6. KHUTAB IV (2)

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1. NASKH (ABROGATION) IN THE QUR‟ĀN
In order to further understand the meanings of the verses of the Qur‟ān we have to learn its sciences. Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūt.ī (d. 991/1583) mentions eighty sciences in his book al-Itqān, and put the science of nāsikh and mansūkh (abrogating and abrogated verses) as number 47.
The term naskh has many meanings, among which, as mentioned by al-Rāghib al-As.fahānī (d. 502/ ) in his book al-Mufradāt, as followers:
a. It means )removing or abrogating something with something else which follows it, namely, replacing it(, such as sunshine with shade, shade with sunshine, and old age with youth.
b. Sometimes it means (removal, abrogation, cancellation)
c. Sometimes it means (confirmation, recording, listing)
d. Sometimes it means both: removal and confirmation
The expression means (1) the abrogation of a law with another which follows it (2) the making a copy of it
Al-Rāghib al-As.fahānī gives the interpretation of the term naskh in the following Qur‟ānic verse:
Whatever a Verse do We abrogate or cause to be forgotten,
We bring a better one or similar to it… (Q. 2:106)
It is said that the term means: “We do not remove the application of it or drop it from the heart of people”. However, could also mean “We do not make and reveal it”, and means “or delay it so that We do not reveal it”.
Muslim scholars of earlier generation (, i.e., the s.ah.ābah and the tābi‗īn) have different definition of naskh from that of the later generation.
The definition of naskh according to is as follows:
It is the replacement of some qualities of a verse with another, either as an explanation of a verse among the verses of the Qur‟ān, or turning away from its obvious meaning to non-obvious one, or explaining that the qayd (restriction, condition) is based on agreement, and not on reservation or specification of the general term, or explaining the
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difference between what is mans.ūs. (fixed in the divine text) and what is apparently similar to it, or removing one of the pre-Islamic traditions, or removing one of the prescriptions of religious laws of earlier religions.
Here we see that the term naskh (abrogation) deals with explaining, specifying general terms in the verses of the Qur‟ān, restricting the unrestricted , explaining the obscure , elaborating the general concepts and abrogating pre-Islamic traditions and pre-Islamic religious prescriptions.
What scholars of later generations consider as the specification of a legal judgment pertinent to a certain period, and the specification by lifting the legal judgment pertinent to particular people are all considered naskh (abrogation) by scholars of early generations.
The definition of naskh (abrogation) according to the scholars of later generations is as follows:
It is the abolition of a fixed legal judgment in an earlier message with another unaware of it, or the abolition of a legal judgment with a new message, or the abolition of a legal judgment with legal evidence that comes later.
In other words it is the abrogation of a legal judgment in the divine text with another. The abrogation takes place only on the legal judgment that has been decided earlier. There has to be momentary loss of, conviction and certainty for the occurrence of abrogation according to this view.
This definition of naskh by Muslim scholars of later generations with its strict conditions, although it is rationally possible to occur, it could hardly occur in the Qur‟ān. No wonder that many contemporary Muslim scholars deny the occurrence of abrogation in the Qur‟ān, such as Shaykh Muhammad Abū Zahrah in his Mas.ādir al-Fiqh al-Islāmī and Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazālī in his Naz.arāt fī ‘l-Qur‘ān. In 1368/1948 „Abd al-Muta„āl al-Jabarī wrote his Master thesis at the Faculty of Dār al-„Ulūm, Cairo University entitled (“Abrogation in the Islamic Law as I Understand It”), and as sub-title he put (“There is no Abrogated Verse in the Qur„ān”), and (“There is no Abrogation in the Revealed Sunnah”). As a complement of this thesis he wrote a book entitled ؟ “There is no Abrogation in the Qur „ān … Why?”); it was first published in 1400/1980).
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The existence of the term naskh in the Qur‟ān is undeniable. It is mentioned in it several times, either the word itself as mentioned earlier, or its meaning, such as the following verses:
And when We change a Verse (of the Qur‘ān) in place
of another—and Allah knows best what He sent down—they
(the disbelievers) say: ―You (O Muhammad) are but a forger
(a liar).‖ Nay, but most of them know not (Q. 16:101)
The clear indication of the existence of abrogation mentioned in this verse is the expression “Allah knows best what He sent down‖. It is stronger than the verse where the term naskh is mentioned as above, as the term āyah could also mean “sign”, namely, the sign of Allah‟s existence through His creation. There are many signs of Allah which are extinct and have been replaced by others, such as the dinosaurs. The mammoths, the extinct elephants that lived in North America, Europe and Asia during Pleistocene times (namely, beginning 1.8 million years ago and ending 10,000 years ago, where glaciers were still abundant, altering the land), and whose remains are found worldwide, have been replaced by the present day elephants.
For the wrongdoing of the Jews, We made unlawful for them certain
good foods which had been lawful to them—and for their
hindering many from Allah‘s way (Q. 4: 160)
The existence of abrogation in this verse is very clear, namely, the substitution of the legal judgment from h.alāl (lawful) to h.arām (unlawful).
ِAllah blots out what He wills and confirms (what He wills). And with
Him is the Mother of the Book (al-Lawh. Al-Mah.fūz.) (Q. 13:39)
In this verse the two meanings of the term naskh, namely, abrogation and confirmation, are mentioned. For scholars who deny the existence of abrogation in the verses of the Qur‟ān, such as Abū Zahrah, Muh.ammad al-Ghazālī, „Abd al-Muta„āl al-Jabarī and al-Khud.arī, what is called naskh
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is only the application of laws in stages, such as the prohibition of consuming alcohol for Muslims.
The importance of this science of the Qur‟ān is that by knowing what is called nāsikh (abrogating verses) and mansūkh (abrogated verses) we can deny the allegation of those who attack the Qur‟ān of being inconsistent in its legal judgments. (ANUMA, 02.05.08)
2. YUSUF ESTES
Brothers in Islam,
This is a summary of the story of Sheikh Yusuf Estes, a former preacher against Islam, and how he found Islam. He himself, his wife, his children, his father and stepmother all embraced Islam. This story might give us an idea what some non-Muslims think about us, Muslims, and how to have a good dialogue with them.
In his talk about Priests and Preachers entering Islam he said that his father and he had a business in a mall some years ago. When his father came home he told him that he was going to have a business with a man from Egypt, the land of Cleopatra and the pyramids. When he was told that the man was a Muslim, he told his father not to deal with this kind of person. “Muslims are terrorists, hijackers, and do not believe in God.” But his father insisted that they should meet him.
So he wanted to meet him on Sunday after returning from the church, carrying his Bible and putting his cap on where it was written Jesus is the Lord. He was expecting to see a man like Ayatollah Khomaini with a beard, wearing a turban, but found a normal man, without beard and even without hair, bald.
After introducing himself as Muhammad, he was asked whether he believed in God, Abraham, Moses, David and Solomon, the Old Testament and the New Testament, in Jesus and his miracle birth. So, Sheikh Yusuf Estes agreed to do business with him, hoping to convert him to Christianity. But his father told him to leave this person alone, which he did not do. He met his friend carrying a big cross, and preached Christianity, but also advised him to stay away from this Muslim, because he said he was very dangerous. When the man with a big cross got heart
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attack, he visited him, and he met a Catholic priest in the hospital, who told him that the Muslims knew Christianity as well as Islam, and the Christian priests also knew about Islam as well as Christianity, and advised him to stay away from the Muslims.
In a discussion the Egyptian Muslim, Muhammad, told Sheikh Yusuf that he would go to his religion and become Christian if his religion, Christianity, is better than his religion, Islam; but he made a condition, namely, proof. To this, Sheikh Yusuf said that religion is not about proof, but about faith. He said “In Islam we have both, proof and faith.‟
“Are you going to tell me there is proof that there is God?”
“Yes,”
“I don‟t think so.”
Thinking that the man was no match for him, Sheikh Yusuf needed help. His father was an ordained minister and read the whole Bible when he was ten years old, and had a certificate for that, his wife was conversant in the Bible and had her own Bible.
After dinner, he cleared the table, brought his own Bible, his father with his Bible, his wife with her Bible, and the Catholic priest with his own Bible. But his father had King James Bible version, he had Revised Standard Bible, his wife had Jimmy Swaggard Bible and all are different Bibles. The Catholic priests had 73 books in his Bible, and they had only 66 books.
“How are we going to justify what verses we are talking about in the Bible to this man”, he said. Since they could not agree, he turned to the Muslim how many versions are there in the Qur‟an. He said “One, and it is in Arabic, if not Arabic it is not Qur‟an, it is recitation in its original language.” He had not seen anything like this before. People did not realize how powerful it is to have the original, in Arabic, while in any other religions they have copies and translations, people‟s opinions, and books written about it. If someone writes now about the Qur‟an, and then one thousand years from now and claimed it to be the Qur‟an, it is not the speech of Allah.
The next night they wanted to talk about Christianity which is the easiest religion in the world. “You just say the magic word, you do not have to pray, you do not have to fast, you do not have to pay zakat and do the Hajj etc., you do not have to do anything.”
Talking about salvation, how are you going to be saved. He said that in Christianity we have the perfect salvation, we have the grace. God can‟t forgive sin, so he sent his son to die for everybody‟s sin. Muhammad said,
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“Why can‟t God forgive sin? If he can‟t forgive sin, how come after killing his son he can forgive sin?” Sheikh Yusuf cannot answer this.
“So, you are guilty and His son is innocent, where in history do we find that it is good that an innocent was killed for the sake of the guilty one?” He did not know the answer, he had a problem with that one. Sheik Yusuf‟s commentary to the audience, “If you have a bad son, really bad, ran round the house with a skateboard, broke the television set, broke some windows, you say „I can‟t forgive him, so, I have another child here who did not do anything at all, so I will beat him up, no, I will kill him, the innocent one,‟ people would put that man in insane asylum, won‟t they? Society would not accept that, so why does religion accept it? And if you accept that, it will be OK to kill innocent children. But Islam forbids killing innocent children.” (In pre-Islamic era, some ignorant Arabs did that, esp. their daughters)
Forget about the Bible, forget about the salvation, it does not work, especially when we say that nobody is safe except by grace, the Muslims also said it, and grace in Arabic is rahmah, and Allah said and the word rahmah is mentioned many times throughout the Qur‟an. According to the hadith Allah has 100 rahmah. The rahmah we have now is only one part of 99 rahmah which will be given in the Hereafter. The Prophet said that nobody will be safe except with this rahmah, and he was asked, “Even you, O Messenger of Allah? He said, “Even me.”
The Muslim asked him whether he believed in God, and said “yes”.
“Do you believe in Trinity?”
“Yes, three, one in three.”
“How does it work?”
Sheikh Yusuf went to his friend who had brought the big cross.
“Did you meet the man? He said “yes” and told his problem.
“Stay away from this man, and I have told you.”
“But he believes in Jesus and his miracle birth and miracles he performed.”
“But he does not believe in the Cross and Salvation.”
“But all I have to do is to explain the trinity. But how can I explain the trinity?”
“Like an apple, it has a skin, inside the skin is the meat, and inside the meat is the seed. Three things, one apple, same way, the Son, the Father and the Holy Ghost, One God.”
The next night after supper, they sat together, the priest, his father, his wife, himself and Muhammad the Muslim. He pulled the apple and said:
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“You see this apple? It has the skin, inside it the meat, and inside it the seed.” But Muhammad said, “There are six seeds there, what is that equal? .It looks like a worm gets through.”
Sheikh Yusuf went back to his friend, and said:
“The apple did not work.”
“Stay away from this guy. Forget about the apple. It is like the egg. The egg has a shell. Inside the egg is the white, and inside the white is the yolk, one egg”
He went home and said:
”See this egg?”
“What if it has a double yolk? God has just become four. And what if it is rotten?” So, Sheikh Yusuf forgot about that.
A few days later, he was at a parking lot, met somebody and told him his problem, how to explain the trinity. The man told him,
“You are a preacher…You see me, one person. You see my wife right there, one person, you see my child right there, one person; altogether, a family of three; it is a family of God.” Sheikh Yusuf said, “That is it.”
While returning home he thought about it: “… what if they have another kid? What if they have twin, what if they divorce, because in Texas if the woman got divorce she got the house, the car, the savings, retirement, (almost) everything.” So, he sat at the table and tried to find a clue. The Bible said, god is one, one, one, one, there is nothing except one, throughout the Bible there is no trinity, just one god.: O, Israel, your god is one Lord. That is in the book of Deuteronomy and the Book of Mark, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Jews and the Christians are ordered to believe that God is One. Besides, who wants a god who in one minute can become rotten, and can become divorced. So we asked the Muslim about God. His answer was,
Say (O Muhammad), He is Allah,(the)One, the Self Sufficient One,
He begets not, nor was He begotten, And there is none
comparable to Him (Q. 112)
Allah, is the Uniquely One, the Eternal, He is not the father of anything, He is not the son of anything. He does not compare anything, and He is unique, one. He exclaimed:
“Wow, that sounds what I believe anyway.” After long discussion, the Catholic priest asked Muhammad the Muslim:
“Can I go to your church with you?”
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“Sure, come on”, said Muhammad. They saw how they prayed. When they returned, Sheikh Yusuf took the priest aside and asked him what he saw. He said, “They stood there like monks, praying, and then they bowed, and made what only high priest used to do, prostration, and then left.”
“What kind of music did they have?”
“They don‟t have any music.”
“How in the world you worship God without music? I was a music minister,” so he asked his Egyptian friend.
“Is it true you guys don‟t have music in your mosque?”
“It is true.”
“How many mosques are there in the world?”
“Millions”
“They all have electricity there?
