing but considerations of mercy that God set this negligence in the hearts of the creatures, in order that they might not die for fear of God.

And as-Sari [E., 39 f.; K 110-11. d. c. 253/867] said: Truly I look at my nose several times every day for fear that my face may have been blackened. And Abu Hafs [Probably al-Kahasaf, a friend of al-Muhasibi; E. 38; or Abu Hafs, al-Haddad of Nishapur, d. 266/879-880, Ta'rikh, ii, 213] said: For forty years my belief concerning myself has been that God will direct to me a look of severe displeasure and my deeds point towards that. And Ibn al-Mubarak [T.T., v, 382 (657), d. 181/797-8] went out among his companions on a certain day and said: Truly I took a liberty yesterday with God. I asked Him for the Garden.

And al-Fudayl said: Truly I do not covet the prophet who is sent or the king who is preferred or the creature who is sound in faith. Will not these encounter the resurrection? The only person whom I covet is he who was not created. And it is recorded that the fear of the Fire entered a stripling among the Helpers, and he was weeping to such an extent that it detained him in the house. So the Prophet came and went in to him and embraced him and he fell dead. So he said: Prepare your companion for burial, for separation from the Fire has crushed his liver.

And it was said to al-Farqad as-Sabkhi [T.T., viii, 262 (486), d. 131/748-9]: Tell us the most wonderful thing you have heard concerning the children of Israel. So he said: I have heard that five hundred virgins entered the Jerusalem temple, their attire being wool and hair-cloth; and they were recollecting God’s reward and punishment, and all of them died in a single day.

And `Ata’ as-Sulami [T.T., vii, 211 (391) d. c. 750 A.D. al-Aslami in T.T] was one of those who fear and he would never ask God for the Garden; all he would ask for was forgiveness. And it was said to him during his illness: Do you not desire anything? So he said: Surely, fear of Gehenna has not left a place in my heart for desire. And it was said: Truly he did not lift his head to heaven nor laugh for forty years, and he raised his head one day and was stricken with fear and collapsed, and a slit was made in his stomach. And he would feel his body on certain nights for fear that he had been metamorphosed. And whenever a gale or lightning struck them or dearness of food, he would say: This is striking them on my account, would that `Ata’ were dead for the relief of the people. And `Ata’ said: We went out with `Utba, al-Ghulam [Ta'rikh, ii, 211, a disciple of al-Hasan, al-Basri], and in our company were adults and adolescents, to pray the dawn prayer with the sunset purification. Their legs had become swollen through their long stand, their eyes were sunken in their heads, their skin stuck to their bones, and their veins stood out as if they were whipcords. They became as if their skins were the rinds of water melons and as if they had come out from the grave to report how God preferred the obedient and deposed the disobedient. So, while they were going along, one of them passed by a certain place and he fell in a faint and his companions sat round him weeping on a day when the cold was intense. And his forehead was dripping sweat, so they brought water and wiped his face and he recovered. And they asked him about his experience, so he said: Truly I remembered that I had disobeyed God in that place.

And Salih al-Murri [T.T., iv 382 (641), d.c. 115/733] said: I recited to a man who was one of the devotees: On the Day when their faces will be turned about in the Fire, they will say: O that we had obeyed God and the Messenger. (Q. xxxiii, 66). So he fell in a swoon. Then he revived and said: Give me more of it, O Salih, for I find it perplexing. So I recited: Whenever they wish to come out of it, they will be sent back into it. (Q. xxxii, 20). So he fell dead.

And it is reported that Zarara b. Abi Awfa [T.T., iii, 322 (598), d. 93/711-2] led the people in the morning prayer, and, when he recited: When the Trump is sounded (Q. lxxiv, 8), he fell in a faint and was carried away a corpse.

And Maymun b. Mihran [T.T., x, 390 (803), d. 116/734-5; T. 93] said: When this verse was revealed: Surely Gehenna will be the promised land for them all, (Q. xv, 43), Salman, the Persian [I.H., I, 233-42. T.T., iv, 137 (233), d.c. 32/652], gave a shriek and placed his hand on his head and went out as a fugitive for three days during which they could not contain him.

And it was said: Sufyan ath-Thawri was ill and his symptoms were disclosed to a Dhimmi [Ahl adh-Dhimma, people of the covenant or obligation; a term first applied to the Ahl al-Kitab, that is, Jews, Christians and Sabians, and later interpreted to include Zoroastrians and others. H.A., 170, n. 3.] physician and he said: Fear has severed the liver of this man. And he came and felt his arteries and said: I did not know there was his like in the Muslim community. And Ahmad b. Hanbal said: I asked God that He would give access to a gate of fear, so He opened up and I was afraid for my reason and said: O Lord, according as I can bear it. So my heart was quietened. And ‘Abd Allah b. ‘Amr. b. al-’As said: Weep and, if you cannot weep make a pretence of weeping. By the One in whose hand my soul is, if any of you knew (what was in store) he would scream until his voice was cut off and would pray until his back was broken. And it is as if he pointed to the meaning of his (Muhammad’s) saying: If you knew what I know, you would laugh little and weep much.

And al-’Anbari [T.T., x, 194 (324), d. 196/811-12] said: The Masters of Tradition were assembled at the gate of al-Fudayl b. ‘Iyad and he came suddenly into their view at a window. He was weeping and his beard was quivering and he said: Get down to your Qur’an and to prayer. Woe unto you, this is not a time for traditions. This is a time for nothing but weeping and entreaty and humility and prayer like that of a drowning man. Guard your tongue and preserve your mobility and discipline your heart and hold on to what you ‘know’ and let go what you abhor. And al-Fudayl was seen walking on a certain day and it was said to him: Whither bound? He said: I do not know. And he was walking about dejected with fear.

And Dharr b. ‘Amr said to his father ‘Amr b. Dharr [T.T., vii, 444 (731). d. c. 153/770]: Why is it that the theologians discourse and no one weeps, whereas, when you discourse, I hear weeping on every side? So he said: O my son, the weeping of the bereaved mother is not like the weeping of the woman who is hired. And it is related that a crowd of people halted by a devotee who was weeping and they said: What is it that makes you weep? May God have compassion on you. He said: An ulcer which those who fear find in their heart. They said: And what is it? He said: The fear of the summons for presentation to God. And al-Khawwas [K. 153-4 or E. 38 or E. 72] used to weep and say in his supplication: I am lifted up in pride and my flesh is too weak to serve You, so embrace me.

And Salih al-Murri said: Ibn as-Sammak [G. 43, 48. d. 183/799] came up to us once and said: Show me something of the marvels of your devotees. So I brought him to a man who was in his hut in a certain quarter of the town, and we asked permission to enter, and behold! a man who was working with palm fronds and I recited to him: See the shackles and chains upon their necks; they will be dragged into the hot (water), then they will be stoked into the Fire. (Q. xl, 73). And the man gave a gasp and fell in a faint and we went out from his presence and left him in this state. And we went off to another man, and we entered in to him and I recited this verse and he gave a gasp and fell in a faint. So we went off and asked permission to go in to a third man and he said: Enter, if you will not distract me from my Lord. So I recited: That is for him who fears My judgement-seat and fears a threat. (Q. xiv, 17). And he gave a gasp and blood appeared from his nostrils and he wallowed in his blood until it was dried up. So we left him in this state and went out, and I took him on a tour of six persons, from the presence of each we went out, leaving him in a faint. Then I brought him to the seventh and we asked permission to enter and behold! a woman from within the hut saying: Enter. So we entered and behold! a shaykh in a trance, sitting in his oratory. So we greeted him, but he did not notice our salutation, and so I said to him in a raised voice: Is there not a morrow appointed for the creature? So the shaykh said: In whose Presence? Alas! for you. Then he remained stupified, opening his mouth and, with a fixed stare, crying out with his weak voice: Alas! Alas! until the voice was cut off. So his wife said: Make your way out, for you will not benefit from him for the moment. And, when that was over, I enquired of the people, and behold! three had revived and three had attained to God. And as for the shaykh he remained in his condition, dazed and bewildered, for three days, without performing a religious obligation, and, when the three days had passed, he came to his senses.

And Yazid b. al-Aswad [T.T., xi, 313 (599)] used to be of the opinion that he was one of the Foundation Members [See Lane, in loc., certain righteous persons of whom the world is never destitute. When one dies, God substitutes another in his place. About forty in number-the same number as those who took part in the Battle of Badr. Hence abdal = Substitutes or Successors. See K. 214], and he had sworn that he would never laugh nor sleep in a recumbent position, nor eat butter. So he was never seen laughing nor lying down nor eating butter until he died.

A woman client [mawlat, a Muslim who was not an Arab. See H.A., 172, n. 6] went in to `Umar b. `Abd al-`Aziz and greeted him. Then she took up her stance towards the oratory in his room and she prayed in it with two bows and her eyes conquered her and she was lulled to sleep and was induced to weep in her sleep. Then she was roused and said: O Commander of the Faithful, by God! I have seen a miracle. He said: And what was it? She said: I saw the Fire and its flames were licking its people. Then a bridge [See p. 36, n. 4] was brought and was placed over the centre of it. So he said: Go on. She said: And `Abd al-Malik b. Marwan [H.A., 205 f., d. 705 A.D] was brought and he was borne on it, and he had gone only a little way when the bridge capsized him and he was flung into Gehenna. So `Umar said: Go on. She said: Then al-Walid b. `Abd al-Malik [H.A., 221, d. 715 A.D] was brought and he was borne on it, and he had gone only a little way when the bridge capsized him and he was flung into Gehenna. So `Umar said: Go on. She said: Then Sulayman b. `Abd al-Malik [H.A., 203 f., d. 717 A.D] was brought and he had progressed only a little way over it when the bridge capsized him and he was thrown in the same way. So `Umar said: Go on. She said: Then you were brought and by God! O Commander of the Faithful-then `Umar gave a shriek and fell in a faint. So she came up to his side and began shouting in his ear: O Commander of the Faithful, truly I saw you and by God! you were saved, truly I saw you and by God! you were saved. He (the narrator) went on: And she was calling out and he was shouting and scraping the ground with his feet.

And Tawwus used to roll out his mattress and lie down and toss about like a seed in the frying-pan. Then he would leap up and fold it up and would face the qibla [The direction of the prayer. H.A., 118] until morning and would say: The recollection of Gehenna has dispersed the sleep of those who fear.

And on the authority of Ibn as-Sammak who said: I preached on a certain day in a meeting and a youth in the crowd stood up and said: O Abu `Abbas, truly you have preached today such a word that I should not care were I never to hear another. I said: And what is it? He said: Your saying: The hearts of those who fear have grasped the duration of the two eternities, whether in the Garden or the Fire. Then he disappeared from my view and so I lost him in the meeting. Or, in another recension: I did not see him, so I enquired about him, and I was told that he was sick and was being visited. So I went to visit him and said: O my brother, what condition is this I see you in? So he said: O Abu `Abbas, it is the consequence of your saying: The hearts of those who fear have grasped the duration of the two eternities, whether in the Garden or the Fire. He went on: Then he died and I saw him in sleep and I said: O my brother, how did God deal with you? He said: He has pardoned me and shown me compassion and given me entrance to the Garden. I said: By what means? He said: By means of the word.

Truly the monk spoke the truth of whom `Isa b. Malik, al-Khawlani, (he was one of the most elect of the devotees) related that he saw him halted at the gate of the Jerusalem temple with the appearance of one grief-stricken through extreme dejection, his tears hardly ever dry, because of the profusion of his weeping. And `Isa said: When I saw him, his aspect terrified me and I said: O monk, lay an obligation on me to keep on your authority. So he said: O my brother, with what would I command you if you are able to occupy the place of a man whom wild beasts and reptiles have surrounded, and who is fearful and watchful, fearing lest he may be negligent and so the beasts will maul him, or distracted and the reptiles sting him. So his heart is filled with fear and terror, and he passes his nights in fear, even if those who delude themselves feel secure, and his days in grief, even if the empty-headed make merry. Then he turned his back on me and left me. So I said: Will you not tell me something more, perhaps it would benefit me? So he said: The smallest quantity of water satisfies the thirsty man. And he certainly spoke the truth, for fear will move soonest the heart which is pure, but every warning glances off the heart which is hardened.

And what he mentioned in his hypothesis is that wild beasts and reptiles had surrounded him. And so one ought not to suppose that it is (merely) hypothetical. No, it is reality, for, if you were to view your inner man with the light of insight, you would see it filled with different kinds of wild beasts and species of reptiles, like anger, lust, rancour, envy, pride, self-esteem, self-righteousness and the rest. And it is these which are constantly mauling you and stinging you, if you neglect them for an instant, except that your eye is veiled from the sight of them. So, when the cover is withdrawn and you are placed in your grave, you will encounter them and they will be imaged to you according to the forms and shapes which suit their respective meanings. So you will see with your eye scorpions and snakes and they will surround you in your grave. And these are nothing but the attributes present to you now whose forms have been disclosed to you. So, if you desire to slay and subdue them, you are able for it before death. So do it. But, if you do not, you will become habituated to stings and bites in the kernel of your heart, how much more in your outer flesh.

Subhana kallahumma wa bihamdika ash-haduana la illaha illa ant astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk, ameen.

Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wa salat wa salam ala Rasulullah

Religion creates the issue of exclusion. So how did the revelation of Islam deal with people who felt left out one way or another?

The following quotations (from Tafsir ibn Kathir) will shed some light on this topic. But a caveat to start: Consider all the trials and difficulties the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam faced and realize that no one was more included than him in humanity, as being the best of humanity, and yet no one was more excluded from humanity, ridiculed from the early days of Islam to today. This then is one of the many unique signs of Prophethood- the relating of God to Man.

Notice how Allah deals with the believers with Justice but also with Mercy- if He was Just only, we’d be destroyed, but with His Mercy He shows us and sets up the spirit of Islam so as to use mercy, generosity, compassion and leniency as the ultimate Islamic panacea.

72 Sects

I will briefly mention this since this explanation on this hadith because this hadith is almost like a super-hadith- it is very common and is used to exclude many people from Islam and has been used by every cult or deviant group throughout Muslim history. This hadith can mean one can enters Jahannam and then still enter Jannah after a purification. No, this hadith mainly refers to those who are purified in this world and will enter Jannah without ever entering Jahannam. This hadith is then to indicate the reward for the exceptionally pious, NOT to indicate the eternal punishment for those who make mistakes. The common narration is 73 sects of which 72 will be in Hell, 1 will be in Jannah, while another narration mentioned by Shaykh Hamza indicates 72 will be in Heaven except for 1 will be in Hell. So contemplate on that and you see how great Allah’s mercy is.

Jannah

-Imam Ahmad narrated a Hadith that contains good news for every believer that his soul will be wandering in Paradise, as well, eating from its fruits, enjoying its delights and happiness and tasting the honor that Allah has prepared in it for him. This Hadith has a unique, authentic chain of narration that includes three of the Four Imams. Imam Ahmad narrated this Hadith from Muhammad bin Idris Ash-Shafi`i who narrated it from Malik bin Anas Al-Asbuhi, from Az-Zuhri, from `Abdur-Rahman bin Ka`b bin Malik that his father said that the Messenger of Allah said,

«نَسَمَةُ الْمُؤْمِنِ طَائِرٌ يَعْلُقُ فِي شَجَرِ الْجَنَّـةِ حَتَّى يَرْجِعَهُ اللهُ إِلى جَسَدِهِ يَوْمَ يَبْعَثُه»

(The soul of the believer becomes a bird that feeds on the trees of Paradise, until Allah sends him back to his body when He resurrects him.)

This hadith is significant because this reward is well-known among Muslims specifically for martyrs, but this hadith with a strong chain indicates it will be enjoyed by all Muslims. The following 2 hadith are from a talk from Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad worth noting:

- Shafa’ati bi ahlil kabair minal ummati (My intercession is for the sinners of my community) i.e. Muslims
- Shafa’ati bi akhthari man fil ardh min khajarin wa mudhar (My intercession will be for the majority of the people of Earth hadith) This hadith can mean non-Muslims as well, and the Prophet (salallahu alayhi wasalam)’s Intercession is accepted by God.

Have-nots

-Al-Bukhari recorded that Usamah bin Zayd said that Allah’s Messenger rode a donkey with a saddle covered by a velvet sheet and let Usamah ride behind him (on the donkey). The Prophet wanted to visit Sa`d bin `Ubadah in Bani Al-Harith bin Al-Khazraj, and this occurred before the battle of Badr. The Prophet passed by a gathering in which `Abdullah bin Ubayy bin Salul was sitting, before `Abdullah bin Ubayy became Muslim. That gathering was made up of various Muslims as well as Mushriks, who worshipped the idols, and some Jews. `Abdullah bin Rawahah was sitting in that gathering. When the Prophet reached `Abdullah bin Ubayy, the donkey caused some sand to fall on the group. Then, `Abdullah bin Ubayy covered his nose with his robe and said, `Do not fill us with sand.’ The Messenger of Allah greeted the gathering with Salam, called them to Allah and recited some of the Qur’an to them. `Abdullah bin Ubayy said, `O fellow! No other speech is better than what you said, if it was true! However, do not bother us in our gatherings. Go back to your place and whoever came to you, narrate your stories to him.’ `Abdullah bin Rawahah said, `Rather, O Messenger of Allah! Attend our gatherings for we like that.’ The Muslims, Mushriks and Jews then cursed each other, and they almost fought with each other. The Prophet tried to calm them down, until they finally settled. The Prophet rode his donkey and went to Sa`d bin `Ubadah, saying, `O Sa`d! Have you heard what Abu Hubbab said (meaning `Abdullah bin Ubayy) He said such and such things. ‘ Sa`d said, `O Messenger of Allah! Forgive and pardon him. By Allah, Who sent down the Book to you, Allah brought us the truth that you came with at a time when the people of this city almost appointed him king. When Allah changed all that with the truth that He gave you, he choked on it, and this is the reason behind the behavior you saw from him.’ The Messenger of Allah forgave him. Indeed, the Messenger of Allah and his Companions used to forgive the Mushriks and the People of the Scriptures, just as Allah commanded them, and they used to tolerate the harm that they suffered. Allah said,

[وَلَتَسْمَعُنَّ مِنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُواْ الْكِتَـبَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ وَمِنَ الَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُواْ أَذًى كَثِيراً]

(and you shall certainly hear much that will grieve you from those who received the Scripture before you (Jews and Christians) and from those who ascribe partners to Allah;) [3:186], and,

Death is for ALL

-Ibn Jarir recorded that Abu Ad-Darda’ used to say, “Death is better for every believer. Death is better for every disbeliever, and those who do not believe me should read Allah’s statements,

[وَمَا عِندَ اللَّهِ خَيْرٌ لِّلأَبْرَارِ]

(and that which is with Allah is the best for Al-Abrar), and,

[وَلاَ يَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ أَنَّمَا نُمْلِى لَهُمْ خَيْرٌ لاًّنفُسِهِمْ إِنَّمَا نُمْلِى لَهُمْ لِيَزْدَادُواْ إِثْمَاً وَلَهْمُ عَذَابٌ مُّهِينٌ ]

(And let not the disbelievers think that Our postponing of their punishment is good for them. We postpone the punishment only so that they may increase in sinfulness. And for them is a disgraceful torment.) [3:178].”

The Equity of Women

-Allah said,

[فَاسْتَجَابَ لَهُمْ رَبُّهُمْ]

(So their Lord accepted of them), answered their invocation. Sa`id bin Mansur recorded that Salamah, a man from the family of Umm Salamah said, “Umm Salamah said, `O Messenger of Allah! Allah does not mention women in connection with Hijrah (Migration).’ Allah sent down the Ayah,

[فَاسْتَجَابَ لَهُمْ رَبُّهُمْ أَنِّى لاَ أُضِيعُ عَمَلَ عَامِلٍ مِّنْكُمْ مِّن ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنثَى]

(So their Lord accepted of them (their supplication and answered them), “Never will I allow to be lost the work of any of you, be he male or female.)