“Yes” Because he was selling electric pianos and organs, he thought he could get rich. So, he asked:
“Do you think they are interested in any music?”
“You can try, but I doubt it.”
[He did not make anything like haram (prohibited), haram]
Muhammad kept on tawhid (the Oneness of God). No matter what was the subject, he went back to lā ilāha illallāh (there is no god but Allah).
A few days more go by the Catholic priest asked if he could go again with him, because he said “I found such peace there and just would like to go there again,” and Muhammad said “sure”.
So, they left, and they did not come back, and was so late at night, and finally they come out of the car, and he recognized the Muslim with a man with a white kufiah and long white robe: that was the priest.
“What happened to you, did you become a Moslem?” He said أشْهَدُ أَنْ لا إلهَ
إلاّ اللهُ وَ أشْهَدُ أنَ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُىْلُ الله (“I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah”)
ٍSheikh Yusuf was shocked, and considered this was the biggest part of the story, because this man had dedicated his entire life to the Lord. He had completely given up all worldly things so that he could be a priest, he could not get married and have children, the priests don‟t even gamble, they did not do anything, they just pray.
“So, wow, you have given all that up?” The priest said:
“I am giving up nothing, I am gaining. This is the right way.”
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Sheikh Yusuf came upstairs telling his wife: “Can you believe, a Catholic priest becomes a Muslims?” She said:
“I want to get divorce.”
“Ha, wait a minute; this is a different subject, what happened?” She said:
“I am listening of what is being talked about around here, I see where you are going, and I know where I want to go, and a Muslim cannot marry to a Christian, and I heard him say that, so I want divorce.”
“I am not going to become a Muslim, take it easy! Did I say I want to be one of them, no, I did not say that.” What she meant that a Muslim woman cannot marry to a Christian man, but if Sheikh Yusuf also becomes a Muslim she will be alright to be a Christian.
“That is what I am talking about; I want to become a Muslim.”
By the way there is some good news here. He said,
“I do like to be a Muslim.”
“What?”
“You know, I don‟t know how to say, but I also want to be a Muslim. I don‟t know how to say in front of Dad, I also want to be a Muslim.”
“You are a liar.”
“How can you say that?”
“You are either lying right now or you are lying five minutes ago when you said you did not want to be a Muslim. “Get out,” she said.
He went down the step, all his life was flashing in front of him, his children, then remembered that this was his father‟s house. How was he going out from there? He went down and woke up his Egyptian friend, and said:
“We got to talk.”
“What is the matter?”
He told him his whole life story, and they were walking up and down the country roads, until dawn. The Egyptian was so patient and intent, and this was not the only time he listened. He told him to go for his fajr prayer, while Sheikh Yusuf found a piece of board, tried to face the direction his friend did, put his head down, and thought that if it worked for the Muslims it might work also for him, put down his head and said: “O God, if You are there, guide me.” He found that the hardest part of changing religion is that he is responsible for what he did, and you pay for what you did. He took a bath, then came to his Egyptian friend, pronounced the shahadah (testimony of the oneness of God, namely, (“I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah” as above). A few minutes later, his wife also came
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and pronounced the shahadah. His father did the same later. His stepmother, a few months before she died at the age of 86, also said the shahadah.
Sheikh Yusuf said, that that year a woman of 99 years gave the shahadah, and her children, grand children and great-grand children, all became Muslims, all were Americans. An Indian woman from India had a vision, and said: “I was in a store and saw a book and knew I had to buy this book.” Her driver took her to a store and recognized it. She saw the book and started screaming, and bought it; it was the translation of the Qur‟an. She wanted to read it and believe in it. Her driver for over 7 years, she found out, was also a Muslim. He never told her, she thought he was a Hindu. The one who sold the book was also a Muslim. The lady, the brand new Muslim, came to him and said: “I would like to take one of your tapes and made CD out of it” He said: “Go ahead and have a good time.” She did and made over 600 000 copies and distributed all over the United States. Sheikh Yusuf said that many people came to Islam because of her efforts, not his. He said that you can be part of the story. You go to the website: Islamtoworrow.com and Islamyesterday.com and download as many as you like for free, make copy of them and give them out to all people. (27 June, 2008)
3. HEARING AND SEEING IN THE QUR‟ĀN
(ANUMA, 24 October 08; CIVIC, 9 July, 10)
Brothers in Islam,
When Allah mentions the sense of hearing and the sense of seeing in one verse, He mentions the sense of hearing first, and in singular number, )al-sam‗ not in plural which is al-asmā‗). Then he mentions the sense of seeing in plural, al-absar, (the plural of al-bas.ar). Allah says in the Qur‟ān:
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Say (O Muhammad), ―Who provides for you from the sky and the earth?
Or who owns hearing and sight? And who brings out the living from
the dead and brings out the dead from the living? And who
disposes the affairs?‖ They will say ―Allah.‖ Say: ―Will
you not then be afraid of Allah‘s punishment (for
setting up rivals in worship with Allah)?‖
(Q. 10:21)
And Allah has brought you out from the wombs of your mothers
While you know nothing. And He gave you hearing, sight,
and hearts that you might give thanks (to Allah).
(Q. 16:78)
It is He Who has created for you (the sense of) hearing (ears), eyes
(sight), and hearts (understanding). Little thanks you give.
(Q. 23:78)
...And He gave you hearing (ears), sight (eyes)
and hearts. Little is the thanks you give!
(Q. 32:9 and 67:23)
We notice that in the five verses above, the term al-sam‗ (hearing) is mentioned before the term al-abs.ār (sight), and that al-sam‗ is in singular number (not in its plural which is al-asmā‗) and al-abs.ār (sight) in plural (not in singular number which is al-bas.ār). Hearing is in singular, whereas sight is in plural. The verses above do not say in singular, or in plural, except one verse where both words are used in singular number, as follows:
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الإسراء :
And follow not that of which you have no knowledge. Verily, the hearing
[i.e. ears], and the sight [i.e., eyes], and the heart, of each
of those one will be questioned (by Allah).
(Q. 17:36)
Here Allah uses the three words in singular, hearing, seeing, and heart, all will be responsible for what they did in the world.
In other verses Allah says:
They are those upon whose hearts, hearing and sight
Allah has set a seal. And they are the heedless!
(Q. 16:108)
Till, when they reach it (Hell-fire), their hearing [i.e. ears]
and their eyes, and their skins will testify against
them as to what they used to do.
(Q. 41:20).
Again, in the above two verses the hearing is mentioned before sight (seeing), and in the expression hearing is in singular whereas sight is in plural. Similar verses are as follows:
And you have not been hiding yourselves (in the world), lest your
hearing [i.e. ears], and your sight [i.e., eyes], and your skins should
testify against you; but you thought that Allah knew not
much of what you were doing.
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(Q. 41:22)
And indeed We had firmly established them with that wherewith
We have not established you (O Quraysh)! And We have assigned
them the (facility of) hearing (ears), seeing (eyes), and hearts;
but their hearing (ears), seeing (eyes), and their hearts availed
them nothing since they used to deny the āyāt of Allah,
and they were completely encircled by that
which they used to mock at!
(Q. 46:26).
We have seen from the verses mentioned above that hearing is mentioned before sight (seeing), and hearing is used in singular number, whereas sight (seeing) is used in plural number, except in one verse where hearing and sight (seeing) are in singular number where it is mentioned that both will be questioned by Allah in the Hereafter. This difference could be ignored and neglected in translating these verses into other languages. This is one example indicating the importance of knowing Arabic in order to have deeper understanding of the verses of the Qur‟ān.
What is the wisdom behind these phenomena of mentioning the word sam‗ (hearing) before the word bas.ar (sight), and using the hearing in singular and the sight (seeing) in plural? Is there any preference here, that hearing is more important than seeing, that the ears are more important than the eyes? Suppose we are to choose between hearing and seeing, living in a noisy but totally dark world, or a bright but totally silent one? It is said that 80% of our knowledge comes through our eyes, and that seeing is believing. We would choose seeing. The eye sight is so important that in Arabic language a person who calls his beloved one “ “O my beloved one” also calls him “O my eye,” indicating that the beloved one is so precious to him like his own eye. However, there is something more important than eyesight; it is insight. When „Abdullah ibn „Abbās, the Prophet‟s cousin became blind at his old age, probably suffering from cataract, Mu„āwiyah ibn Abī Sufān who turned the caliphate into a dynasty by appointing his son Yazīd to succeed him, said one day to Ibn „Abbās:
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“O you, Banī ‟l-„Abbās clan, you have lost your eyesight” .
Ibn „Abbās answered back,
“And you, O Banī Umayyah clan, you have lost your insight (mental vision) ” .
What Ibn „Abbās means is that his condition of losing his eyesight but with healthy mind and insight is better that Mu„āwiyah's condition who has lost his insight and sound judgment, or being out of his mind by turning the caliphate into a dynasty, despite of his healthy eyesight.
So, what is then the significance of mentioning hearing before mentioning seeing in the Qur‟ān? Shaykh Muhammad Mutawallī al-Sha„rāwī, who was the Minister of Awqāf (Endowments) and the Affairs of al-Azhar in late 1980s, gives us some explanation of it. He says that when a person loses his eyesight he loses everything, and lives permanently in darkness; he cannot see anything, and he will strike and bang against anything on his way. A person who loses his hearing still can see, he faces less danger than a person losing his eyesight. But when Allah mentions “hearing” He always mentions it first before mentioning “seeing” which is one of the miracles of the Qur‟an (i‗jāz al-Qur‘ān). The reasons, according to Shaykh al-Sha„rāwī, are as follows:
1. When a baby is born his ears function earlier than his eyes. He can hear, but he cannot see. If you make a noise when a baby is just born he will be disturbed and cry. But if you put your hand close to his eyes he will not move and will not sense any danger, because he is still blind, his eyes do not function yet.
2. When a person is asleep his eyes totally stop functioning. He cannot see anything, and yet, (to some extent) he still can hear. If you want to wake him up, just make a noise, and he will be awake. Some people cannot sleep, even with a slight noise, let alone hearing someone snoring. This reminds me of the case of mothers who are sleeping beside their babies, they will keep sleeping when they hear the noise of passing cars, and so on, but will be awake when they hear their babies crying.
3. Ears and hearing are the link between man and this world. If the ears totally stop functioning, his link with the world will also stop, like the case of as.h.āb al-kahf (the people who ran away from their king‟s
persecution and took refuge in a cave, where he fell asleep for hundreds of years). Allah says in the Qur‟an,
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So we cast [a cover of sleep] over their ears within
the cave for a number of years…
(Q. 18:11)
Because their ears were covered and totally stopped functioning, no noise would disturb them from their deep sleep. These are the reasons why Allah mentions the word “hearing” before the word “seeing” in the Qur‟ān.
With regard to the verses in the Qur‟ān where Allah mentions “hearing” in singular number (sam‗), whereas “seeing” (abs.ār) in plural, Shaykh al-Sha„rāwī gives us his explanation as follows:
Seeing can be controlled by man. He will see when he opens his eyes, and he will not see if he closes his eyes. He can control what to see and what not to see by closing his eyes or by turning his face away from something he does not want to see. No so with his ears. If he is inside a room where many people talk, he cannot control his ears and listen only to the voice he wants to hear. He will hear every voice and sound, whether he wants it or not. He cannot choose the sound or voice he wants to hear. He has no choice with his ears, he can ignore the voice or sound, and yet, it reaches his ears, whereas with his eyes, he can choose what and whom to see and not to see. Everybody in the room hears the same thing, one thing only, the sound, the noise. So, Allah put “hearing” in singular number (mufrad). But these people in the same room see different things; one person is looking at the other person he is talking to, another person is looking at the pictures hanging on the wall, etc., they look at and see different things in the room. There are various seeing and objects of seeing. A person can stop seeing by closing his eyes, but those people in the room will keep hearing every sound in it, as if they have one and the same “hearing” For this reason, according to Shaykh al-Sha„rāwī, Allah mentions “seeing” is plural, abs.ār, the plural of bas ār.
In conclusion, Shaykh al-Sha„rāwī says that Allah makes preference of the sense of “hearing” over the sense of “seeing” in the Qur‟ān by mentioning it earlier, because “hearing” keeps functioning, does not sleep,
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and a thing which does not sleep is in higher position than the one that sleeps. “Hearing” starts functioning at earlier age, since the baby was born, whereas “seeing” develops later. The ears keep functioning while we are sleeping, as we can wake up any time by any noise. It is said that even the baby in his mother's womb could hear her voice. It is highly recommended for pregnant Muslim mothers to recite the Qur‟ān during pregnancy. The ears keep functioning days and nights, whereas the eyes can only function with the presence of light, and therefore cannot see in the dark. Moreover, in the Hereafter it is the ears who will function first when the angel Isrāfīl, the angel who will sound the trumpet on the Day of Resurrection. As the English translations keep translating the plural into the single (the sight), because it is grammatically wrong to put it in plural (sights), the deep meaning of this word will be lost if we rely on the English translation. "Sight" can only be in plural (sights), but it does not indicate the power of seeing meant in the Qur‟anic verses mentioned above, but rather something worthy to be seen, such as historic buildings, palaces, etc, and therefore we can say that "the Grand Canyon is one of the sights of the world." (MAS)
4. THE WORD “SON” OR “CHILD” IN THE BIBLE
(ANUMA 12. 12.08)
Bothers in Islam,
Soon the Christians will celebrate what they call Christmas, the birth of what they call “the Son of God.” This expression is taboo in Islam, even if it is meant metaphorically. Allah said,
And they say: ―The Most Gracious (Allah) has begotten a son [as the Jews say: ‗Uzayr (Ezra) is the son of God, and the Christians say that He has begotten a son, ‗Isa (Jesus, and the pagan Arabs say the He has begotten daughters (angels and
others]. Indeed, you have brought forth (said) a terrible evil thing.
Whereby the heavens are almost torn, and the earth is split asunder,
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and the mountains fall in ruin, That they ascribe a son to the
Most Gracious (Allah). But it is not suitable for (the Majesty
of) the Most Gracious (Allah) that He should beget
a son. There is none in the heavens and the
earth but comes to the Most Gracious
(Allah) as a slave (Q. 19:88-93)
After stating in previous verses that Isa (Jesus) a.s. was worshipper and servant of Allah and was born from Maryam (Mary) without a father, Allah refutes the statement of human beings that He has a son. This statement is so terrible, that the heavens are almost torn, the earth is split asunder, and the mountains fall in ruin, out of their high esteem when they hear the terrible statement of man that Allah has a son.
Allah said
And they (the Jews, Christians, pagans) say: Allah has begotten
a son (children or offspring). Glorified is He (above all that they
associate with Him). Nay, to Him belongs all that is in the
heavens and on earth, and all surrender with
obedience (in worship) to Him. (Q. 2:116)
Again, Allah said,
They (Jews, Christians and pagans) say: ―Allah has begotten
a son.‖ Glory is to Him. He is Rich (Free of all needs). His is
all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. No
warrant you have for this. Do you say against Allah
what you know not? (Q. 10:68)
Allah denounced this allegation, saying:
(Both) the Jews, and the Christians say: ‗We are the
sons of God and His beloved.‘ Say: ‗Why then doth
He punish you for your sins? Nay, ye are but man—of
the men He hath created: He forgiveth whom He
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pleaseth, and He punisheth whom He pleaseth;
and to God belongeth this dominion of the
heavens and the earth, and all that is
between; and unto Him is the final
goal (of all).‘ (Qur‟ān 5:18)
Allah said further,
It befits not (the Majesty of) Allah that He should beget a son.
Glorified (and Exalted) is He. When He decrees a thing,
He only says to it: ―Be!‖ and it is. (Q. 19:35)
In a hadith narrated by Ibn „Abbas r.a. the Prophet s.a.w., said in a hadith qudsi, that Allah said,
The son of Adam tells lies against Me though he has no
right to do so, and he abuses Me though he has no right to do so.
As for his telling lies against Me, he claims that I cannot recreate
him as I created him before: and as for his abusing Me: it is
his statement that I have a son (or offspring). No! Glorified
I am! I am far from taking a wife or a son (or offspring).
(a Bukhār 6/4482)
Where, then, the “Son of God” statement did originally come from? Rudolf Bultmann, former Professor of New Testament in the University of Marburg, (West) Germany, suggested “that the title „Son of God‟ was given currency by Hellenistic converts. In the Hellenistic world „Son of God‟ was a title given to kings (of Egypt, for example) who were believed to be descended from gods. In the first century A.D. the title was being accorded also to Roman emperors. In the Greco-Roman world the term was used even more widely, and anybody who was believed to possess miraculous power might be called „Son of God.‟ Bultmann argues that although the primitive Church may sometimes have used the title „Son of God‟ of Jesus as a synonym for Messiah (Christ), its wide use in the New
Testament is derived from Hellenistic usage. Since it connoted a wonder worker who has physical descent from a god, it was a distortion of the early Christian tradition, and is an instance, Bultmann maintains, of the
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Hellenization of primitive Christianity.” (See E.G. Jay, Ph.D., Son of Man Son of God, p. 45).
Like “father,” which is not dealt with in this khutbah, and might be dealt with in another khutbah, the word “son” or “child” is also used metaphorically in the Bible for different kinds of people, either as the son of God, the son of the devil, or the son of any other thing. Some examples are as follows:
1. Adam as the son of God. Starting the genealogy of Jesus as (supposed to be) the son of Joseph, Luke ended with “… the son of Adam, which was the son of God” (Luke 3:23-38). As Adam had no father, he became the son of God, and so was Jesus.
2. Solomon as the son of God. God spoke to David about his son Solomon, saying: “I will be his father, and he shall be my son…” (Samuel II 7:14).
3. Noble or strong people as sons of God, as in the following verse: “That the sons of God saw the daughters of man that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose” (Genesis 6:2). See also Genesis 6:4 and Job 1:6. The greatest leaders and heroes of Rome were considered sons of gods. See E.G. Jay, Ph.D., Son of Man Son of God, p. 13. Some Roman emperors were even considered gods. Julius Caesar (101 - 44 B.C.), after the success of his military campaigns, became so popular among his people that they heralded him as a god. His successor, Octavian (63 B.C. - 14 C.E.), “allowed himself to be addressed as “deus” (god, deity) and “divus” (divine) during his principate as the Emperor Augustus (27 B.C. - A.D. 14).” ( Ibid., p. 19). Even after his death, Augustus was still honoured as a god.
4. Israel (Jacob) and his descendants, the Israelites, as the children of God as in the following verse: “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt” (Hosea 11:1). See also Hosea 1:1, Isaiah 1:2, 30:1, 43:6, 45:11, and 62:8, Jeremiah 10:20, Ezekiel 15:20-21, Deuteronomy 32:19-20, Job 38:7, and Psalm 29:1.
5. The Christian believers as the children of God; Jesus said about them in the Last Day: “Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of resurrection” (Luke 20:36). See also Galatians 4:6-7, Acts 17:27-29 and Matthew 12:50. If the Christians are “the children of God,” then they become Jesus‟ brothers and sisters, as he himself was also “the son of God.” Stretching forth his hand toward his disciples, he said: “Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my
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Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Matthew 12:49-50).
6. Every righteous servant of God as a son of God, whether a Christian or not. David said: “ …who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord?” (Psalms 89:6; see also Matthew 5:9, 44-45. Romans 8:14, Revelation 21:7, and Corinthians II 6:18).
7. Evil people as the sons of the devil and the generation of vipers. Paul said: “… thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?” (Acts 13:10). Jesus said: “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?” (Matthew 12:34).
8. Job‟s people as children of fools and of base men. Job said about them: “They were children of fools, yea, children of base men; they were viler than the earth.” (Job 30:8).
9. The Israelites as the children of Zion, as in the following verse: “Let Israel rejoice in him that made him; let the children of Zion be joyful in their king.” (Psalm 149:2).
10. The natives of Jerusalem as its sons and daughters, when God said to it: “Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, who thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured…” (Ezekiel 16:20).
11. A proselyte as the child of hell. Jesus said: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves” (Matthew 23:15).
The expression “son” is still used metaphorically, such as the proverb, “Every man is the son of his own works,” indicating personal responsibility. The dog or bitch is called “Man‟s best friend”, and yet, a bad person is called sometimes metaphorically as its son. Children belonging to a certain school are called “school children” (Ind. “anak sekolah], and the ship crew are called in Indonesian “anak kapal” which literally means “children of the ship”, and neither the school nor the ship are their parents. (ANUMA 12.12.08)
Reference:
„Abd Allāh al-„Alamī, كِتَابُ سََلاسِلِ المُّنَاظَرَةِ اْلإسْلامِيَّةِ النَصْرَانِيَّةِ بَيّْنَ شَيّْخٍ وَ قِسِّيّسٍ
(Controversies between a Muslim Savant and a Christian Priest) (Damascus: N.p., 1970), pp. 87-116.
Tafsir Ibn Kathir
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5. THE WORD “FATHER” IN THE QUR‟AN
AND THE BIBLE (ANUMA, 23 JAN. 09)
The word “father” in Arabic is ab ) , but this word in Arabic could have wider meanings. Originally, it means any person who is the cause of the existence, appearance or the maintenance of something. A person who takes care of his guests is called “the father of the guests” , and a person who stirs up war is called “the father of war” . It could also mean “the forefather”, as in the following verse,
And strive hard in Allah‘s Cause as you ought to strive.
He has chosen you (to convey His Message of Islamic Monotheism
to mankind by inviting them to Islam), and has not laid upon you in
religion any hardship: it is the religion of your father
[i.e., forefather] Abraham…(Q. 22:78)
In dual form , it could mean in Arabic language: father and mother, father and uncle, and father and grand-father, whereas in plural it means “forefathers.” The examples from the Qur‟an where the dual means “father and mother” are as follows:
O Children of Adam! Let not Satan deceive you, as he got
your parents (Adam and Eve) out of Paradise… (Q. 7:27)
―And as for the boy, his parents were believers, and we feared lest
he should oppress them by rebellion and disbelief‖ (Q. 18:80)
This was when the wise man called Khid.r whom Allah had given knowledge directly killed an apparently innocent boy. Allah informed him that if the boy grew up he would rebel and became disbeliever, and Allah would replace the parents with a pious child.
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Or were you witness when death approached Ya‗qūb (Jacob)?
When he said to his sons, ―What will you worship after me?‖ They
said, ‖We shall worship your God (Allah), the God of your fathers,
Ibrāhīm (Abraham), Ismā‗īl (Ishmael), Ish.āq (Isaac). One God
and to Him we submit in Islam (Q. 2:133)
Here Prophet Ibrāhīm was Prophet Ya„qub‟s grand-father, Prophet Ismā„īl was his uncle, and Prophet Ish.āq was his father, all are addressed as his “fathers”, namely, fore-fathers.
It is our religion and culture that require us to respect our elders, and address them in a respectful way, such as calling them “father, mother, uncle, aunt,” and to those who have approximately the same age as we have, we call them “brother, sister,” for example, “Uncle Salīm,” “Sister Maryam”, etc. The wives of the Prophet, Muhammad s.a.w. are called “mothers of the believers,” and no one was allowed to marry any of them after him. Allah said,
The Prophet is closer to believers than their own selves, and his wives are
their (believers‘) mothers (as regards respect and marriage) (Q. 33:6)
Christians call their patriarchs, their priests, and their church dignitaries as “fathers.” Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), an Albanian Roman Catholic nun with Indian citizenship won the Nobel Prize for peace in 1979 for her service to children, refugees, and the poor in India. A priest, especially of the Roman Catholic Church, whom the members confess their faults and sins is called “father confessor.” The member of the ancient Roman Senate was also called “father.” In the early seventies, when the activity of Christian missionaries in Indonesia to convert Muslims was at its peak, an Indonesian priest called “Father Adiseputra” studied at the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and made his research on Fakhru‟l-Dīn al-Rāzī‟s tafsīr, (The Large Commentary) also called (Keys to the Unknown). He knew Arabic, and this tafsīr was interesting for him.
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However, some Qur‟an commentators said exaggeratingly that you can find everything in Fakhru‟l-Razī‟s tafsīr, except tafsīr itself.
In the United States, “Brother Jonathan” is referred to its people collectively, and “Uncle Sam” is the personification of these people, and of their government. He is the “uncle” who likes to interfere with other people‟s business, and to whom former President Sukarno of Indonesia said, “Leave us alone, leave us alone!” People used to say to this kind of intruder, “Yankee, go home!”
The word “father” in the Bible is used for different kinds of people, the devil, God, and something to which one is continuously attached. Here are some examples:
1. The great vizier as the father of Pharaoh, e.g., “So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of his entire house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.” (Genesis 45:8).
2. The religious leader, as the father of his followers, e.g., “And Micah said unto him. Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year…” (Judges 17:10).
3. Naaman, the army leader, as the father of his servants, e.g., “And his [i.e., Naaman‟s] servants came near and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee some great things, wouldst thou not have done it?” (Kings II 5:13).
4. God, as the father of the Israelites in general, as when Isaiah said: “But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter, and we all are the work of thy hand.” (Isaiah 64:8)
5. God, as the father of David, as in the verse: “He [i.e., David] shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation” (Psalms 89:26).
6. God, as the father of Solomon, as in the verse: “I will be his father, and he shall be my son…” (Samuel II 7:14). See also Job 17:14.
7. God, as the father of Christian believers, as when Jesus said to his disciples: “And call no man your father upon the earth; for one is your Father, which is in heaven” (Matthew 23:9). See also Matthew 5:16 and 48, 6:1 and 4, 6:8-9, 6:14-15 and 18, 10:20 and 29; Luke 12:29-32 and 23:9).
8. God, as the father of the orphans, as when David said: “A father of the fatherless, and a judge, is God in his holy habitation.” (Psalms 68:5).
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9. God, as the father of every righteous servant of His, e.g., when Jesus said to his disciples: “But I say unto you, Love our enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you: That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven…” (Matthew 5:44-45). See also Ephesians 4:6).
10. The devil, as the father of evil people. Jesus said to the Jews: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do” (John 8:44).
11. God, as the father of Jesus. Paul said: “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the God of mercies, and the God of all comfort” (Corinthians II 1:3). See also Ephesians 1:3 and Luke 10:21-22.
12. Corruption (or pit) as Job‟s father. Job said: “I have said to corruption [the pit, according to the New World Translation], Thou art my father” (Job 17:14).
13. God, as the father of lights, when James addressed the twelve tribes of Israel, saying: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17).
We Muslims are one very big family in faith, over one billion (milliard) people, one-fifth of world population. Allah said, )ٓٔ
Believers are nothing else than brothers
(in Islamic religion) (Q. 49:10)
،
So, do not become weak (against your enemy),
nor be sad, and you will be superior (in victory)
in you are (true) believers. (Q.3:139).
May Allah unite us as true believers, and help us to achieve the final victory, amin! (ANUMA, 23.1.09)
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6. IBN TAYMIYYAH (1263-1328)
One of the great Muslim scholars in the 13th and the 14th century was Taqy al-Dīn Ah.mad Ibn Taymiyyah. He was born in Harran, located now in Turkey, close to Syrian border. He was a very pious scholar. He was imprisoned in the citadel of Cairo for 18 months on the charge of anthropomorphism, namely the attribution of uniquely human characteristics to the non-human, in this case to Allah. He was released later, but imprisoned again in 1308 for several months.