The Ansar say that Umm Salamah was the first woman to migrate to them.” Al-Hakim collected this Hadith in his Mustadrak, and said, “It is Sahih according to the criteria of Al-Bukhari but they [Al-Bukhari and Muslim] did not collect it”.

Allah’s statement,

[أَنِّى لاَ أُضِيعُ عَمَلَ عَامِلٍ مِّنْكُمْ مِّن ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنثَى]

(“Never will I allow to be lost the work of any of you, be he male or female,) explains the type of answer Allah gave them, stating that no deed of any person is ever lost with Him. Rather, He will completely reward each person for his or her good deeds. Allah’s statement,

[بَعْضُكُم مِّن بَعْضٍ]

(You are (members) one of another) means, you are all equal in relation to gaining My reward.

Every dispute will be brought before Allah

-Ibn Abi Hatim, may Allah have mercy on him, recorded that Ibn Az-Zubayr, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “When the Ayah

[ثُمَّ إِنَّكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَـمَةِ عِندَ رَبِّكُمْ تَخْتَصِمُونَ ]

(Then, on the Day of Resurrection, you will be disputing before your Lord.) was revealed, Az-Zubayr, may Allah be pleased with him, said, `O Messenger of Allah, will we repeat our disputes’ He said,

«نَعَم»

(Yes.) He (Az-Zubayr) said, `This is a very serious matter.”’ Ahmad recorded from Az-Zubayr bin Al-`Awwam, may Allah be pleased with him, that when this Surah was revealed to the Messenger of Allah :

[إِنَّكَ مَيِّتٌ وَإِنَّهُمْ مَّيِّتُونَ - ثُمَّ إِنَّكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَـمَةِ عِندَ رَبِّكُمْ تَخْتَصِمُونَ ]

(Verily, you will die, and verily, they (too) will die. Then, on the Day of Resurrection, you will be disputing before your Lord.) Az-Zubayr, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “O Messenger of Allah, will the sins that we committed against others in this world be repeated for us” He said,

«نَعَمْ، لَيُكَرَّرَنَّ عَلَيْكُمْ حَتْى يُؤَدَّى إِلَى كُلِّ ذِي حَقَ حَقُّه»

(Yes, they will be repeated until everyone who is entitled will have his rights restored to him. ) Az-Zubayr, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “By Allah, it is a very serious matter.” It was also recorded by At-Tirmidhi, who said “Hasan Sahih.” `Ali bin Abi Talhah reported that Ibn `Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said:

[ثُمَّ إِنَّكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَـمَةِ عِندَ رَبِّكُمْ تَخْتَصِمُونَ ]

(Then, on the Day of Resurrection, you will be disputing before your Lord.) means, the truthful one will dispute with the liar, the oppressed will dispute with the oppressor, the one who is guided will dispute with the one who is misguided and the weak will dispute with the arrogant. Ibn Mandah recorded in Kitab Ar-Ruh that Ibn `Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “The people will dispute on the Day of Resurrection, to the extent that the soul will dispute with the body. The soul will say to the body, `You did such and such,’ and the body will say to the soul, `You told me to do it and you tempted me.’ Then Allah will send an angel to judge between them, and he will say, `You two are like a man who cannot walk but can see, and a man who cannot see but can walk.’ They went into a garden and the one who could not walk said to the one who was blind, `I see fruit there, but I cannot reach it.’ The blind man said, `Climb on me and get it.’ So he climbed on him and got it. So which of them is the wrongdoer They will say, `Both of them.’ The angel will say to them, `You have passed judgement against yourselves.’ The body was a means of transportation for the soul.” Ibn Abi Hatim recorded that Sa`id bin Jubayr said that Ibn `Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “This Ayah was revealed and we did not know what it was revealed about:

[ثُمَّ إِنَّكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَـمَةِ عِندَ رَبِّكُمْ تَخْتَصِمُونَ ]

(Then, on the Day of Resurrection, you will be disputing before your Lord.)” He said, “We said, what will we dispute about There is no dispute between us and the People of the Book, so what will we dispute about Until the Fitnah occurred.” Then Ibn `Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “This is what our Lord promised us we would dispute about.” This was recorded by An-Nasa’i.

Conclusion

It is of interest because with the life of the Prophet salalahu alayhi wasalam we see God Himself dealing with how people feel left out or excluded. And yet at some level, there needs to be an acceptance of this exclusion. In fact, it is of significance that the pious prefer difficulty and exclusion, like the blind man who could’ve been cured by the Prophet (salallahu alayhi wasalam’s) dua, yet instead chose to endure patiently for the reward of Jannah.

In reading above narratoins there is an interaction between Justice, as we perceive it, and how Islam conceives Justice including within it Mercy. Allah commands Muslim to “adli wa’l ihsan- Justice and Excellence,” excellence which is implied as mercy and sincerity and acting generously with an awareness of the inequities of the world. We should take this into account because Allah is al-Adl (the Just) and yet He is also the Creator of Justice. So if the Creator of Justice is encouraging us to be merciful in how we look at the world with its fairness and unfairness- then how much more important is it?

Subhana kallahumma wa bihamdika ash-haduana la illaha illa ant astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk, ameen.

–

All quotations taken from Tafsir ibn Kathir: tafsir.com

A literary Brown Sahib

Some readings…

Ziauddin Sardar marvels at the brown sahibs

Native Orientalists at the Daily Times by Shahid Alam

The modern Brown Sahibs by Zafar Bangash

A literary Brown Sahib By Hassan Suroor

I would stretch it further and say we also have brown sahibs in the Middle east in the form of the Kings and Emirs and their love of all things Western. If you want to explore more on this phenomenon you could perhaps take a look at the story of the last Nizam of Hyderabad in this Youtube video.

Contrast this with the “Western mühtedî” namely, Tim Winters (Abdul Hakim Murad) the Englishman who has become Muslimized

HASAN SUROOR

At times I move between normalcy and anxiety, which can become severe brought upon these fears that grip me.

Three fears have stayed with me the longest. Wherever I stand, I remember Allah’s verse, “Kulla man alayha fa’an- And everything upon it will be obliterated” and lament that wherever I am, it will vanish and to not grow attached to this world. I then fear, that everything I am seeing before me, my family, friends are not actually occurring as permanently as I once thought they were- rather they are fast disappearing into the continuous march of the akhira towards me, so that everything I see through my eyes, I see no differently than I would recall a memory- every moment is nothing more than a flashback. And the third fear that shakes me, is I fear God’s verses on the Heaven’s and the Earth- that when I pray the Earth will crack open beneath me and swallow me or the sky will tear and strike me with its howling wind or bolts of lightning or blasting shouts from angels in the sky.

And all this fear (khawf) is very real to me because of the level of certitude in Allah (yaqeen) I have at times and at times I don’t. If the disbelievers were to see Heaven and returned to Earth, they would disbelieve again, favoring this world even though they know Heaven to be greater and that is the power of certitude (yaqeen). And I search to have a permanent yaqeen so my fear of Allah (khawf) is greater. Sufyan at-Thawri would urinate blood out of fear of Allah. Hasan al-Basri would stop eating for some days. And not uncommon in those days was fainting out of fear of Allah. What little do I have in comparison and how the people fear the deprivation in the dunya in such a degree similar to how our pious predecessors feared Allah. Today they are in panic over nothing (i.e. dunya)- how much more should they panic over everything (i.e. the akhira)?

Subhana kallahumma wa bihamdika ash-haduana la illaha illa ant astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk, ameen.

If you are into the Internet, you will enjoy this read.

The following was an opportunity I had to study Islam in the digital world and apply some of what I have learned about Sociology and combining it with certain concepts and exhortations in Islam. I did an analysis of Sunniforum and shared the following piece with the Admin of Sunniforum.

Its really fun because I’m combining spiritual concepts with social science concepts. I detailed why arguments are so common online and why the way we interact with and on the Internet makes it hard for Islam to spread and actually makes it easier to hurt Islam and ourselves. Don’t worry, I mentioned some ways of overcoming this- and intend to launch some more online projects that will hopefully tip the scale and make things more “deen-friendly.”

Introduction

Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wa salat wa salam ala rasulullah

To begin, in the wake of the digital age, the ummah of Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wasalam has connected many believers from across the world. In countries where Muslims are a minority they have provided channels of discussion and a sense of community among the ummah. No doubt, it is difficult to imagine feelings of solidarity with the Muslim ummah would have been as strongly enriched and hardwired, were it not for the digital Muslim community. Web forums in particular have become meeting places of great utility to Muslims, where Muslims have successfully spread new-born religious ideologies (salafiya, extremism) and at its best many have found these forums as communities of mutual ‘islamisization,’ where non-practincing Muslims have become more involved in their religious beliefs. Some have even modeled and monitored the progression of trends in the Muslim Ummah using online forums.

The goal or niyah, as it were, of these forums varies greatly. Some are intended for Muslim socializing, be it more for a sense of community, (islamica forums) or for introducing people to Islam or even as a space to convert non-Muslims (maniacmuslim) or for educational-institutional usage (AlMaghrib). Forums vary starkly on many levels, some of the most important which we will mentioned here, and how they affect the quality of discussion on the forum, the solidarity, the sense of community-

-location of membership, ideological and similarity of values among members, how well connected they are, whether they have met before,
-moderators
-categories of discussion and how distinct and how active these are; idealistically these depend on how people think (people comment: “I think in Facebook status format, Twitter format, forum format”)
-time spent on forum; how long a member puts into a single post, reflecting the quality of the discussion

The forum we are presently concerned here with is Sunniforum. Principally, this forums virtue lies in its sole dedication to Islamic values, the spread of Islamic knowledge and spirituality the intersection of many different Muslim religious ideologies. In my own experience, many brothers have used Sunniforum, above all other forums to learn about Islam, to assist their religious development, and as a “religious retreat or escape” from the present social realities of living in the West. Characteristically, many members are students and there are a number of ulema present on the forum. Reputationally, being the “most Islamic” forum, it carries the stigma of being an argumentative and on certain ideological discussion, intolerant.