While in jail, people saw him outside the prison helping people. So they came to him in the prison asking how he could escape and return again to the prison. He said that it was not him, but a jinni who liked to help people appeared to be like him.
One of his sayings is about the most enjoyable thing in this world. What is the most enjoyable thing in the world? It is mentioned in a hadith about it as follows:
… it was narrated by Abdullah ibn
Umar that the Prophet s.a.w. said:
“The world is enjoyment and the best of its
enjoyment is the pious woman [namely, the pious wife
for man and the pious husband for woman].
(Reported by Muslim)
But Ibn Taymiyyah was unmarried. There were many Muslim scholars who were not lucky enough to find their soul-mates, then suddenly they were overtaken by death. Al-Imām al-Nawawī, the collector of Forty authentic h.adiths was one of them. They knew the importance of marriage
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half of it. . But we as part of the religion of Islam, even have also to remember the saying that “It is better to be alone than in bad company,” although it is also said that “It is not good to be alone even in Paradise.” Ibn Taymiyyah said: “How poor are people who left this world and never tasted the most enjoyable thing in it.” When he was asked what he meant, he said , the love of Allah. When we were still children we enjoyed our parents‟ love, but Allah‟s love is more than that.
There is another statement of Ibn Taymiyyah which is extremely important and still relevant to our present situation and time. He said: “Half an „alim (Muslim scholar) is dangerous to religion (Islam), like half qualified physician is dangerous to his patients.” Why? First, the physician has to identify the disease through its symptoms. Second, he has to know the medicine for it. Third, he has to know what kind of medicine is proper for the patient. Forth, he has to know the quantity of the medicine, how many tablets or how many drops he has to take. Fifth, he has to know when to take it, whether in the morning before or after breakfast, before or after lunch, or at night before going to bed. Any mistake made by the doctor could be harmful, even fatal. So, read the prescription carefully before you take your medicine.
One example is the following German story: A medical student was having an oral examination. He was asked to identify a disease after the examiner told him its symptoms. The student answered correctly. He was asked the medicine for its treatment, and the student answered correctly again. But when he was asked the amount of medicine for its treatment, he said “one table spoon” instead of “three drops”. While he was leaving the room he stopped at the door and said: “Professor, I have made mistake. Instead of one table spoon, the patient has to take three drops only.” The professor said: “I am sorry, the patient has died.” (Es tut mir leid, der Patient ist schon gestorben). The student failed. Had he passed he would have killed his first patient.
It is unfortunate that we have so many “half „alims” in the Muslim world. Pick up any subject and he would made himself dominant in the discussion, and his knowledge is based only on what we used to call “common sense” which is common only recently, such as living together and even having children without being married, and marriage of the same sex, to mention a few. According to common-sense what you can see is
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closer to you than what you cannot see, but we can see the moon, not China. Based on this “common-sense” the moon is closer to us than China. You cannot convince him that he is mistaken, because he thinks he knows better, and therefore he does not know that he does not know, a complex ignorance,
This is the most difficult person to deal with. First, you have to convince him that he is wrong without humiliating him. Then you have to tell him the right view politely. It is like filling a glass full of water with milk. First, you have to pour out the water then fill the glass with milk. It is much easier to fill the glass when it is empty. You can replace water with milk in the glass by pouring milk into it without pouring out the water, but it takes a long process to replace water with milk in this way.
Long, long ago, after performing the Friday prayer at al-Rashīd Mosque in Edmonton, Canada, a person came to me, saying, “I want to complain to the Government of Pakistan for allowing the printing the Qur‟an in Pakistan where surah al-Isra‘ is called ‗surah Banī Isrā‘īl‘”. I explained to him that the name surah al-Isrā‘ (Chapter 17) is taken from the first verse in it, namely, ... whereas the second name, surah Banī Isrā‘īl is taken from the second verse, namely, ... and has noting to do with the state of Israel. The term “Banī Isrā‟īl” here means the children (descendants) of Israel, the other name of Prophet Ya„qūb (Jacob). When I told the person to ask the imam, he said, “I am an imam.” Imagine if he had followers and came to Pakistan embassy in Ottawa demonstrating and demanding to ban this Qur‟ān.
Brothers in Islam,
Guidance comes to humble people, not to arrogant ones. The Lebanese poet who emigrated to America said at the last line of his poem (Mysteries), “Do not argue, the person who has understanding is the one who says, ‗I don‘t know‘‖ (ANUMA 20.03.09)
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7. SHAYKH AL-GHAZĀLĪ ON EATING ETIQUETTE
(ANUMA, 25 JULY 2008)
Shaykh Muammad al-Ghazālī -- not al-Imām al-Ghazālī who died in 111 CE)--, like Shaykh Yūsuf al-Qarāwī and Shaykh Muammad Abū Zahrah, was one of the prominent Egyptian Muslim scholars and prolific writers of the last 20th century. One of his books is entitled al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah bayna Ahl al-Fiq wa Ahl al-adīth (The Prophetic Tradition between Experts on Fiqh and Experts on adīths). It was first published in January 1989, and in the same year it was published seven times, indicating the popularity of the book.
In his introduction on the book he said that a man asked him what he would do in Asyut if he was confronted with a group of singers wanting to conduct a morally depraved night (). His answer:
“I shall go to the leader of the orchestra and tell him, „We want to listen to special songs and melodies; are you going to do that?‟ If he asked, „What do you want?‟ I would tell him to sing,
My brother, the despots have transgressed the limit,
and it is necessary (for us) to struggle and sacrifice
or the song,
O transgressor, you have your day.
„But if you sing for us 1
The Night of Wine
we shall shut your mouth and fill it with dust.‟”
Shaykh al-Ghazālī says further:
1 The word which is usually masculine gender (pl. ) means “night time, night” as opposed to (plu. and “daytime (from dawn to dusk)”, as in the poem meaning “whoever seeks glory has to stay up at night [to study]”. The word (pl. and ) means night as opposed to (pl. ) “day (of 24 hours), evening, soiree”.
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“Our brothers are being massacred in many fields, and we do not welcome any intoxication and drunkenness, while the fighting mujahidin around us are pretending to sleep. We hate foolish arts and ban jesters who spread effeminacy and weakness among people…. Indeed, players (actors) are living in slough, as they themselves made starring roles that Islam is against art. We are the one who defend comedies from allegation of indictment, whereas they with their cheap arts worth nothing. Things have become even worse when it is said to the young innocent man: „We do not want the opinions of people [i.e. scholars], nor the schools of law of the imams. We want to take directly from the Qur‟an and the Sunnah.‟ [What they mean is that they do not want to follow any madhhab].
“I hate school of law fanaticism which I consider lacks understanding, and could be a bad attitude, but this fanaticism towards a certain school of law is less harmful than the childish ijtihād in understanding the proofs .” (p. 14)
Shaykh al-Ghazālī was amazed that this book was published five times in five months, that in the introduction of the sixth publishing he advised the readers, especially scholars among them, to consider the following:
a. increasingly pondering the verses of the Qur‟ān
b. strengthening the relationship between the adīths and the direct and indirect evidences from the Qur‟an, without which comprehensive and extensive study of Islam would not be achieved. (p. 9)
Speaking about eating etiquette Shaykh al-Ghazālī said that there are (habits, customs), and being accustomed to them it feels strange to leave them, and there are certain (religious observances, acts of worship) where they become very attached to them, so that they consider them as religious obligation, whereas religious observances are only from Allah. Then Shaykh al-Ghazālī mentioned an Indian scholar who taught about Islamic etiquette in eating, and found out that the man had mixed customs with religious observances, and attacked Western etiquette in eating by advocating the Arabian etiquette, waging a war which has nothing to do with Islam. In his teaching he said that the food has to be put on the floor rather than on the table, and the eater has to sit cross-legs, on a leg (thigh), or sitting on two thighs, and he should never eat while resting
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upon a chair. Moreover eating has to be preceded by niyyah (intention), that the purpose of eating is to obtain strength in obeying Allah, not to fulfil one‟s appetite. In addition, eating has to be together in one plate, and the name of Allah has to be mentioned before starting the meal.
Shaykh al-Ghazālī‟s comment on these teachings is that most of them are far from being right, as eating is permissible either on the floor or at the table, and it is permissible to sit on the chair while eating, and one should please one‟s Lord for the meal when he has satisfied his appetite with it. He can eat alone in one plate or together with others in one plate. It is truly necessary to mention the name of Allah before eating, as the Prophet s.a.w. said,
Mention the name of Allah, eat with your right
hand,and eat what is near to you.
(Reported byBukhari and Muslim)
There are many traditions concerning the etiquette of eating, some are sound, others are rejected and are the customs of the Arabs. The opinion that it is prohibited to use a knife in having meal has no basis at all. Abū Dā‟ūd reported on the authority of „Ā‟ishah, that the Prophet s.a.w. said,
Do not cut meat with a knife, for it is the
work of non-Arabs, so bite it, for it is more
enjoyable and more palatable.
This adīth, according to Shaykh al-Ghazālī, is baseless, as it was reported in the collection of sound adīths that the Prophet s.a.w. used a knife in cutting meat while eating, whereas the sanad (chains of transmitters) in the adīth prohibiting the cutting of meat with a knife while eating was reported by Abū Dā‟ūd and is rejected.2 There has never been any injunction to eat on the floor, nor prohibition from eating at a table. Whenever Islamic law is silent on a topic, toleration should prevail, and no injunction or prohibition should apply. The Prophet s.a.w. himself led a harsh and not luxurious life, and yet, he did not prohibit what is alāl
2 After citing this adīth Abū Dā‟ūd was reported to have said that it is not strong ), Sunan Abū Dā‘ūd, vol. 10, p. 234.
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is flexible. Abū āzim asked one (lawful), and was not strict to what day Sahl ibn Sa„d,
“Did ever the Prophet eat pure bread, of grains without skin?” He answered,
“The Prophet had never tasted pure bread since he was appointed a prophet till he passed away.”
“Didn‟t you have any sieve?” Abū āzim asked again.
“The Prophet had not seen any sieve since he was appointed as a prophet till he passed away,” answered Sahl.
“How, then, did you eat barley without being sieved out?,” asked Abū āzim.
“We ground it, blew it, the skin flew out, and what was left we ate it,” answered Sahl.
At that time people were not used to eat pure bread. Later on, people became adept at making pure bread without any inconvenience. Allah said,
―O mankind! Eat of that which is lawful and
good on the earth…‖ (Q. 2:168)
―O you who believe! Eat of the lawful things that
We have provided You with, and be
grateful to Allah … (Q. 2:172)
Abū Dā‟ūd reported on the authority of Washī ibn arb that the Prophet‟s companions said to the Prophet: “O Messenger of Allah, we do not feel full when we eat.” He said, “You might have eaten separately.” They said, “yes”, and the Prophet said, “Then gather together in your meal, and remember Allah‟s name on it, so that Allah will bless you with it.”
We see here in this adīth that the motive is generosity, paying hospitality to the poor, and overcoming the crisis that may occur, and it is not allowed to let the poor starve to death. The adīth does not mean that it is prohibited to eat except in one plate. Allah said,
―… No sin on you whether you eat together
or apart…‖ (Q. 24:61)
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Therefore, there will be no harm to put the meal of every poor person in a plate.
Among the principles of purity and cleanness is eating with one‟s right hand, as Islam makes left hand for removing dirt, as it is not a nice way to touch one‟s private part and then touch one‟s mouth with the same hand. Whether a person eats with his bare right hand or with a spoon, there is no restriction. The Arabs are accustomed to eat with their hands as it is their tradition, and there will be no wonder if they licked their fingers. But making this habit a religious practice for which there is no basis, and putting more food on one‟s plate than one needs, so that there would be much left over to be thrown into the rubbish bin, this is a reprehensible practice. It is strange enough to see Western people leave their plates almost clean, whereas the Arabs leave on their plates piles of rubbish which pleases Satan for their wastefulness. [This was what al-Shaykh al-Ghazālī noticed, while nowadays, in almost any restaurant in the West and East people leave piles of leftover in their plates, while people in other parts of the world are starving.
Nowadays Muslim delegations go to Europe and America, and they can distinguish themselves in their eating etiquette, in avoiding prohibited food, and in mentioning the name of Allah. As regard to sitting inevitably on the floor, avoiding the use of spoons, unsightly licking of fingers etc., this fastidiousness is harmful to Islam and its message, invoking wicked rumours. At the end of his essay Shaykh al-Ghazālī, asked the following rhetorical question:
“Has the call to tawīd (the Oneness of Allah) become a call to a manner derived from the behaviour of the early Arabs, even in the days of their ignorance?” And Shaykh al-Ghazālī answered himself, saying, “Indeed, this primitive behaviour is an obstruction from the path of Allah.” (p. 105)
Bibliography:
Shaykh Muammad al-Ghazālī, Al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah bayna Ahl al-Fiqh wa Ahl adīths (The Prophetic Tradition between Experts on Fiqh and Experts on adīths). 10th Edition. Cairo: Dar al-Shuruq, 1992.
The Noble Qur‘an. Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Saudi Arabia.
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8. SHAYKH AL-GHAZALI ON DRESSING ETIQUETTE
(ANUMA, 22 AUGUST, 2008)
Brothers in Islam,
Long, long ago, in the late forties and early fifties, when the Indonesian people were struggling to maintain and defend their independence they had proclaimed on 17 August 1945 from the were occupation, the Dutch were considered not only as an imperialist and colonialist force, but also as infidels introducing their culture and tradition foreign to the Indonesians. They ate using spoons and forks, drank wine, and wore neckties and pants, etc. At that time many Muslim scholars discouraged people from imitating the Dutch tradition in many ways including the etiquette of eating which we call the “table manners” and of wearing what we call now Western dress. What did then they wear? They wore sarongs, (or sarung, the national garments of men and women in Indonesia and Malaysia) instead of pants. It was said that wearing sarongs was introduced from the Indian subcontinent, probably by Arab and Indian Muslim traders who introduced Islam to the Indonesian archipelago. Nowadays wearing sarongs is common in Southeast Asia and Yemen. The headdress the Indonesians wore and are still wearing is called pici, usually black in colour, also called a kopiah especially worm by Muslim men, as well as Indonesian men in general, as a symbol of national identity). The term kopiah itself is corrupted from the original word kūfiyyah or kāfiyyah, a square kerchief diagonally folded and worn under the „iqāl as a headdress, now called qut.rah. At that time, sarong and kopiah were the traditional Muslim dress in Indonesia. The Turks themselves had their fez called in Arabic t.arbūsh, formerly manufactured in the city of Fez (Fas) in Morocco for which people named it. Pilgrims from Southeast Asia who returned from their pilgrimage to Makkah, got the title haji put in their names, sometimes abbreviated as capital H with a full stop, followed by the name. They wore special white caps as symbols of their having performed the pilgrimage. People who did not wear the white caps after performing the pilgrimage were considered rather irreligious. Nowadays, things have changed to some extent. Shorts and jeans are worn only on special occasion, but wearing pants and not wearing kopiah are no longer considered indecency.
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The late Egyptian scholar al-Shaykh Muh.ammad al-Ghazālī talked about the dress of Muslims. He graduated from al-Azhar university in 1941, and had written over thirty books before he passed away. He clarified the Islamic etiquette of having meal as he understood it in my pervious khut.bah, that we Muslims are free to eat with our right hands or with spoons and forks, and sit at a table or on the floor, eat together in a tray or separately.
After rejecting many adīths dealing with the Arabs‟ tradition in eating etiquette as nothing to do with „ibādāt (acts of devotion), he also rejected some adīths dealing with the Arabs‟ dress as nothing to do with Islam. He said that an Indian scholar mentioned a adīth stating the saying of the Prophet reported by al-Bayhaqī, as follows:
Wear turbans, for they are characteristic of the angels,
َand let them down (loose) behind your back.
Commenting on this hadith al-Shaykh al-Ghazālī said that he had read many hadiths about the merits of wearing turbans reported by al-Tirmidhī and Abū Dā‟ūd, and all of them, he stated, had no value, supporting the opinion of al-Shaykh Muhammad Hāmid al-Fiqī, who said, “There is no sound adīth about the merit of turban.”
Shaykh al-Ghazālī said further that wearing turbans, like ‗iqāl are the Arabs‟ dress, and not the emblems of Islam.3 „Iqāl is a headband made of camel‟s hair to hold the kūfiyyah in place. It is also the name of a cord used for hobbing the feet of a camel. In fact, it is the hot climate that forces people to cover their heads and backs of their heads, and it is recommended to wear white and loose garments. As for cold environments, people wear tight clothes with dark colours to keep their bodies warm. Shaykh al-Ghazālī cites the sound h.adīth,
3The term ‗iqāl is derived from the verb ‗aqala which has many meanings, such as: to detain, to arrest, to pay blood money, to have intelligence, to be reasonable, to be in one‟s sense. The Arab‟s expression means “he tongue-tied someone, he tied someone‟s tongue, namely, he made someone speechless”)
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Eat what you want, and wear what you want; what I
consider wrong for you are two qualities: extravagance
(waste) and arrogance (haughtiness).
Shaykh al-Ghazālī said further that these two characteristics: waste and arrogance are conspicuous among the habits of the Arabs and Western people, whereas people of noble character avoid the excessive choice of dress, as if the value of man is based on his dress. The religious corruption and the excessive passion of modern civilization created the tradition of dress and ornament. They made disgraceful dress for evening parties, special dress for staying at home, special dress for travelling, special dress for having a meal, special dress for sport, special dress for Spring, special dress for Summer, etc.
As for Muslims they may wear any dress they like provided that it does not suggest wastefulness or arrogance. However, all Muslim scholars agree that silk and gold are for Muslim females and prohibited to Muslim males. They also agree that Muslim females have their own dress, and Muslim males have their own dress. The basic thing in the dress of Muslim females is that they cover their bodies and the dress can be beautiful as long as it is not provoking. The basic thing in the dress of Muslim males is that it is proper for their profession, and can also be beautiful. „Abdullah ibn „Abbās said,
I saw the Messenger of Allah wearing his best clothing.
Is there any uniform for Muslim males and Muslim females? Shaykh al-Ghazālī said that he wished so, in order to avoid the high cost of extreme competition which ruins people‟s morality in many fields.
Is there any particular dress for Islam? Shaykh al-Ghazālī said that there is no particular Islamic dress, and this is true, as we learn from history that a person who converted to Islam did not change their clothes, neither the Prophet nor the caliph who came after him requested the converts to change their clothes. The Prophet did not ask „Umar to change his clothes when he changed his belief from idolatry to tawh.īd and converted to Islam.
However, Shaykh al-Ghazālī said that some Muslim youth thinks that the jilbāb garments are the Islamic dress, whereas the suits are the dress of the infidels. This is wrong, says Shaykh al-Ghazālī, and contends that if we really want to maintain our personality, it can only be achieved through right conviction, honourable behaviour and gentle character. He
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said that the garments of the Arabs in many cities have become a distinguished mark of foolish extravagance, a crazy movement towards obeying passions and uncontrollable desires. In criticizing the promotion of wearing the turban and the fancy jilbāb gown, which are sometimes extravagant, as an Islamic dress, and claiming that suits are the dress of the infidels, Shaykh al-Ghazālī asked this rhetorical question: “Is it the way to serve Islam and to spread its call?
In conclusion:
Some scholars say that as Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. was an example to be followed, they tried to imitate him out of piety, including his behaviour in his daily life, like the Indian scholar mentioned by Shaykh al-Gazālī, but not by name. They believe that this kind of imitation is at least a recommended act. In order to keep Muslim unity, we should not criticize each other in these matters. We are free to wear what we like, based on the condition of our surroundings, as long as it is clean, and Islamicly decent and modest. Like a garden with various kinds and colours of flowers, our diversity in tradition and habit which do not touch the core of Islam should not be an obstacle to keep our unity as a Muslim ummah. Allah says,
And this, your Ummah is one ummah, and I am your Lord,
therefore worship Me (Alone) (Q. 21:92)
And this, your Ummah is one ummah, and I am your Lord,
therefore fear (keep your duty to) Me. (Q. 23:52)
No matter what we wear, as long as it covers our awrah, no show-off, no extravagance, not arousing passion, and not associating with a certain faith, sects, or any un-Islamic organization, so that people would not think that we belong to that religion, sect or organization, there is no objection. This is our outer garment. With regard to our inner garment, Allah said,
… and the raiment of righteousness, that is better… (Q. 7:26)
This is our inner garment, taqwā, obedience to Allah, doing what He orders us to do, and avoiding what He forbids. (MAS 22.808)
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9. KHUSHŪ„ IN THE QUR‟ĀN AND IN PRAYER
(ANUMA 24/4/09)
Our topic today is khushū‗. What is khushū‗? According to al-Rāghib al-As.fahānī (d.ca. 423 H/1034 M) in his book Mufradāt Alfādh al-Qur‘ān, khushū‗ is (humbleness, submissiveness), mostly used for the submissiveness of the limbs, namely, physical submissiveness, whereas the word d.arā‗ah is mostly used for the submissiveness of the heart, namely spiritual submissiveness.4 According to commentators of the Qur‟ān there are four meanings of khusyu‟ in the Qur‟ān mentioned by al-Dāmaghānī )d. 478 H/1085 M) and Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597 H/1201 M) as follows:
1. (humbleness, humility, humiliation, submissiveness, and self-abasement), as in the following verses: “On that Day mankind will follow strictly (the voice of) Allah‘s caller, no crookedness (that is without going to the right or left of that voice) will they show him (Allah‘s caller). And all voices will be humble for the Most Gracious (Allah), and nothing shall you hear but the low voice of their footsteps.‖ Q. 20:108) . “Some faces that Day will be humiliated (in the Hellfire, i.e., the faces of all disbelievers, Jews and Christians).‖ (Q. 88:2), and “Their eyes will be cast down and ignominy will cover them; they used to be called (call for the congregational prayer in the mosque) to prostrate themselves (offer prayers), while they were healthy and good (in the life of the world, but they did not come to the mosque)‖ (Q 68:43). Based on this meaning, khushū‗ in prayer means showing submissiveness and humiliation to Allah with eyes looking down.
2. (fear), as in the verse: “So, We answered his (Zakariyyā‘s) call, and We bestowed upon him Yah.yā (John), and cured his wife (to bear a child) for him. Verily, they used to hasten on to do good things, and they used to call on Us with hope and
4Al-As.fahānī, al- Mufradāt, p. 283.
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fear, and used to fear Us.‖ (Q.21:90). However, many translators translate here as “humble themselves before Allah.‖ So, khushū‗ in prayer according to this meaning is to fear Him.
3 (humility, modesty, humbleness), as in the verse:
―And seek help in patience and prayers, and truly, it is extremely heavy and hard except for humble people..‖ Q. 2:45). So, khushū‗ in the prayer in this sense is humbleness towards Allah.
4 (the calmness of the limbs) and added by al-Dāmaghānī (and casting the sight to the place of prostration), as in the following verse: “ٍSuccessful indeed are the believers. Those who offer their salat (prayer) with all solemnity and full submissivenes [i.e., with calm limbs.] ‖ (Q. 23:2).5 Khushū‗ in the prayers according to this interpretation is the calmness of the limbs, as well as looking at the place of prostration in the prayer.
Khushū‗ in the prayers according to Ibn „Abbās (d. 68 H/687 M) is “fear and calmness,” while according to Qatādah it is “the fear feeling and gazing down ”. Al-Awzā„ī when he was asked about khushū‗ in the prayer he answerd: “to lower the gaze, to be humble, and to be gentle”. Muslim ibn Yassār, Imam Syafi„ī, Ish.āq ibn Rāh.awayh (d. 238 H/852 M), Abū Thawr (d. 240 H/854-5 M) and adherents of personal opinions say that khushū‗ in the prayers is “looking at the place of prostration” and consider it one of the sunnahs (acts recommended) in the prayer. Ibn Sīrīn said that Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. raised up his gaze while praying, then he was ordered to do the khushū‗; so he lowered his gaze to the place of prostration.6 Despite this difference of interpretation, khushū‗ in the prayer is “humility and devotion before Allah.”
5 Al-Dāmaghānī, Qāmūs al-Qur‘ān, s.v. khushū‗, pp. 158-9, and Ibn al-Jawzī, al-Wujūh wa ‘l-Naz.ā‘ir, s.v. khushū‗, pp. 276-277.
6Ibn al-Mundhir, al-Awsa, vol. 5, pp. 190-191.
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The definitions of khushū‗ in the prayer according to Islamic schools of law are as follows:
a. anafī: The definition of khushū‗ in the prayer in the anafī school is not available, except that in order to do it one has to look at the place of prostration. .
b. Mālikī:
Khushū‘ is to bring in your mind the greatness of Allah
the Most High and His reverence that verily there is
none to be worshiped and intended except Him
According to the Mālikī school bringing to mind that one is obeying Allah in doing the prayer is sunnah no. 3 of 48 sunnahs (recommended acts) in the prayer.
c. Shāfi„ī:
Khushu‘ in the prayer is keeping in
your mind (that you are praying)
and calming down the limbs.
Khushū‗ and pondering/contemplating (tadabbur) are recommended in the prayers, and al-Zuhaylī put khushū‗ no. 32 in Shāfi‟ī madhhab. In order to assist us in obtaining khushū‗ we should start our prayer enthusiasticly and empty our mind from wordly matters.
d. anbalī:
Khushu‘ is a concept expressed
with the calmness of the limbs
This anbalī madhhab also considers khushū‗ as one of many recommended acts in the prayers (about 72 of them). Al-Zuhaylī put it no. 44 in his book al-Fiqh al-Islāmī.7
Islamic history recorded many examples of pious people performing their prayers in khushū‗, among them are as follows:
1. Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 161 H/778 M), the great scholar who had his own madhhab (school of law) but did not develop, is said that if you saw him praying you might have thought that he was going to die immediately because he did it with khushū‗.
7 Al-Zuhaylī, al-Fiqh al-Islāmī wa Adillatuhu, vol. 2, pp. 913, 921, 923, and 939).
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2. Abdullah Ibn al-Zubayr ibn „Awwām (2-72 H/624-692 M), when he was told that his foot had to be cut off because of cancer, refused to take a drug (to be anesthetized) to relieve his pain, but he asked for it to be done while he was prostrating in prayer.
3. Ibn Taymiyyah used to tremble when he started to pray, so that he would lean left and right.
4. Aِl-asan ibn „Alī (3-50 H/625-671 M) looked pale and so humble upon entering the prayer. When he was asked the reason he said it was because he was praying before Allah.