Presently, we will analyze this forum, from the perspective of social psychology, anthropological and sociological with a particular eye for the Sunnah and classical Islamic attitudes. This represents an attempt to understand the vulnerabilities of the Muslim community (against shaytan) and to further Islamicize the internet and make “Sunnah-friendly.” At times there may be some generalizations in order to look at the ‘ideal type’ of this forum.

Analysis

In order to emerge successful in this discussion, it is important at the onset to connect oneself to the history of Islam. Rather than comparing this forum with other Muslim forums, which although useful, should be compared to the social realities of the Sahabas. It may be suggested this is too difficult a comparison, but this is merely a point for improvement-to steadily work towards bit by bit. We will analyze the attitudes an behavior of this forum, as in the words of Imam Ali, “Take yourself to account before you are accounted for (on the Day of Judgment).”

“…the internet is a very fragmented place…we are robbed of knowing each other as brothers in Islam…but as brothers in passing by, visiting a web-page or not. I see a post on this topic and I speak about it, but would I really comment on it in reality today had I not read it here? Maybe if I considered it. The internet imparts more importance on certain issues and therefore, distorts the reality of their place. It become inevitable for words to be misconstrued. When people actually tell you their thoughts, their words take on the ‘unrealistic’ qualities of being more vivid, literal and absolute then they intended them to be. The internet then, projects our words back onto us, after amplifying or distorting them and so any criticism, is felt more acutely and we become further entrenched in ideas we would have initially rejected, but through a gradual process of distortion, amplification and defense, we come to accept it. Shaytan maybe the one quoting our words, but we’ll still believe it since its our own words. The development of ‘digital akhlaaq’ is needed…but has been limited because the internet is a fluid place, so non-Muslims play just as big a part in our akhlaaq as do Muslims.”
A sense of solidarity is essential to community. The more alike members are on their views, values and understanding of Islam the more harmonious their interactions will be. However, the forum is difficult as it is similar to  being in a classroom of people one has just recently just met with the chance one won’t get to know for a long time. This creates a gap, where members are unfamiliar to each other, and may disappear overnight, thus every conversation or discussion, can be left in limbo- and unless they know each other outside the forum, the forum maintains a feeling of incompletion, a lack of fruits. In this scenario, the forum takes on the role of a place where this Muslim community, grows together, a place of “religious childhood” until they reach “religious puberty or maturation” and “outgrow the forum.” Some may never reach this point, others will reach this point but intend to stay online for the tutorship and helping of other enthusiastic, but inexperienced Muslims.

It should be made a point that it is far too difficult to replicate the madrassa system of religious learning or seminars, or shaykh-student system. There are a number of reasons for this we will dive into, but they take the role of obstacles that limit any sort of Islamic education from taking fruit. It may be in the future, Muslims will find a way around this (and we will try to discuss that here) but by and large these obstacles are vulnerabilities from which shaytan can distract members from nobler goals.

At the most obvious level, one must realize the Internet is a place of ‘literalization,’ by this we refer to the fact everything laid out on the computer screen, it is difficult for the computer user, not to judge or make base assumptions based on what he/she sees, in a very real way. In other words, there is little room for giving others the benefit of the doubt (husn udh-dhan). Yet what is on the screen is given the full authority of a face-to-face interaction despite the notable absense of nonverbal communication, gestures, intonations in voice, and most importantly the social sanction of being impolite to a person’s face, i.e. backbiting or gheebah. The online setting is biased towards ‘unjust interactions’ therefore- rather than being face to face, and carrying the social-religious sanctions against gheebah, the internet makes it easier for a person to speak rudely online, a “half-gheebah,” speaking to each other online but with the base judgments one has in a backbiting situation. For this reason, the structure and interaction humans have with the digital world, arguments happen more often in online settings, most notably on Youtube, more so than face to face human behavior allows.

This leads to childish behavior online, often the most crass and crude and as time passes, “juvenilization” occurs bringing out the worst in people, most especially in those who are heavy users of the Internet. At times, one may even see this attitude cross over into their non-internet interactions. Something in the design of the Internet, and how we interface with technology devolves us. In observing the behavior of users who argue on Muslim forums, over certain topics, they often think endlessly about the topic at hand, (“think in web forum format”). By and large, we should visit the Islamic sanctions against argumentation and namimah (tale-bearing):

[ثُمَّ إِنَّكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَـمَةِ عِندَ رَبِّكُمْ تَخْتَصِمُونَ ]

(Then, on the Day of Resurrection, you will be disputing before your Lord.) was revealed, Az-Zubayr, may Allah be pleased with him, said, `O Messenger of Allah, will we repeat our disputes’ He said,

«نَعَم»

(Yes.) He (Az-Zubayr) said, `This is a very serious matter.”’ Ahmad recorded from Az-Zubayr bin Al-`Awwam, may Allah be pleased with him, that when this Surah was revealed to the Messenger of Allah :

[إِنَّكَ مَيِّتٌ وَإِنَّهُمْ مَّيِّتُونَ - ثُمَّ إِنَّكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَـمَةِ عِندَ رَبِّكُمْ تَخْتَصِمُونَ ]

(Verily, you will die, and verily, they (too) will die. Then, on the Day of Resurrection, you will be disputing before your Lord.) Az-Zubayr, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “O Messenger of Allah, will the sins that we committed against others in this world be repeated for us” He said,

«نَعَمْ، لَيُكَرَّرَنَّ عَلَيْكُمْ حَتْى يُؤَدَّى إِلَى كُلِّ ذِي حَقَ حَقُّه»

(Yes, they will be repeated until everyone who is entitled will have his rights restored to him. ) Az-Zubayr, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “By Allah, it is a very serious matter.” It was also recorded by At-Tirmidhi, who said “Hasan Sahih.” `Ali bin Abi Talhah reported that Ibn `Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said:

[ثُمَّ إِنَّكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَـمَةِ عِندَ رَبِّكُمْ تَخْتَصِمُونَ ]

(Then, on the Day of Resurrection, you will be disputing before your Lord.) means, the truthful one will dispute with the liar, the oppressed will dispute with the oppressor, the one who is guided will dispute with the one who is misguided and the weak will dispute with the arrogant. Ibn Mandah recorded in Kitab Ar-Ruh that Ibn `Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “The people will dispute on the Day of Resurrection, to the extent that the soul will dispute with the body. The soul will say to the body, `You did such and such,’ and the body will say to the soul, `You told me to do it and you tempted me.’ Then Allah will send an angel to judge between them, and he will say, `You two are like a man who cannot walk but can see, and a man who cannot see but can walk.’ They went into a garden and the one who could not walk said to the one who was blind, `I see fruit there, but I cannot reach it.’ The blind man said, `Climb on me and get it.’ So he climbed on him and got it. So which of them is the wrongdoer They will say, `Both of them.’ The angel will say to them, `You have passed judgement against yourselves.’ The body was a means of transportation for the soul.” Ibn Abi Hatim recorded that Sa`id bin Jubayr said that Ibn `Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “This Ayah was revealed and we did not know what it was revealed about:

[ثُمَّ إِنَّكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَـمَةِ عِندَ رَبِّكُمْ تَخْتَصِمُونَ ]

(Then, on the Day of Resurrection, you will be disputing before your Lord.)” He said, “We said, what will we dispute about There is no dispute between us and the People of the Book, so what will we dispute about Until the Fitnah occurred.” Then Ibn `Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “This is what our Lord promised us we would dispute about.” This was recorded by An-Nasa’i.

http://tafsir.com/default.asp?sid=39&tid=45277

“Imam Nawawi says:

Having summarily mentioned that talebearing (namima) is unlawful, with the evidence for this and a description of its nature, we now want to add a fuller explanation of it. Imam Abu Hamid Ghazali says, “Talebearing is a term that is usually applied only to someone who conveys to a person what another has said about him, such as by saying, ‘So-and-so says such and such about you.’ In fact, talebearing is not limited to that, but rather consists of revealing anything whose disclosure is resented, whether resented by the person who originally said it, the person to whom it is disclosed, or by a third party. It makes no difference whether the disclosure is in word, writing, a sign, nodding, or other; whether it concerns word or deed; or whether it concerns something bad or otherwise. The reality of talebearing lies in divulging a secret, in revealing something confidential whose disclosure is resented. A person should not speak of anything he notices about people besides that which benefits a Muslim to relate or prevents disobedience. Anyone approached with a story, who is told, ‘So-and-so says such and such about you,’ must do six things:

(1) disbelieve it, for talebearers are corrupt, and their information is unacceptable,

(2) tell the talebearer to stop, admonish him about it, and condemn the shamefulness of what he has done;

(3) hate him for the sake of Allah Most High, for he is detestable in Allah’s sight, and hating for the sake of Allah Most High is obligatory;

(4) not think badly of the person whom the words are supposedly from, for Allah Most High says, ‘Shun much of surmise’ (Koran 49:12);

(5) not let what has been said prompt him to spy or investigate whether it is true, for Allah Most High says ‘Do not spy’ (Koran 49:12);

(6) and not to do himself what he has forbidden the talebearer to do, by relating it to others.”

(ibid 471-72)

[Taken from “The Reliance of the Traveler”]

There is nothing that impairs one’s religion, diminishes one’s respectability, ends one’s happiness, or preoccupies one’s heart like arguing

”When an erstwhile guided people go astray, they are given contentiousness.”
(Related by Ibn Hanbal, Al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Mājja, on the authority of Abī Umāma)

The famous Sufi shaykh of India, Nizamuddin Awliya once said regarding argumentation about Islam, “If they put thorns on the ground and you also put thorns on the ground, then there will be thorns everywhere.” Where will one go for safety? This is true now, at Muslim conferences- we restrict which events we go to and in the end, we go nowhere in our Islamic development, because the thorns are everywhere.

“I guarantee a house in Jannah (Paradise) for one who gives up arguing, even if he is in the right; and I guarantee a house in the middle of Jannah for one who abandons lying even when joking / for the sake of fun; and I guarantee a house in the highest part of Jannah for one who has good manners.” [Prophet Muhammad (صلي الله عليه وسلم) - reported by Imam Abu Dawud]

Sa’eed bin Musayyeb says: Once the Prophet was sitting with his Companions, and one person used insulting words against Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him), causing him pain. But Abu Bakr remained silent. The person again used bitter words against Abu Bakr, and still Abu Bakr did not respond. The third time when this ignorant person hurt Abu Bakr with his tongue, Abu Bakr tried answering back.
At this point the Prophet got up. Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) asked him, “Are you displeased with me, O Messenger of Allah?” The Prophet replied, “No, but (when you remained silent) an angel came down from the heaven responding to this man’s talk. But the moment you started replying to that man, the angel went away and the devil sat down. And I cannot sit where the devil is sitting.” Abu Dawood 041 4878
More broadly speaking, Shaykh Husain Abdul Sattar of Sacredlearning.org (Audio talk: Seeking expanse in our lives) makes the point of using the principle of tawseer- expansion- in our lives and that its roots are found in the Sunnah and Shariah. When one falls into argumentation, riba, debt this wasa’a vanishes and it is as if there is constriction in one’s life. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine there may be some blood pressure problems develop because of the level of involvement argumentation on forums requires for heavy users. As a principle, it would be extremely useful to utilize and frame interactions on web forums through an understanding of tawseer- as a bridge between the seemingly simplistic prohibitions in Islam and the sociological consequences.

wa dakat alayhimul ardhu bima’u rahbat
-the Earth constricted upon them besides its vastness
(Quran)

There are two points worth mentioning here. What is posted on the forum does not solely belong to the person anymore, it becomes open to interpretation by the collective conscience of the online community. You have a situation where their is a “group soul” which is a lumping together of everything good and bad on the forums– and it is this which is the real judge on what is happening online. The words don’t belong to the readers, rather what ever is interpreted is accorded to how healthy or unhealthy the atmosphere of the web forum is, or how tolerant, patient and understanding it is, or how well the community can relate to what has been posted.

The second point worthy of note is on any online space, there is a sense of ownership and ‘personal space.’ When new comers enter the Sunniforum space their is a protective nature of veteran users. They do not want new comers to infringe on there online hangout. The problem comes about when veteran users covet this space, and respect it, but newcomers do not, and as a result tensions can rise very quickly. This seems to happen often on Sunniforum. It is important to understand the territorial shells users have and at the same time not to alienate newcomers.

In my own personal experience with forum users, the attitude and hope they carry with them is to come on the forum in search of some sort of miracle, whether it be inspirational or real. Sunniforum especially, with its strong following of mureeds and discussions of tasawwuf, seems to carry this very strongly. Something amazing, profound, and obvious are what people are looking for on their radar.

Yet what this means is many people in reality read posts as if they are reading…nothing. This attitude is also common today among students studying the Quran and its translation- one could mistake them for reading a blank piece of paper, with the level of interest and considering how much they get out of it. Rather, instead, some users read posts as if they are reading things into them- they read little of what is actually being said, so one could do an experiment and write up a post with a few key controversial buzz words and trigger one of the many ongoing useless religious debates, wasting time and sapping barakah. The behavior then of users is to think endlessly on certain topics, about rebuttals or replies to give on certain topics, distracting them in their worship and realistically producing little. The threads are fruitless because posts are directed and geared at other users, more often than they are at the topic at hand. When users build up “history” with each other, its not hard to see how easily shaytan goes about sowing discord!

Its not hard to see the limitations of online discussion. Most discussions cannot become detailed, nuanced and as thorough, as they would in real life. Rather there is a ‘landscape’ that each discussion must cover (as if it were an obligation) in its respective sphere (i.e. any discussion of sufism must warn against exaggerations, and thereby limit new fruitful discussion) This serve to limit discussion, progress and real fruitful conversations—rather it is often just “the same old discusison, over and over again.” After the limitation of exploring new idas there is also a tendency for discussions to be broad, but very rarely can they become detailed or minute enough. This is problematic because Islam has very minute and detailed qualities to it, hence, this will be an obstacle with discussions on Islam. When this continues there is a permanent intellectual segregation, a lowering of the intellectual Muslim imagination on many forums, not just this one. I would contend, this also shows great promise for change- if people are in their shells repeating the same things they did a year ago…then in principle, it means, it would not take much, to really move things and introduce new tarbiya or create more fruitful discussions.  Bottom line is forum users work on what is on the surface and not what is in the deeper level of discussion, so the key is to encourage good wholesome thoughts, not mere conversation or wasteful speech.

Nabi salallahu alayhi wasalam said: “Al muminu al-mira’tu al-mumini; the believer is a mirror to a believer,” (Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Bukhari, al-Adab al-Mufrad) and the wisdom of this hadith suggests we need to find ways of reflecting good (khayr) into others, rather than reflecting the rancour shaytan directs towards us. From this hadith we should also understand, negative behavior is an invasion of personal identity, of individuality, because internet interaction is a mirror and what this behavior does is everytime you see yourself,  you will see more of what other people think of you, what they project into you, as your reflection. It is as if one is looking into a mirror and believing the misshapen image in the mirror is his true reflection and then acting according to its ugliness.

Suggestions

Here briefly I wish to make the following suggestions. These measures go beyond having a “Sticky” thread which often go unread and ignored.

-If possible, require mandatory reading for forum users so they can become like-minded and think similarly or at least on the same page in some cases. Perhaps a magazine or blog to refresh weekly (the QAFILA blog?) and that they can’t use the site without completing the reading and filling in a  small quiz. The blog section of the forum reflects this idea, but could use some major expansion. This may sound a little drastic but it will ensure all users are constantly getting something out of the forum- and ensure they come back, rather than gambling on whether they benefit or not. Additionally something small like this would be a first and it is hard to imagine any protest to this since all users have a thirst for understanding the deen.

-Placing a timer in between posting would ensure a slowing down in the scenario of an argument. Most forums have timers set at 5 seconds, but expanding this to 1 minute or 2 minutes could do significant amount of good in making people think carefully and stopping them from saying anything brash.

اَلأَنَاةُ مِنَ اللهِ وَ الْعُجْلَةُ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ
Calmness and patient deliberation is from Allāh and haste is from Satan (Tirmidhī).

-Encourage cooperation and the helping of newcomers- for common questions. Having prepared FAQs on key topics, balanced and clear, that specifically discourage argumentation, could also help: Man naffa-sa an akhihi qurbatun min qurba ad-dunya, naffa-sa Allahu anhu qurbatun min qurbal akhira.
“Whoever relieves someone of an anxiety in this world, Allah will relieve him of an anxiety in the next world.” -Hadith

-Moderating carefully is also important, as this hadith illustrates:
Verily another person’s belongings are unlawful to take except with his heart’s content. (Bayhaq, Shu’ab al Iman, Daraqutni)
i.e. taking away a person’s words when they dislike it.

-Yet at the same time, moderating the forum tightly (much more harsh) would help in curbing argumentation. Exercising discretion is very important and it is ultimately the atmosphere of the forum that will dictate the types of discussions. There may be an outcry on severe moderation, editing, censoring on the forums, but it is likely it will shape people’s thinking patterns so they search for what is most beneficial over more temporary discussions. The key here would be to moderate so the forum represents the spirit of Islam and reflects the better aspects of our nature than the negative aspects.

-Closing threads that are long overdue would also help…threads that are left open for discussion are often very lengthy and most users don’t read through all the pages. This would help in giving Sunniforum a better feeling of organization and make it easier for users to recall the truly beneficial threads.

-Launching key sections, as ongoing forum projects would be beneficial, ex: Fasting Club for support in doing optional fasts, Tahajjud Club on tips with prayers, etc. Creativity is key here!

-Having Forum awards for most beneficial users to encourage users to follow their examples and help build a sense of community and brotherhood/sisterhood.

-Above all, taking responsibility for the forum and shaping it so it bears fruit. It would not be a stretch to say it will be taken to hisab on Yawmul Qiyamah.
al halal hisab wa’l haram iqab (the halal will be accounted for, and the haram punished) -Imam Ali (radiallahu anhu)

Jazaka Allahu khayran and may Allah bless you and reward you with much much good in this life and the next!  Ameen!

Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wa salat wa salam ala Rasulullah

If you pay close attention you can notice miracles occurring, that have resonance in the Quran. Over the past few days, some relatives of mine passed away, and I had to undergo a surgery. This was a bit of a hard time but alhamdulillah, over the course of a week and a half, family friends have dropped off about 10 13 big dishes of food.

This isn’t the first time. My auntie and uncle teach Quran to a number of children in their neighborhood and apartment building. The both of them had a stroke and we’re sick at home, unable to cook or teach as they recovered. I still recall my auntie saying, “I swear by Allah, I haven’t had to touch the stove for cooking anything, we’ve had food delivered to us people in the mahala, for one month.” Now this is Canada by the way, where Muslims are still relatively few, yet somehow Allah sends his bounty to those who are afflicted and bear with patience.

In the Quran, you see this in the story of Maryam.

So she conceived him and withdrew with him to a remote place. Labor pains drove her to the trunk of a palmtree. She said, “O would that I had died before this, and had been completely forgotten.” But the one that was below her called to her, “Do not grieve, your Lord has placed a brook below you. Shake the trunk of the palmtree towards you and fresh dates will fall down to you.” (Quran 19:22–25)

Notice how close the connection and association is between her pain and grief and the food God is consoling her with. They are inextricably linked within the same verses and moreover it is repeated twice!

But al-Maybudī would have us know that this “pain of petitioning” is itself a blessing:

Maryam rose up in her weakness and seized the dry tree. When her hand touched the dry tree, it turned green, moist and fresh, bearing fruit, and in its freshness bent towards her. A divine voice came saying, “We had the power so that even without your touching the tree it would have become green and bent towards you, but We wanted by your shaking it to bring forth two miracles; first was that in childbirth, weakness and illness, We gave you power to shake the tree, which was to verify the miracle for you. The other was that We wanted the blessing of your hand to reach the tree so that it would bear fruit. Then the people of the world would understand that whoever is sad and grieved for Us, their hand is a remedy for pains.⁴²

The theme of human longing and supplication is further developed in commentary that compares Maryam’s contemplative prayer in the to the prayer she makes in the pain and distress of childbirth.