5. „Alī ibn Abī ālib (d. 40 H/661 M) while he was doing his berwudu‟ he looked pale. When he was asked the reason for it he said, “I know before Whom I am going to stand. ” When the time for prayer came he became shaken and the colour of his face changed. When he was asked the reason for it, he answered: “Now it is time to carry the amānah (trust, namely, religious obligation which had been offered by Allah to the heaven, the earth and mountains but all declined). ” What he meant was the Qur‟anic verse as follows:
“Truly, We did offer the trust (religious obligations) to the heavens and
the earth and the mountains, but they declined to bear and were afraid
of it (i.e., afraid of Allah‘s torment). But man bore it. Verily, he was
unjust (to himself) and ignorant (of its result) . ” (Q. 33:72)]
5. When ātim was asked how he prayed with khushū‟ he said: “ I stood up saying the takbīr imagining the Ka„bah in front of me, my feet were stepping on (the extremely narrow foot-bridge that extends over Hell to be crossed by all people in the Hereafter), Paradise on my right side, Hell on my left side, the angel of death is behind me, the Prophet is watching my prayer, and thinking that it was my last prayer. I said my takbīr glorifying allah, read the verses of the Qur‟an contemplating their meanings, I bowed with full humility, prostrated with submission, I prayed fearing Him and expecting His blessings, and said the taslīm (the greeting . Then I wondered whether this prayer is accepted by Allah or not.”
In conclusion, in order to be khushū‟ in our prayer, we do it in humility and devotion, looking at the place of prostration, keeping our
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limbs and body calm (not doing unnecessary movement), contem- plating to what we are reading, keeping in our mind that we are praying before Allah and leaving behind worldly matters. The imam used to remind us to pray as it is our last prayer when he said, “pray as it is the farewell ( last) prayer.―
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10. MIXED-MARRIAGE BETWEEN MUSLIMS
AND NON-MUSLIMS
Brothers in Islam,
One of the problems faced by people especially the Muslims in this era of globalization is the mixed-marriage and its consequence, not between two different cultural backgrounds, but of two different religions. What is meant by mixed-marriage here is between (a) non-Muslim males and Muslim females, and (b) Muslim males and non-Muslim females, as follows:
A. Non-Muslim Males and Muslim Females:
It is prohibited for a non-Muslim male to marry a Muslim female. This is the unanimous opinion of Muslim scholars, based on the following Qur‟ānic verses:
1. “…and give not (your daughters) in marriage to mushrikīn [i.e., pagans, idolaters and disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah, and His Messenger Muhammad s.a.w] till they believe (worship Allah Alone)‖ Q. 2:221)
2. “…and if you ascertain that they are true believers send them not
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back to the disbelievers. They are not lawful (wives) for the disbelievers,nor are th edisbelievers lawful (husbands) for them.‖ (Q. 60:10). Should this marriage not be dissolved there would be danger of falling back to infidelity, as husbands are generally strong in influencing their wives to their tradition, religion and way of life, whereas wives have generally more tendency to follow and obey their husbands.
3. “…they [the idolaters] invite you to the Fire, but Allah invites (you) to Paradise and forgiveness by His Leave…” (Q. 2:221). Infidelity will definitely lead to Hellfire, whereas Allah calls people to Islam which will lead them to Paradise and His forgiveness. Although this verse mentions the idolaters (mushrikīn) which were the vast majority of people in the early period of Islam, they include any kind of infidelity, so that a Muslim woman is not allowed to marry a non-Muslim man.
4. “…And never Will Allah grant to the disbelievers a way (to triumph) over the believers.‖ (Q. 4:141). As Islamic law disallows the wilāyah (sovereignty, rule, close association, allegiance, loyalty) of non-believers (including People of the Book, namely, the Jews and the Christians) towards the believers in general, it includes marriage.
B. Muslim Males and Non-Muslim Females
Muslim males are allowed to marry non-Muslim females exclusively among the Ahl al-Kitāb (the People of the Book). They are the Jews and the Christians, based on the Qur‟anic verse: ―Lest you (pagan Arabs) should say, ‗The Book was sent down only to those sects before us (the Jews and the Christians)…‘‖ (Q. 6:156). The permission for Muslims to marry women among the People of the Book is based on the following verse:
Made lawful to you this day are al-t.ayyibāt [all kinds of
halal (lawful) food, which Allah has made lawful (meat of
slaughtered eatable animals, milk products, fats, vegetables
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and fruits). The food (slaughtered cattle, eatable animals) of
the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) is lawful to
you and yours is lawful to them. (Lawful to you in marriage)
are the chaste women from those who were given the Scripture
(Jews and Christians) before your time when you have given
their due Mahr (bridal-money given by the husband to his
wife at the time of marriage), desiring chastity (i.e.,
taking them in legal wedlock) not committing
illegal sexual intercourse, nor taking
them as girl friends… (Q. 5:5).
In this verse Allah gives permission to marry chaste women among Muslims as well as among the Jews and the Christians, as chastity is an important factor for the success of harmonious married life.
The permission for Muslim males to marry Jewish and Christian women (who are not hostile but friendly to Islam) is that both Judaism and Christianity have many things in common with Islam. Both also belong to revealed religions, they believe in one God, angels, prophets sent by Allah to guide human beings, the Scriptures as well as the Last Day. Because of this similarity it would not be difficult for these wives to convert to their husbands‟ religion, Islam. Moreover, they would feel comfortable that some of their faiths are shared with those of their husbands. The case would be different if their husbands were non-Muslims and did not share the beliefs of their wives.
There are many examples in Islamic history where Muslims married Jews and Christians, among which are „Uthmān ibn „Affān r.a. married Nā‟ilah bint al-Farāfis.ah, a Christian who converted to Islam at his presence, and H.udhayfah r.a. who married a Jewish woman from Madā‟in (Ctesiphon, former capital of the Persian Empire).
Although it is permitted in Islam for a Muslim to marry a friendly Jewish or Christian woman this act is not recommended, but makrūh (reprehensible), according to H.anafī and Shāfi„ī schools, and in one view, also Mālikī school. The H.anbalī school considers it an act of disregarding what it preferable, namely, marrying Muslim women. It is because „Umar r.a. told those who married women among the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) to divorce them and they did except H.udhayfah r.a. When „Umar r.a. told him to divorce his Jewish wife, he asked:
Do you bear witness that she is h.arām (unlawful) to marry?”
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“No,” said „Umar, “but she is khamrah („intoxicant, wine‟), divorce her!”
What „Umar meant is that these Jewish and Christian wives, because of their beauty, temptation, persuasion, nice words, like an intoxicant, you could lose your sound judgment, and forget the time for prayer and other religious obligations. It is said, “if it were not for women, Allah would have been worshiped very truly.‖ Some people “worship” women because of their beauty. Here lies the danger of “Love at first sight” for people who cannot control their emotion.
H.udhayfah repeated the same question, and „Umar repeated the same answer. Finally he said to „Umar: “I know that it is „intoxicant‟, but she is h.alāl for me.” However, eventually, he divorced her. When he was asked whether he did so because of his obeying „Umar, he said: “I do not like people seeing me doing what I should not do.”
In another report „Umar sent a letter to H.udhayfah asking him to divorce he wife, so that the Muslims would not follow his example and marry beautiful Jewish and Christian women rather than Muslim women. In fact, this mixed-marriage is harmful to the Muslims. Unless a Muslim has become so attracted, so attached, to this kind of woman that he “can no longer live without her”, like what we used to hear “love is blind”, that “she has blinded his mind”, then he is allowed to marry her with the consequence that he might eventually lose his faith in Islam.
After marriage and the honey-moon, there might be another story. Can you stop your Christian wife from drinking alcohol and eating pork? They are all “h.alāl” in her religion. Can you be close to her when the smell of alcohol is still in her mouth? If you try to stop her, in retaliation, she might stop you from praying and fasting. This means mutual interference with each other‟s religion. If you have children, the children will be confused, either to follow his father‟s religion or his mother‟s, or both, namely, on Friday they go to the mosque, but on Sunday they go to church. Raising our children in Islamic way in this Christian environment is difficult enough, let alone having a Christian family in the house.
It would be much safer for our marriage to have a wife of the same religion of Islam although with different tradition, nationality and cultural background rather than a wife of the same ethnic and cultural
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background but with different religion. Having the same religion means having the same way of life, and other differences are minor ones and can be compromised. You could raise your children in Islamic way because they can learn from you, as Muslim parents, and you both are their earliest teachers. As husband and wife you have the chance to learn and appreciate each other‟s culture, language and tradition, and this will broaden your mind. You will start appreciating and enjoying various foods: Middle-Eastern falafel, Indian tandooree, Malay-Indonesian satay, etc., depending on your background. The most important thing is that both of you are taking the same way to Allah‟s pleasure and eventually to Paradise.
Here are some examples of the danger of Muslims marrying non-Muslims of the “people of the Book.” Emmanuel Manoppo, the only son of the head of the Indonesian Council of Churches who converted to Islam in the early 1990s and changed his name to “Effendi Hadi Rais” said that one of the activities of the Christian missionary in Indonesia was to instruct their youth to have influence upon Muslim girls. He said that in order to marry these girls they often pretended to be Muslims. After they had children they forced their wives to follow them to become Christians. He said that the Indonesian Council of Churches received funds from within the country as well as from abroad, especially Italy, Vatican, Australia, the USA and Germany.
Some years ago, a Muslim passed away, and the funeral prayer was conducted in the mosque, but none of his children attended the prayer. They and their mother waited outside the mosque, because they were all Christians, although they belonged to the same country of origin.
Long time ago, in the early 1980s, a man passed away in Edmonton, Canada. He had married to a Christian Canadian woman. When his friends tried to wash, conduct the funeral prayer and to bury his body in the Islamic way, his wife refused to give them his body. He was then buried in un-Islamic way. They found out later that while he was admitted to the hospital he had filled the form stating that he had no religion. He might have been ashamed to claim to be Muslim at that time being among the vast majority of Christians.
A Muslim friend was married to his Christian cousin. She was a daughter of a Catholic priest who had several children. One of them became Muslim, the youngest son who was regarded as strange, for being the only Muslim in the family. As my friend‟s wife was a strong Catholic, following in her father‟s footsteps, their two sons also became
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Catholic. This made me very sad, but guidance is only from Allah Alone.
Marrying a non-Muslim girl among the people of the Book (Jewish and Christians) is tantamount to depriving a Muslim girl from having one chance to get married, as she is not allowed to marry except a Muslim boy. She can only choose one among Muslim men who choose her. We have many unmarried girls in the Muslim world, and their number is much higher than that of Muslim boys. Moreover, there are many Muslim widows as victims of conflicts. We know that the majority of refugees in the world are Muslims, and the majority of people who are involved and die in these conflicts are Muslim males. (ANUMA 15.04.09)
11. THE LOW AND HIGH TIDES IN ISLAMIC HISTORY
(ANUMA 23.01.09)
Brothers in Islam,
Everyday we witness through mass media the low tide of the conditions of Muslims almost everywhere. This keeps us wondering, what is wrong with us, and what is wrong with the world. Humiliation after humiliation, disaster one after the other, either natural or human made. Is the world becoming crazy? Many Indonesians realize this and say, “Dunia jadi gila” (The world is getting crazy). What is going on with us and with the world? Here are some answers:
1. This is the vicissitude of life. Like waves and tides, the life of a nation, a community, even an individual, has its ups and downs. Many creatures depend on low tide and high tide for their survival without which they will perish. Without suffering there will be no patience, forbearance, sympathy, compassion and generosity. In Islamic history we have witnessed its golden age, such as during the Umawi (Umayyad) dynasty in Andalusia (Muslim Spain) from 756 till 1031, and the reign of Hārūn al-Rashīd from 766 till 809. On the other hand we had the lower tide in Islamic history when Baghdad was attacked by the Mongols under Hulagu in November 1257, and on 10 February 1258 the Caliph al-Mu„tasim surrendered and the city
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of Baghdad was pillaged, sacked and destroyed. However, Hulagu‟s great grand-son Ghazan (who reigned from 1295 to 1404), became a Muslim and made Islam the official religion of his realm. The high tide of Islamic history appeared again with the emergence of the Ottoman Empire (1683-1913) which controlled Asia Minor, North-East Africa, and Southeast Europe. Its capital was Constantinople. It was the superpower at that time. The low tide came again with the colonization of many Muslim countries by the British in the Indian sub-continent and the Malay peninsula, the Dutch in Indonesia, and the French in North and West Africa. Although many of them obtained their independence in the 20th century, the British wanted to keep its tie with its former subjects in the British Commonwealth of Nations, an association or 48 independent countries that recognize the British monarch as the symbol of their free association. Its members hold periodic prime ministers‟ conferences. In one of these conferences, held in Malaysia, the members were welcomed by the host (probably Dr. Mahathir, 1925-), who said, among other things, “Welcome to the Commonwealth where wealth is not common.” The conditions of Muslims keep deteriorating with the occupation of Palestine and the creation of the Jewish-Zionist national state of Israel in 1948, where many Palestinians had to abandon their land and even became refugees; the massacre of 8.000 Muslims in Bosnia Herzegovina known as Srebrenica Massacre (Srebrenica Genocide) on July 1995 by the army under General Mladic; the invasion of Chechnia (Chechnya) by Russian Federation on 26 August 1999 where about 50 000 people died or went missing, mostly civilians; then the eight year war between Iraq and Iran (1980-1988) with Muslims killing Muslims, about half a million of them died. To the benefit of whom? Of those who sell heavy arms to both sides, so that their armaments factories keep running, sucking the blood of Muslims. They are the capitalist countries who became richer, whereas the poor Muslims became poorer because of this war. The motto of the imperialists in the past and up till now is “divide and rule” in Arabic . We have to remember that the Prophet said
―Insulting the Muslim is iniquity (sinfulness)
and fighting him is ungratefulness (infidelity).
(Reported by Bukhari and Nasa‟i).