When Maryam received the food in her it was a miracle of pure grace occurring without any effort on her part. The dates she is provided with here are also considered to be a miracle, since the tree is said to have been dried up and without fruit until she shook its trunk.³⁸ Several commentators point out that in this second miracle, Maryam is required to act. Al-Qushayrī writes,

It is said that when she was isolated (mujarrad) and without attachment Zakariyyā would find her with food without her having been instructed to exert herself. When the attachment to the child occurred, she was instructed to shake the dried palmtree and this was in her weakest state as the time of the birth of the child became closer, in order to know that attachment necessitates pain and hardship.³⁹

-Sufi Commentaries on the Quran, Kristin Zahra Sands, pg. 105

I find it of importance and contemplate on this often when I undergo difficulty. Something distressing will have occurred and yet at those times I find fruit to taste the sweetest. And as my personal stories and the tafsir of these ayahs show, when a person bears patiently with trials somehow sustenance appears miraculously. It may require a little work, as in the case of Maryam having to shake the tree, but that also has the benefit of making you realize, in your weakness you still have strength and much to be grateful for. Recovering these past few days, I find when you are weak and suffering, you begin to realize how minuscule that pain is in relation to the vastness of everything Allah has given you and your eman increases and rises. When Ayyub alayhi salam was afflicted with the death of his 14 children, and 7 years of leprosy, his wife asked him to make dua and he said: “Amma astahi an atlu minallahi rafa balahi wa ma qadaytu fihi mu dat-tarathahi; I feel ashamed when my Allah has given me 80 years prosperity, and only tested me for 7 years. I don’t have the guts to ask Allah- I feel ashamed to ask Allah.”

Subhana kallahumma wa bihamdika ash-haduana la illaha illa ant astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk, ameen.

Dear Friend, Your heart is a polished mirror. You must wipe it clean of the veil of dust which has gathered upon it, because it is destined to reflect the light of divine secrets.

When the light from Allah (Who) is the light of the heavens and the earth…begins to shine upon the regions of your heart, the lamp of the heart will be lit. The lamp of the hearts is in a glass, the glass is as it were a brightly shining star…Then within that heart, the lightning-shaft of divine discoveries strikes. This lightning-shaft will emanate from the thunderclouds of meaning neither of the East nor of the West, lit from a blessed olive tree… and throw light upon the tree of discovery, so pure, so transparent that it sheds light though fire does not touch it. (1) Then the lamp of wisdom is lit by itself. How can it remain unlit when the light of Allah’s secrets shines over it?

If only the light of divine secrets shines upon it, the night sky of secrets is lit with thousands of stars… and by the stars (you) find (your) way…(2) It is not the stars that guide us but the divine light. For Allah has…decked the lower heaven with beauty (in) the stars. (3) If only the lamp of divine secrets be kindled in your inner self the rest will come, either all at once or little by little. Some you already know, some we will tell you here. Read, listen, try to understand. The dark skies of unconsciousness will be lit by divine presence and the peace and beauty of the full moon, which will rise from the horizon shedding light upon light (4), ever rising in the sky, passing through its appointed stages as Allah has…ordained for it Mansions, (5) until it shines in glory in the centre of the sky, dispersing the darkness of heedlessness. I swear by the night when it is still(6) …By the glorious morning light…(7) your night of unconsciousness will see the brightness of the day. Then you will inhale the perfume of remembrance and repent in the early hours of the morning of unconsciousness and regret your life spent in sleep. You will hear the songs of the morning nightingales and you will hear them say

They were in the habit of sleeping but little by night, and in the hours of early dawn they (were found) praying for forgiveness. (9)

Allah guides to His light whom He pleases. (10)

Then you will see from the horizon of Divine Reason the sun of inner knowledge rising. It is your private sun, for you are the one whom Allah guides and are on the right path and not the one He leaves in error. (11) And you will understand the secret that

It is not given to the sun to catch up with the moon, nor can the night outstrip the day. Each swims along in (its appointed) orbit. (12)

Finally, the knot will be untied in accordance with the parables which Allah sets forth for men, and Allah is the Knower of all things, (13) and the veils will lift and shells will shatter, revealing the fine beneath the coarse; the truth will uncover her face.

All this will begin when the mirror of your heart is cleansed. The light of the divine secrets will fall upon it if you are willing and ask for Him, from Him, with Him.

1 All the above verses are quoted from the Verse of Light (Sura Nur: 35)
2 Surah Nahl: 16
3 Surah Ya Sin: 36
4 Surah Nur: 35
5 Surah Ya Sin: 29
6 Surah Duha: 2
7 Surah Duha: 1
8 Surah al-Imran: 17
9 Surah Fatiha: 17-18
10 Surah Nur: 35
11 Surah A’raf: 178
12 Surah Ya Sin: 40
13 Surah Nur: 35

-Taken from The Secret of Secrets of Abdul Qadir al-Jilani, translated by Shaykh Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi

It has been a while since I’ve posted my Soul Art pieces. I intended to do so every Friday but it became too demanding so now I’m going to try doing it maybe once or twice a month? It’ll be more of a surprise than anything else. Here are some pieces- some you may recognize from my twitter…others not. Its hard to squeeze in the entire images so you can click on them to look at them fully.

Again, if you have contributions and want something put up, send me an email muslimology (@) gmail (dot) com. Let me know if you want your name on there or if you want to remain anonymous- its better if you write your name on the image actually. And if you want more clarification on this Art project just check out this post.

Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wa salat wa salam ala Rasulullah

an-na indal munkhasirati kulubuhum
I am with the broken-hearted
-Hadith Qudsi (mentioned in a talk by Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad)

In the past, I’ve had difficulty understanding the difference between being cursed in Islam and what it means to undergo trials but after the past week of trials (funeral, surgery, and what comes with those two things) I see more clearly.

Curses are final- they are things which can’t be lifted and will come to a completion, they are conclusive and can’t easily be contested. The example of one of the ‘false Prophets’ in early Islam, who claimed to be able to cause miracles: he spit in a well to make it give more water, and it dried up; he spit into a man who was blind in one eye to cure him and instead the man became blind in both eyes. In Hilayah al-Awliya a story is mentioned where a woman once accused a Sahaba (can’t remember his name) of theft, and he prayed to Allah, if she is lying that for her to lose her sight and fall down a well, which eventually did happen.

“Taste you therein its heat, and whether you are patient of it or impatient of it, it is all the same. You are only being requited for what you used to do.” (Quran 52:16)

Unlike trials, curses are very similar to the experience of the deniers in Hell- it doesn’t matter if they are patient or not, they are doomed there forever. Similarly, a curse is done and can’t be lifted unless one returns to Allah.

وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيْءٍ مِّنَ الْخَوْفِ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ مِّنَ الأَمْوَالِ وَالأنفُسِ وَالثَّمَرَاتِ وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ
الَّذِينَ إِذَا أَصَابَتْهُم مُّصِيبَةٌ قَالُواْ إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعونَ
wa la nablu wan-nakum bi shayin minal khawfi wa’l ju’i, wa naqsin minal amwali wal anfus was- thamarat wa bashirus sabirren
And we shall surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and loss of lives (family, friends) and the fruits of your labors, but give good tidings to the patient, Who, when disaster strikes them, say, “Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return” (Quran 2: 155-156)

Trials on the other hand are temporary, although to those who are weak in the deen and those who lack trust in Allah they seem as permanent as curses, they do not carry the same divine intention. They have set ends and are intended to be responded to with sabr, tawakkul and istiqama (patience enabled by trust in Allah and consistent belief and perseverance of these two things).

Ya ayuhaladhina amanu asta’inu bi sabri was salatu, inallah ma’a sabireen
Oh you who believe, seek help through sabr (patient perseverance) and salat (prayer), verily Allah is with the Patient. (Quran 11:115)

The benefit of trials isn’t easy for Muslims to understand. We have the attitude, “God grant me patience, and I want it now!!” when even patience has to be learned through trial and error. There are many ways of understanding trials and the wisdom inherent in them, and poets have been well adept to capturing it, especially among our Christian cousins. Let’s run through some quotes:

-Mawlana Rumi (rahimullah) mentioned if there were no trials how would Allah address a human being with a dignified title? How could he call us generous, wise, learned, patient or just if we had achieved nothing and been left to live like animals?

-Affliction: God sometimes washes the eyes of His children with tears in order that they may read aright His Providence and His Commandment

-The truest help we can render an afflicted man is not to take his burden from him, but to call out his best energy, that he may be able to bear the burden.

-Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which, in prosperous circumstances, would’ve lain dorment. (Horace)

-The mind which does not wholly sink under misfortune rises above it more lofty than before, and is strengthened by affliction. (Cheunix)

-Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never happen (Lowell)

-On every thorn a delightful wisdom grows; In every rill a sweet instruction flows. (Dr. Young)

-You can’t get ahead when your trying to get even.

-Affliction is but the shadow of God’s wing.

-Aromatic plants bestow no spicy fragrance where they grow but crushed and trodden to the ground, diffuse their balmly sweets around.

-Give me the character and I will forecast the event. Character, is has in substance been said, is “victory organized.” (Bovee)

-Genuine morality is preserved only in the school of adversity, and a state of continuous prosperity may easily prove a quicksand to virtue.

And lastly, remember the importance of sabr (patience) and resignation mentioned in the commentary of this Quranic verse:

Wa tamat kalimatu rabbika husna bi bani israel bima sabaru
-We completed the beautiful Word (Torah) for Bani Israel because of their patience.

Hasan al-Basri (rahimullah) said on this verse, “Patience is the way Allah completes His bounty to you.”

Subhana kallahumma wa bihamdika ash-haduana la illaha illa ant astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk, ameen.