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Then Bush came to power doing worse than what Hulagu did earlier with Baghdad, devastating the whole country, worse than earthquakes and hurricanes combined together, polluting its land and water, killing over half a million people and over four million Iraqi people became refugees. Most of the world refugees nowadays are Muslims, not economic refugees, but political refugees. George Bush the Junior was following in the footsteps of his father Bush the elder who invaded Panama on 20 December and deposed the dictator General Manuel Noriega, ending the war in 31 January 1990, with 5000 Panamanian casualties, mostly civilians. The US casualties: 24 soldiers killed, and 325 wounded. Both General Noriega and Saddam Hussein were dictators, but Iraq was invaded on wrong assumptions and misinformation. Iraq is not Panama, it has oil, without which nothing could move, from motorcycles to airplanes. It was necessary to invade this oil rich country. Recently we witnessed the massacre of the Palestinians by the Israeli tanks and war planes, and the people could not go anywhere to take refuge, as they are being imprisoned in their own country, and the Muslim world is too weak to do anything except demonstrations and protests. But we should not lose hope. One day the Muslims will rise again.
2. We do not stick to the teachings of Islam. Our faith is not strong enough. We are supposed to be the most intelligent nation, as Islam orders us to seek knowledge, even from the cradle to the grave. If we have sophisticated technology that can disturb and confuse the enemies‟ radars and systems of communication they might mistakenly shoot their own warplanes and tanks instead of shooting at us. But, alas, we are too far behind. We cannot even produce our own heavy arms, we have to import them. We are supposed to be united in one Muslim nation. Yet we are still fighting each other. The Kurdish people are suppressed for seeking their independence. The Arabs, although having their organization called (The Arab League) established in Cairo on 22 March, 1945, still had armed conflicts among themselves: Egypt and Saudi Arabia over Yemen, Algeria and Morocco over a disputed border, and Iraq and Kuwait over a disputed oil well. Out of frustration they say to each other (“We have agreed to disagree.”). In one of its recent conferences, the Libyan leader Mu„ammar Qaddafi, as a guest speaker, said in his short speech, that the French people have their own country France, and the Spanish people have their one country
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Spain, but the Arab people have many countries, not one country. The second largest Muslim community, the Malay people who speak the same Malay language, are divided into Brunei, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
With regard to the Palestinian issue, the solution is not in Jerusalem, but in Washington that keeps supporting Israel with aid including heavy arms. A long time ago an American senator called Henry Jackson (1912-1983), said that the U.S. and Israeli relation is like a dog and its tail, but it is not the dog that wags its tail, it is the tail that wags the dog. The Jewish lobby is very strong in the U.S. congress to support Israel. The late Ahmad Deedat said one day that if the Black Muslims, the Bilalians, are strong enough they could one day neutralize the Jewish influence in the U.S. Congress. Another “solution” proposed by a Pakistani friend to a Jewish rabbi in Montreal in 70s, “Let your daughters marry the Palestinians.” The rabbi did not like the idea, because if this happens their children will become Muslims.
May Allah guide and unite us the Muslims our leaders and protect us from our enemies, amin!
12. PROPHET MUHAMMAD S.A.W.
AS A MODEL TEACHER
(ANUMA 19 MAY 2009)
Brothers in Islam,
Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. was a model in teaching people a about Islam. In dealing with them individually he takes into account his or her character, behavior and background. For example:
1. To a person who asked advice, he gives different advices based on the individual character. To a person who is easily angry he advised him not to be angry.
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….Narrated by Abu Hurayrah r.a. a man
said to the Prophet s.a.w. ―Advise me.‖ He said,
―Do not become angry and furious‖ and the man asked
(the same) again and again, and the Prophet said in
each case ―Do not become angry and furious.‖
(Reported by Bukhari)
One of the sahabah (companions of the Prophet)
reported that a man came to the Prophet s.a.w. saying,
―O Messenger of Allah, advise me.‖ He said, ―Do not become
angry and furious.‖ The man said, ―When the Prophet said it,
it came to my mind that anger combines all evilness.‖
(Musnad Ahmad, vol. 47, p. 141)
What he means that when you are angry you cannot control yourself, and therefore you could do anything bad.
A man heard Jarmūz al-Hujaymī said, ―O Messenger of Allah,
advise me.‖ He said, ―I advise you not to be a curser.‖
(Musnad Ahmad, vol. 42, p. 150)
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… Narrated by Abu Dharr that Abd al-Rahman
said, ―O Messenger of Allah, advise me,‖ He said,
―Fear Allah wherever you are, and follow
bad deed witا a good deed to erase it, and
treat people with good behavior.‖
(Musnad Ahmad, vol. 43, p. 401)
Abu Dharr said, ―O Messenger of Allah,
advise me.‖ He said, ―If you do a bad deed follow it
with a good deed to erase it.‖ I asked, ―O Messenger of
Allah, is (saying) ‗there is no god but Allah‘‖ one of
good deeds?‖ He said, ―It is the best deed.‖
(Musnad Ahmad, vol. 43, p. 478).
So, according to this hadith, after doing bad thing we repent and say لاإلهَ إلاَّ
الله . This hadith is in line with the Qur‟anic verse dealing with good believers, as follows:
“And those who, when they have committed sins or wronged themselves
with evil, remembered Allah and asked forgoveness for their sins…‖
( (Q. 3:135)
2. The Prophet gives different answers to the same question, based on the condition of the questioner.
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Abdullah ibn Mas‗ūd asked the Messenger
of Allah s.a.w. ―Which deed is liked most by Allah?‖
He answered, ―Prayer on time.‖ ―Then what?‖ asked Abdullah.
―Then honouring your parents.‖ ―Then what?‖ ―Jihad in
the path of Allah.‖ ―If I asked more, he would have
given me more answers,‖ said Abdullah.
(aī Muslim, vol. 1, p. 235)
Narrated by ‗Aishah that the Messenger of Allah
was asked, ―Which deed is liked most by Allah,‖ he answer
―The deed done most continually, even if it is a little.‖ He also
said, ―Be keen to do it as much as you can stand.‖
(aī Bukhārī, vol. 20, p. 101)
―Narrated by Abu Musa r.a. that some
people asked the Messenger of Allah s.a.w.
‖Whose Islam is the best (i.e., who is a very good
Muslim?). He replied, ‗One who avoids harming
the Muslims with his tongue and hands.‘‖
(aī Bukhārī, vol. 1, p. 17; aī Muslim, vol. 1,
p. 150; and Musnad Amad, vol. 14, p. 2).
This hadith is dealing with negative virtue, namely, not doing bad things. However, there is another hadith narrated by Ibn „Umar that a man asked the same question to the Prophet, and the he answered, “To feed people and to say the greetings to whom you know and you do not
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know." This hadith is dealing with positive virtue, namely, doing good things.
Narrated by Abdullah ibn ‗Amr ibn al-Ās , ―While we
were with the Prophet a man came to him, ‗O Messenger of
Allah, may I kiss (my wife) while I am fasting?‘ and the Prophet
replied, ‗No.‘ Then an old man came and asked, ‗May I kiss (my
wife) while fasting?‘, and the Prophet replied ‗Yes.‘ Then we
looked at each other, and the Prophet said, ‗I know why
you looked at each other; the old man is indeed can
control himself (namely, not to go beyond kissing).‖
(Musnad Amad, vol. 13, p. 489 and vol. 14, p. 295).
Here, the ruling can change when the condition also changes.
3. The difference of attitude and behaviour. The Prophet treated the Bedouins and people coming from villages differently from those of city dwellers and his companions. Even with his companions he treated them differently. When „Uthmān came to visit him, he covered his legs and buttoned his shirt, whereas he did not do so, and was more relaxed with Abu Bakr and „Umar when they visited him. This behavior was noticed by his wife Ā‟ishah r.a., who asked him and said,
―O Messenger of Allah, why I did not see you give
respect and formality (lit. ―be alarmed‖) to Abu Bakr
and ‗Umar, like the one you give to ‗Uthman.‖ The Messenger
of Allah said, ―Verily, ‗Uthman is a shy (modest) person,
and I am afraid he would not tell me his intention if I let
him in while I my behavior remained as before.‖
(Reported by Muslim).
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Narrated by Anas ibn Malik that the Prophet s.a.w.
said to Mu‗ādh bin Jabal, ―Whoever met Allah and did
not associate Him with anything he would enter Paradise.‖
Mu‗ādh asked, ―Shall I give this good news to people?‖
He said, ―No, as I am afraid they would depend on it.‖
(aī Bukhārī, vol. 1, p. 216).
What the Prophet means is that this information might be misunderstood by people and make them fatalists, and think that they do not have to pray, to fast and pay zakat, etc., as long as they do not associate Allah with anything they will enter Paradise.
4. Giving proper duty (assignment) to the proper person among his companions, based on his ability. He assigned Abu Bakr to provide the camel and to accompany him to emigrate to Madinah. He assigned Ali to remain in Madinah and to sleep in his bed. He assigned Khālid ibn al-Walīd and „Amr bin „Ās. to lead the battle he did not join. He assigned H.assān bin Thābit defend his reputation and to respond to the accusation of the Quraysh tribe with their poetry. However, he did not give an assignment wished by Abū Dharr, because he knew he was not fit for it. A good leader knows how to appoint a person to a position fit for him.
6. Teaching people based on their ability, understanding and intelligence. Otherwise, they would not understand it or would misunderstand it, or become confused.
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….Narrated by Abū Hurayrah that a Bedouin came to
the Prophet s.a.w. and said, “O Messenger of Allah show
me a deed if I do it I shall enter Paradise.” The Prophet said,
“Worship Allah and do not associate Him with anything, pray the
obligatory prayers, pay zakat, and fast in the month of Ramadan.”
The Bedouin said, “By Allah Who sent you in truth, I shall not
add to this.” When he left, the Prophet said, “Whoever wants
to see a man who is entitled to Paradise should see this man.”
(Reported by Bukhārī, Muslim, and Amad).
When the people of ā‟if came to the Prophet and said that they could only pray three times a day, he agreed and accepted it. When one of the aābah asked him to do the same, namely, pray three times a day, he told him that it was only because they were new to Islam, and would pray five times a day later when they knew that it has to be five daily obligatory prayers.
These are some examples of the Prophet‟s wisdom in dealing with people, in teaching and educate them to Islam.
13. THE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE IN JEOPARDY
(ANUMA 07.07.09)
Brothers in Islam,
One of the prominent Muslim scholars in Indonesia last century was the late Dr. Muhammad Rasyidi. He was the first Indonesian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, from 1945 till 1950, and to Egypt from 1950 to 1952. He was graduated and obtained his Ph.D. at Sorbonne University in Paris. One day he was questioned by an employee of immigration somewhere in Europe probably when he was still student there, whether he was married or still a bachelor. As he was still unmarried at that time, he answered, “no.” Then he asked the next question:
“Do you have children?” He felt offended and asked:
“What do you mean with this question, when I have answered that I am still a bachelor?” The employee said,
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“Being unmarried does not necessary mean one do not have children.” At that time living together illicitly and having children was not longer a taboo, but tolerated as a fact.
In mid 1970s a chief cook in a five star hotel in Montreal became acquainted with a woman who was originally from Europe. They loved each other and later lived together. At that time it became normal for a man and a woman to live together without being married, and no body could interfere with their private lives. After living together for several months, they thought that they were compatible, and it was time to strengthen their relationship through marriage. They got married through civil marriage. After about two or three years of marriage they separated and finally divorced. The woman decided to return to Europe.
It happens many times that people who have lived together as a husband and a wife, lived happily before marriage. Each of them behaves very nicely to keep them together; each of them hides their true nature and character, fearing that they would separate easily any time. Once they got married, the condition changed. Their true character and nature cannot be kept secret any longer. They are no longer free to come and go as they used to be without any interference. They have right and obligation towards each other. Marriage is a commitment. Sometimes they could not stand this commitment and their marriage ends up with separation and divorce.
A friend from Bangladesh, at that time was still East Pakistan, told me this story: A family with a child (a little girl, if I am not mistaken) attended a wedding party. The party was so interesting and fascinating to the little girl. She asked her parents:
“When are you also going to get married?” Her parents answered:
“We did it before.”
“Then why did not you take me to your wedding?” The little girl was still too young to understand that according to Islam a couple could only procreate after being legally married.
Now, in this early 21th century, it is possible that a child, an illegitimate one, can go and attend the wedding of his parents. The parents of this bastard do not call each other “husband” and “wife”, but “a partner”, because they are not married. This is the opposite of Islamic teaching, marriage first then procreation. The child born of pre-marital sex is not counted, as an illegitimate child if the parents had married before he was born although he was illegitimately conceived. It is said that one of six children born in the United States are illegitimate.
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There is misconception about love among youth. Boys deceive girls into suggesting that sex is a proof of love. It may be true among married couple, but not among unmarried people. You do not prove love through sin. This reminds me of my friend who told his future wife, “Before marriage you are my sister.”
What is bastard, or illegitimate child? It is a child born out of wedlock, as the result of sinful sexual conduct. As the result of the so-called “new morality” thousands of children are being born to unwed parents and unborn children murdered through abortion, legal or illegal. The statistics for 2004 revealed that 35.7 percent of all births in the U.S. were to unmarried women and that the percentage of unmarried mothers increased for all ages and races. The increase translates to almost 1.5 million children being born were to unwed mothers last year, up significantly – four percent – from 2003. Over half of births to women in their early twenties and nearly three in ten births to women aged 25–29 were to unmarried mothers, while four out of five teenage women who gave birth were unwed. In Taiwan, every year over 5,000 babies are born to teenage mothers out of wedlock and more than 24,000 abortions are performed among women under 20 years of age, a local foundation reported yesterday.8
In 2003, 14% of all Australian households were single-parent families. Since 2001, 31% of babies born in Australia were born to unmarried mothers.9 Many of these mothers may not be single parents, as they may simply live with their supportive partners without getting formally married.