{ We created not the heavens and the earth and all that is between them except with truth, and for an appointed term. But those who disbelieve turn away from that whereof they are warned.}[Quran 46:3]

I find it a fascinating theme to look through the world and all you see as true, as nothing more than a series of cracks. The space that is between the Heavens and the Earth- the space that we occupy, is nothing more than a big gigantic crack between the heavens and earth.

The cracks we see emerge among people who conceal their sensitivities, show us humanity. We see the inability of others, engender mercy in our own hearts- the cracks in in the confused, cause even greater cracks in the sincere, creating more humility and soft-heartedness.

The brief glimpse of cracks we see among the unassuming, ordinary Muslims that make us wonder if they are Awliya. Wonder is a crack made upon the closed mind…opening it and showing it the vastness of Allah’s work.

The cracks in our thinking, the flawed nature of our discourse, those glaring cracks in our reasoning, speaking to us…”Well I tried my best, but this shortcoming, this glaring crack in my work, is a signature of who I am, of my human nature before Allah.”

And what is kindness but a crack, a breaking of a social norm for the sake of sincerity? What are miracles but cracks in our everyday normal experience, to remind us there is a Being, a cause behind the construction- and destruction- of this world.

And when the sky is torn away, (Surah Takwir)

What would the scientist say? “There has been a rip in the time-space continuum!”

What would the Sufi ascetic say? “Allah gifts His beloved righteous servants by tearing away the veils”

Muhammad (salallahu alayhi wasalam’s) Isra wal Miraaj occurred as if between the closing and opening of a door.

Cracks are short and brief- Nuh described his 950 years of life on Earth, as like entering a house through the front door only to no sooner, just walk out through the back.

What happened to Musa when He asked to see Allah? Wasn’t the mountain blown away to bits?

No, rather we are to see Allah not in His full form, but through the lens of the cracks. Glimpses, peeks, like whispers…and then what is Qiyamah but when too many cracks have been made upon our reality, and it is time for us to come face to face with the One whose Majesty caused these cracks to ripple through the human experience.

What happened to the Red Sea when Musa called out “Inna ma’ia rabbi sayahideen- My Lord is with me and He will certainly guide me!” ? It split, it tore and became a new creation, a watery hall sculpted by the Divine for Musa to walk through? Perhaps that is the nature of all cracks, to become a new creation to testify His greatness.

Look at the cracks on your skin, there are wrinkles in your brain, dimples in your smile. Their exist cracks on all idols, waiting to be shattered by Tawheed, God-consciousness and piety.

Isn’t that the nature of tazkiya and tarbiya? For us to fast, to become great…to endure trials to become stronger, for we could not become a new creation unless that crack had been made in our life, unless we endured difficulty to become a new creation.
Allah loves those cracks and makes them permanent if they are with the truest intentions and with the highest idhqan.

And rida (contentment) is that quick transition between a crack, and the birth of a new creation.
Does not Allah call us to look at the seed when it splits open revealing life within? How many times is agriculture in the Quran compared to good deeds?
Did you ever notice how when you see a truly good act coming from someone, a crack is made in how you perceive the world? Perhaps, the Qurans analogy of agriculture and good works, is fitting, since these cracks are what keep us going. The breaking of bread, for eating and as a sign of peace.

Isn’t poetry a cracking of language?

What is life but a crack between the darkness before birth and the darkness after death? And the grave but a crack in the Earth?
A heartbeat but a crack between silence, breath a transition from one side of a crack to the other,
taste, a crack between tastelessness
sight, but light breaking through a crack in the darkness
and tears, a crack in our very soul.

This is what I see in between the cracks…what do you see?

Long before writing was invented, human beings read their world. They interpreted their dreams and the flights of birds. They read the intestines of sacrificial animals and the memories of their ancestors. They read the things that surprised them, or the things that reminded them of something else. Most of all, they read in the places where there were holes — spaces — gaps. They filled up the blanks of the universe, as though they were pages, with writing. Leonardo advised aspiring artists to “discover” the pictures to be found in the cracks in walls; Chinese sages were conceived as their mothers stepped into the footprints of unicorns; all of us make up our lives out of the cracks in the walls of our past memories and the unicorn footprints of our future. The making of a life is similar to the making of a text. We live by reading our own stories[...]. -Lynda Sexon

Subhana kallahumma wa bihamdika ash-haduana la illaha illa ant astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk, ameen.

Content is…

-satisfaction
-concentration
-clarity
-preparation
-prediction
-past, present and future all in one and made absent
-time and space, taken into fully into account and made irrelevant
-makes irrelevant things irrelevant
-the stillest room in the house
-the most precise math
-endless accommodation
-psychiatry’s greatest enemy
-order
-to refute futility
-contingent upon itself
-real freedom
-taking true reality from your own reality; knowledge
-the most activity form of passiveness (quiet fascination)
-the most passive form of activity (lazy relaxation)
-impervious to any desire
-key to humility (humility is the key to discovery)
-trust in trust (accepting the nature of trust)
-patience with patience (patience in the nature of patience)
-an excuse against excuses
-the most appropriate context
-the best way to deal with any content (substance or topic)
-the most flexible rigidity
-always stronger
-like stealing from thieves
-angering anger
-invaluable
-the best qualification
-the most happy captivation
-peace-making and conflict-resolution
-take in all the details and take in everything for its real value (positive worth more than negative points)
-scoffed at
-rich
-dignity
-free of charge
-anonymous
-reads “status quo” as “as you are in control”
-reads “frustration” as “empathize”
-forgetting what needs to be forgotten
-a memory that balances the world
-a smiles to-do list
-the same steps and the same path for a thousand journeys
-universal
-realistic
-all anyone really needs
-probably a lot more things…
-for everyone

Content is the most deserving to be content with.

“Allah said: Kun faya kun- “Be” and it is.”

What more was expected of us but to “be” ? And what is to “be” but content?

Each creature is smoldered to You and its own Origin,
Laughing at Nothingness and clapping its own miracle.
Each leaf opens fresh and bright, each atom sings its discovery:
“Resignation is the key to happiness
Grace is the door to the peace beyond the mind.” -Mawlana Rumi

Subhana kallahumma wa bihamdika ash-haduana la illaha illa ant astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk, ameen

Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wa salat wa salam ala Rasulullah

The following translation (from Arabic) is presented by Sr. Deena (thank you!) . Its from a short work on the imagery of the Quran written by Sayid Qutb. Now, there is a lot of stuff about Sayid Qutb in the media and to be honest, I don’t know much about the man, nor do I share the views attributed to him (and doubt Sr. Deena does as well) so this post isn’t some sort of indirect endorsement of radical Muslim ideology- just simply a discussion on the Quran! And hopefully, this is the beginning of more translated works being shared here!

Enjoy!

I have found the Qur’an!

This book is a story from within my soul. It would have been my right to keep this story for myself, and this book would have remained nothing but a passing thought in my conscience. However, this story no longer belongs to me.

I read the Qur’an when I was a young child, and my intellect could not reach the levels of its meanings, nor could my understanding encompass its great objectives, but still I would find something of it in myself. My naïve and young imagination would conjure up some images through the expressions of the Qur’an. They were naïve images, but they would create a longing in my soul and a pleasure in my senses, so that I would spend long periods of time reflecting on these images, happily and actively contemplating them.

Of the naïve images that would paint themselves in my mind is that image that came to me whenever I read the following verse:

And among people is he who worships Allah as if on an edge. If good befalls him, he stands securely (on that edge), but if a trial befalls him he falls over on his face. He has lost this lesser world and the hereafter. (Surat al-Hajj [The Pilgrimage] 22:11)

And please, nobody laugh when I tell you about the images that this verse created in my mind. This verse would create in my imagination a man standing on the edge of a high place – like the peak of a narrow mountain. And he is standing in prayer, but he is not stable, for he swings back and forth with every move, and comes close to falling several times, and I watch him closely, following his moves with a strange passion and anxiety!

Another of those naïve images is one that came to me whenever I read the following verse:

And recite unto them the tiding of him to whom We brought Our signs, then he stripped himself from them, then Satan overtook him, and he became of the misguided ones.

If We willed We would certainly have elevated him with Our signs, but he clung to the earth and followed his own vain/low desire. So his likeness is as the likeness of a dog: if you attack him he lolls out his tongue panting, or if you leave him alone he still lolls out his tongue panting. (Surat al-A’raf [The Heights] 7:175-176)

I did not understand anything of the meanings or objectives of this verse, but an image would be conjured in my mind: The image of a man, open-mouthed, his tongue hanging out, panting and panting incessantly. And I am watching him, unable to take my eyes off him, and I don’t understand why he’s panting, but I don’t dare turn away from him!

And many images of this kind would paint themselves in my young imagination, and I delighted in contemplating them, and I would long to read the Quran because of them, and I would search for them within its folds whenever I read it.

Those days passed with their lovely memories and their naïve thoughts and I entered educational institutes where I read the explanation of the Quran in the books of tafseer (Quranic interpretation and exegeses), and I listened to its explanation from the teachers. But I could not find in what I read or heard that delicious beautiful Quran that I used to find in my childhood years.

What a shame!

All symbols of beauty were nowhere to be found, and it became free of delectation and excitement. I wondered: Are they two Qurans? The sweet, easy, exciting Quran of my childhood and the difficult and complicated Quran of my youth? Or are the methods used in explaining the Quran to be blamed for this crime?

So I went back to reading the Quran from the original book and not in the books of tafseer. And I once again found my beautiful beloved Quran, and I found my exciting delightful images. They were not at the same level of naivety that they were before; my understanding of them has evolved, for I now see their goals and objectives, and I understand that they are parables that are given, not actual events that are taking place. But their magic still exists, and their attractiveness remains. Praise to Allah, I have found the Quran!

…

I started researching, with the Quran as my primary source, to gather the artistic images in the Quran and present them and explain the imagery in them and the artistic consistency in their expression – as my sole concern was devoted purely to the artistic aspect, with none of my attention paid to the linguistic, oratory, or fiqh (jurisprudence) aspects or other research areas of the Quran. A new truth is becoming clear to me: the images in the Qur’an are not a part of it that is separate from the rest of it. Rather, the imagery is the theme and mode of expression in this beautiful book. The basic rule followed towards all objectives – except for legal objectives due to their nature. Thus, the search is not for a set of images that can be collected and arranged in order, but rather for a theme that can be discovered and showcased.

That was a success I was not aiming for, until I met it!

And on this basis the research started, and everything in it is merely a presentation of this rule, a dissection of its phenomena, and an exposition of this Quranic attribute that has not been exposed before.

The Source of Enchantment in the Qur’an

How did the Quran captivate the Arabs the way it did? And how is it that both the believers and non-believers have agreed upon the Quran’s ability to enchant?

Some researchers into the virtues of the Quran look at it as a whole and point to its overall beauty and artistic consistency.  Others mention different reasons extracted from the topics addressed by the Quran as a whole, such as the intricate legislation that is fit for any time and place, predictions of future events that end up taking place years later, and scientific information about the creation of the universe and the human being.

But researching from this perspective only proves the exalted nature of the Qur’an as a whole. So what is said of those few chapters that do not contain legislation nor predictions of the future nor scientific information? These few chapters enchanted the Arabs from the moment they heard it, and in a time where neither advanced legislation nor great objectives were what captivated their senses and grasped their admiration.

It must be, then, that these few chapters contained that element that enchants the listeners and captivates both believers and non-believers. If we calculate the Quranic effect on the numbers of those embracing Islam, then these early chapters surely get the largest share, regardless of how small in numbers Muslims were at that time. This is because at that time they were affected, for the most part, by the Quran alone. It is the Quran alone that led them to believe. As for the large numbers of those coming to Islam in later years after the Muslims became visible and Islam became strong, they had other factors affecting their choices aside from the Quran, depending on each individual’s nature. And the Quran alone was not the deciding factor in their decision to embrace Islam. Some became believers because they were moved by the character of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and the characters of his companions. Some became believers because they found Muslims enduring great harm and strife and persecution, and giving up their wealth, families and friends to be able to practice their religion and to flee to their Lord. Others embraced Islam because they found that Muhammad (pbuh), aided only by a small group of people, was becoming victorious over great numbers of persecutors and deceivers, and they believed that Allah was the source of their victory. Others embraced Islam after the sharia (Islamic law and way of life) was implemented in their countries and they found in it justice, forgiveness and tolerance they did not see in any previous governing regimes. And many others believed for different reasons; the magic of the Quran may have been one factor among other factors, but it was not the deciding factor as it was in the early days of Islam.

We must, then, search for the source of enchantment in the Quran before we look at legislation or predictions or scientific information, and before we treat the Quran as a complete unit that contains all these attributes; for the few chapters that were revealed in the early days of Islam did not contain these attributes which only came later. And yet, it still contained that fundamental quality that the Arabs tasted, and savoured, and said “this is but sorcery”.

If we look at the story of how Umar ibn al-Khattab came to embrace Islam, it mentions that he heard or read a part of Surat Taha, which is the 45^th chapter of the Quran to be revealed, preceded by: al-Alaq, al-Muzzammil, al-Muddathir, al-Qalam, al-Fatiha, al-Masad, al-Takwir, al-A’la, al-Lail, al-Fajr, al-Duha, al-Inshirah, al-Asr, al-Adeyat, al-Kawthar, al-Takathur, al-Maauun, al-Kafiruun, al-Fil, al-Falaq, al-Nas, al-Ikhlas, al-Najm, Abas, al-Qadr, al-Shams, al-Burooj, al-Teen, Quraish, al-Qare’a, al-Qiyama, al-Humaza, al-Mursalat, Qaf, al-Balad, al-Tariq, al-Qamar, Sad, al-A’raf, al-Jin, Yassin, al-Furqan, Fatir, and Mariam. T

hese are all Meccan chapters except for a few verses that were revealed in Madina.

So let us look at these chapters together as a whole – for looking into each one of them in detail is impossible in this context – to see what magic or enchantment in them captivated the early Muslims who followed Muhammad even before Islam was strengthened with Umar, and before the Prophet went public with the call to Islam in broad daylight, after hiding and secrecy.

And when we look into these chapters together we find that there exists but little of those attributes previously mentioned that some researchers claim as the loftiest attributes of the Quran. Except for a hasty mention of the creation of the human being, and the variety and diversity of colours and shapes described in the chapter of Fatir, and the creation of man from in the chapter of al-Tariq, we don’t find any scientific information in these chapters, nor legislation nor future predictions.

However, we find in these chapters – as we find in many other Meccan and Madinan chapters –  examples of that artistic beauty to which we’ve been referring. And if we set aside – temporarily – the holiness and religious sacredness of the Quran, and the objectives of the call to Islam, and if we move beyond the constraints of time and space, we will see beyond all of this that pure artistic beauty as an independent element in its own essence, immortal in the Quran itself, where art can contemplate it and reflect on it in isolation of all other goals and messages of the Quran.

So let us look into how people understood this beauty over the generations.

How was the Qur’an understood?

If we bypass the age of the revelation, we see some of the companions treading lightly in the waters of Quranic exegeses based on the little interpretation transmitted from the Prophet (pbuh), and some of them would do this with such trepidation lest they misinterpret some of the verses, while others would avoid this altogether such as what was said about Saeed bin al-Musaeb that if he was asked about something in the Quran he would say “I don’t speak about the Quran”. And Ibn Sireen said “I asked Ubaida about something in the Quran and he said ‘fear Allah, for those who have knowledge about the revelation have gone”.

In the age of the followers of the companions (al-tabiun), Quranic interpretation developed vastly, but they restricted their interpretation to clarifying linguistic meanings of specific words. Quranic interpretation began to really grow towards the end of the 2^nd century. But rather than looking into the artistic beauty in the Quran, it delved into jurisprudence and argumentation, language and grammar, creation and philosophy, and history and myth. With that was lost an opportunity that was available to Quranic interpreters to paint clear pictures of the artistic beauty of the Quran.

Didn’t do p.28-35

Artistic Imagery

Imagery is the preferred tool in the style of the Quran. Expression through images that can be sensed and imagined by intellectual understanding, and by psychological state, and by sensory experience, and by visual scenes, and by human nature. It then elevates the image it portrays and gives it life, personality, and movement, and if dialogue is added to this then it is given all the elements necessary for the imagination. The scene barely begins and the listeners become observers, and they are transported to the scene of the first events, and they stare intently, and they forget that these are words being recited, and examples that are being struck, and they imagine that this is a scene being played out, and an event that is taking place.

And if we remind ourselves that the tool being used to portray these meanings and psychological states are words, neither colours nor characters, we can begin to understand some of the secrets of the miraculous nature of Quranic expressions.

Let’s start with the meanings that are expressed in sensory images:

1. The intended meaning is that those who disbelieve and cover up the truth will not achieve Allah’s acceptance and will never enter Paradise, and that acceptance is something impossible. That is the intellectual way to express these meanings, but using the tool of imagery presents these meanings in the following way:

• “Lo! They who deny Our revelations and scorn them with arrogance, for them the gates of heaven will never be opened nor will they enter the Garden until the camel can pass through the eye of the needle” (Al-Araf 7:40).

It allows you to use your imagination to paint a picture of the gates of heaven opening,  and another picture of a large thread being put through a needle’s eye. It chooses the word  ’camel’ to represent this, and it lets the senses be moved by the imagination through these  two images, so that in the end the two meanings of “acceptance into the Garden” and  “impossibility” are engrained together, through the eye and the senses, deep within the  soul of the listener.

1. The intended meaning is that Allah will erase the deeds of the disbelievers as if they never existed, and those deeds will be lost forever with no way for them to be recovered. This meaning is presented as follows:

• “And We will proceed to what they have done of deeds, so We shall render them  as scattered floating dust” (Al-Furqan 25:23).

It lets you imagine the scattered dust so as to present to the listener more clearly and  certainly the meaning of total and absolute loss.

1. It paints this somewhat longer image of the same meaning:

• “The parable of those who disbelieve in their Lord: their actions are like ashes on which the wind blows hard on a stormy day; they shall not have power over any thing out of what they have earned” (Ibrahim 14:18).

So the image increases in movement and life through the movement of the winds on a  stormy day that continuously blows a group of ashes to and fro such that they never settle  down.

1. The intended meaning is to show people that alms that are given to show off in front of people, or that are followed with hurtful words or harm, will never be of any lasting benefit to the giver. This meaning is presented in the following image:

• “O you who believe! Do not make your charity worthless by reproach and injury, like him who spends his property to be seen of men and does not believe in Allah and the last day; his parable is as the parable of a smooth rock with earth upon it, then a heavy rain falls upon it, so it leaves it bare” (Al-Baqara 2:264).

This image lets listeners contemplate the state of the hard smooth rock, covered by a thin  layer of earth in a manner that gives one the impression that it is fertile. But once a heavy  rain falls upon it, instead of preparing it for growth – which is what one would expect  when rain falls upon fertile earth – it leaves it bare, and that thin layer of earth that  covered it and gave one the impression of fertility disperses.

It then juxtaposes this image with another one meant to represent an opposite meaning:

• “And the parable of those who spend their property to seek the pleasure of Allah and for  the certainty of their souls is as the parable of a garden on an elevated ground, upon which heavy rain falls so it brings forth its fruit twofold, but if heavy rain does not fall  upon it, then light rain (is sufficient)” (Al-Baqara 2:265).

Here we see the opposing side of the previous image. For these alms that are given to  seek Allah’s pleasure are compared to a garden rather than a dusty rock, and rather than  being a rock low on the earth, this garden is on an elevated ground. The heavy rain befalls  both of them, but in the first case it erases and destroys, and the second case it fertilizes  and grows. In the first case it befalls the dusty rock and exposes it and leaves it bare, and  in the second case it befalls the garden and mixes with it and produces fruit. Even if this  heavy rain had not befallen the garden, it is so fertile and ready to produce that even a  light rain would have been enough to revitalize it!