The proportion of children born outside marriage varies widely among countries. In Europe, the average is 31.6%; national figures range from 3% in Cyprus to 55% in Estonia. In Britain the rate is 42% (2004); in Ireland, 31.4%.
In April 2009, the National Center for Health Statistics announced that nearly 40 percent of babies born in the United States in 2007 were delivered by unwed mothers (though the figure was only 28% for white women). The 1.7 million out-of-wedlock births, out of 4.3 million total births, represented a more than 25 percent jump from five years earlier.10
8 LifeSiteNews.com reported on November 1, 2005
9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegitimacy
10 Ibid.
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Time keeps going on, and the institution of marriage in the Western world becomes in jeopardy in the Western world, including Australia. They make their own family law, and this law can change from time to time based on the condition of the time. Now, some allow marriage of the same gender.
You can adopt a child, but in Islam he is still and will remain the son of his father and mother, and you can only be a foster parent. No matter how you love him he is always “a stranger” to you because there is no blood relationship between you and your foster child.
This case is not so in the Western world. Once you adopt a child, his biological father and mother, gone! They have no right to claim the child, and they become “a stranger” for him. He belongs to your family and he has the same status as your children, and they are not allowed to marry each other, although they have no blood relationship, as they are, according to this law, “brothers and sisters.” According to Western concept and definition
“Adoption is the legal process which permanently transfers
all the legal rights and responsibilities of being a parent from the child's birth parents to the adoptive parents.”
Zayd Ibn ārithah r.a. was adopted by the Prophet s.a.w. before Islam prohibited adoption. He used to be called Zayd ibn Muhammad (son of Muhammad) until adoption was prohibited, then he was again called after his real father ārithah.
Adoption which legally making another person's child your own regardless of whether that child's parents are known or unknown is completely arām in Islam. Allah says
Call them (adopted sons) by (the names of) their
fathers, that is more just with Allah. But if you know not
their father's (names, call them) your brothers in
faith and your freed slaves. (Q. 33:5)
Adopting a child just to educate him and take care of him since this child has no guardian or because he is poor is permissible, even highly rewarded, especially if the child is an orphan. The Prophet s.a.w. said:
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"I and the one who takes care of an orphan, will
enter Paradise together like these" and he raised his
forefinger and middle finger jointly leaving space
between them. (Reported by Bukhārī)
It is important to remember that taking care of a child, nursing him or rearing him does not entail any of Shari'a rulings such as inheritance and so on. So, what to do, then? Write a will, and it should not be more than one-third of your wealth to your adopted child.
Allah sent Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. with revelation as guidance in our lives, including family lives. This revelation contains laws to protect the religion of Islam, to protect our lives, to protect our property, to protect our family, to protect our community. Sometimes its rulings looked harsh, but natural law which is also from Allah looked harsher. Look at the natural disasters, such as tsunamis, earthquakes, floods. We cannot control them, but we can avoid them through early warning. The same with the divine law; if we disobey Allah there will be punishment here or in the Hereafter. Disobeying and abandoning Allah‟s divine law of marriage will end up with confusion in family life.
14. RAMAĀN
(ANUMA 28 AUGUST 09)
Brothers in Islam,
Since we are in the blessing month of Ramadan it would be more appropriate to know more about it to increase our knowledge and our faith. One of the important things to be observed by us in doing our fasting is the intention,
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Narrated by Hafsah r.a., Mother of the Believers: the
Prophet s.a.w. said, ―The fast of one who does not make
intention to fastbefore dawn is not accepted.‖
(Reported by al-Khamsah)
In another hadith the Prophet s.a.w. said:
―There is not fast for the one who does not make
the intentionto fast during the night.‖
(Reported by al-Dāraqut.nī)
This is regarding the obligatory fasting, such as fasting in the month of Ramadan. With regard to voluntary fasting, the intention (niyyah) can be done during the day until noon, based on the following h.adīth:
Narrated by ‗Aishah r.a.: The Prophet s.a.w. came to visit
me one day and asked, ―Do you have anything (to eat)?‖ I said,
―No.‖ He said, ―Then I am fasting.‖ Then he came to me another
day, and I said: ―I had bee given a present of some h.ays
(a mixture of dates and ghee).‖ He said, ―Show it to
me, for I had been the day fasting.‖ The he ate.
(Reported by Muslim)
The intention is in our heart, and it is not necessary to say it verbally, although it is recommended to do so, except according to Mālikī school that it is recommended not to utter it.
There are conditions for the validity of our intention, (.
They are:
1. It has to be at night, preferably before dawn, when we start fasting. It is like doing our intention when we start praying.
2. (Specifying the intention in obligatory fasting). This is the opinion of the majority of the „ulamā‘, except the anafī school. Therefore, if you are in the month of Ramadan, according to this
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school of law, you do not have to specify the month of Ramadan in your intention.
3. (absolute certainty in the intention). This is also the opinion of the majority of the „ulamā‘, except the anafī school. Therefore, if someone makes his intention to fast at the end of Sha„bān as voluntary fasting, but as obligatory fasting if it is the beginning of
Ramadan, his intention is not acceptable, due to the lack of certainty in his intention. If someone makes his intention to fast tomorrow adding with (“if Allah wills”), if he is not sure whether he really wants to fast tomorrow, his intention is not acceptable and valid due to lack of resolution. But when his intention with the addition “if Allah will” is only for tabarruk, Allah‟s blessing, then his intention is acceptable. If somebody asks me: “Are you Muslim?” and I answered, “I am a Muslim in shā‘ Allah‖ it does not mean that I am not sure whether I am a Muslim or not. However, it would be better to answer “I am a Muslim alhamdu lillāh (praise be to Allah)” as being a Muslim is a blessing from Allah and we should praise and thank Him for it.
4. (plurality of intention with plurality of days). This, again, the opinion of the majority of the „ulamā‘, except the Mālikī school. According to this school, it will be enough to make one intention in the beginning of fasting in Ramadan, for example, for the whole days of it, as it is a unit, or “a package” if you like. It is like praying which is sufficient with one intention. Allah says, “Whoever among you witnesses the month (of Ramadan)[namely, be present in that month] he must observe fasting in that month…‖ (Q. 2:185). Similarly, it would be sufficient to make intention to fast in the month of Ramadan with one intention. But the jumhūr of the ‗ulamā‘ say that the intention to fast for each day of the month of Ramadan is required.
There are nine categories of people who are exempted from fasting in the month of Ramadan: In order to facilitate memorizing them an unidentified poet put them in the following poems:
The obstacles of fasting in which people could be
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forgiven for not fasting are in record nine cases:
Pregnancy, nursing baby, compulsion, traveling,
sickness, jihad, hunger, thirst, and old age.
With regard to traveling, the minimum distance is the one where prayers can be shortened (qas.r) which is about 89 km, and should start before dawn. If someone is traveling while he is fasting, he can break his fast whenever he feel he cannot keep it, but he has to make it up (qad.ā). According to Shafi„ī school, people whose profession is traveling, such as bus and train drivers, are not exempted from fasting, except they face hardship in fasting.
With regard to hard labours, such as blacksmiths, mining labuorers, bakers, and the like, according to the jumhūr ‗ulamā‘ (Muslim scholars in the mass), they have to make their effort to keep fasting, take pre-dawn meal, make intention to fast, until they cannot bear the thirst and hunger any longer for fear of their health. By then, they have to break their fast, for Allah says, ―…And do not kill yourselves (nor kill one another). Surely, Allah is Most Merciful to you.‖ (Q.4:29)
There are four interpretations of this verse:
1. killing oneself (committing suicide)
2. killing one another (Muslim brothers and sisters in faith)
3. becoming too emotional, too happy, too sad, too angry, too frustrated, etc. Uncontrollable emotion could kill, directly or indirectly, through the deterioration of health. The heart beat becomes faster, breathing becomes irregular, and so on
4. working too hard beyond one‟s ability; it is a kind of slow suicide. In general, a person to whom fasting poses a threat to his life is not allowed to fast. Allah says, ―…and do not throw yourselves into destruction…(Q. 2:195).
Brothers in Islam,
A common issue used be faced by the Muslims in the beginning of Ramadan is called ikhtilāf al-maāli‗ (the discrepancy in the rising of the moon). There is no doubt of its existence, like that of the sunrise. The sun rises here today at 6.28 a.m. whereas in Jakarta about three ours later. If the crescent is seen somewhere in the Muslim land, should other Muslims
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in other countries also fast in spite of the discrepancy in the rising of the moon? There are two views:
a. Shāfi„ī school: Only for nearby countries. People of distant countries should follow their own mat.la‗ (see the crescent by themselves), and the distant should not be less than 24 farsahkh, namely, 24 x 5544m = 123,056 km. Luckily, the Muslims in Indonesia the majority of
b. whom are followers of Shāfi„ī school do not follow this view, but follow the announcement of the Department of Religious Affairs.
c. H.anafī, Mālikī and H.anbalī schools: They all agree that once the crescent has been seen, all Muslims should fast wherever they are if the news reaches them. Now it is easy, we have radio, telephone, and television.
This view has been accepted but very slowly by the Muslims. It is hoped that this would strengthen the unity among Muslim rulers. Moreover, the distance of this Muslim land from one edge to the other is only about 9 hours. The Prophet s.a.w. besides conveying the message of Islam, in this case, the injunction of fasting in Ramadan, also explains what is apparently not clear to people, or to emphasize it. So, he explains the above verse, saying,
―When you see the crescent (of the month of
Ramadan),start fasting, and when you see the crescent (of
the month of Shawwāl), stop fasting; and if the sky is
overcast (and you cannot see it) then regard the
crescent (month) of Ramadan (as of 30 days)
(Reported by Bukhārī on the
authority of Ibn „Umar)
This is one of explanation of the Qur‟ānic verse:
. ―So everyone of you who is present (at his home) during that month should spend it in fasting‖
The word means, “to see, to witness” either with eyesight or with insight. The word usually means “the month” not “the crescent” which is in Arabic. Therefore, the verse means, if we just stop here, lit. “Whoever witness the month (of Ramadan) (with his insight)”
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and in a better expression “whosoever is present in the month (of Ramadan).” However, in pre-Islamic poetry, the word (month) could also mean (crescent). An unidentified poet says:
"The coming of two brothers from Najd is certain when the
crescent [lit. ‗the month‘] is like the cutting of the nail until
it becomes completely round at the 14th (of the month)".
Therefore, this verse has two meanings: (1) apparent meaning, what we used to understand from the word shahr meaning “month”, is that we start fasting when we are at home, not travelling, and (2) the deeper meaning, that shahr (month) in this verse also means hilāl (the crescent), so that the verse also means “So, whoever of you sights the crescent [of Ramadan] should fast in it [i.e., Ramadan]. It is like what English people call “hitting two birds with one stone”. This indicates the importance of knowing, not only the Arabic language, but also the expression in classical Arabic poetry, in order to understand the deeper meanings of the Qur‟ān. (MAS)
15. MEANING OF S.ABR (PATIENCE)
(ANUMA (25.09.09)
Brothers in Islam,
Allah says in the Qur‟ān,
Nay, seek (Allah‘s) help with patient perseverance
[s.abr] and prayer: it is indeed hard, except to those
who bring a lowly spirit [khāshi‗īn]—who bear in
mind the certainty that they are to meet their
Lord, and that they are to return to Him.
(Q. 2:45, A.Y. Ali‟s translation)
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In this verse we cannot literally translate as “and seek patience‟s help” but as و “and seek Allah‟s help with patience”, and A.Y. Ali put Allah‟s (God‟s) between two brackets. The letter is called by al-Zamakhsharī like the expression (“I wrote with the pen”).11Seeking Allah‟s help is mentioned in the following verse: : )
Said Moses to his people: ―Pray for help from
God and (wait) in patience and constancy…‖
(Q. 7:128)
Abdullah Yusuf Ali‟s commentary on this verse is as follows:
The Arabic word S.abr (translated here
“patient, perseverance”) implied many shades
of meaning, which it is impossible to comprehend
in one English word. It implied (1) patience in the sense
of being thorough, not hasty; (2) patient perseverance,
constancy, steadfastness, firmness of purpose; (3) systematic
as opposed to spasmodic or chance action; (4) a cheerful
attitude of resignation and understanding by the
element of constancy or steadfastness.12
Ibn Kathīr commentary on the above verse is that Allah orders His servants to be patient and establish prayer to obtain the goodness of this world and the Hereafter. He quoted Muqātil bin H.ayyān who said, “Carry out patience and obligatory prayers for the sake of the Hereafter, and patience in this verse according to mufassirān (commentators of the Qur‟ān) is fasting.” He said further that Mujahid (w. 103 H/722 M) also held the same view. Al-Qurt.ubī (w. 671 H/1273 M) and other ‗ūlamā‘ (Muslim scholars) that this is the reason why the month of Ramadan is called “the month of patience” as mentioned in many h.adīth literature. The other view mentioned by Ibn Kathīr is that patience in the above verse means “avoiding evil”. This is the reason why “Sabr (patience)” is
11Al-Zamakhsharī, al-Kashshāf, vol. 1, p. 139.
12 A.Y. Ali, The Meaning of the Holy Qur‘ān. (Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Education Services, 2005), p. 28, n. 32)
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mentioned with other acts of worship, especially “salat (prayer).” It was also reported by Ibn Abī H.ātim that „Umar bin Khattāb r.a. said, “There are two kinds of patience: good patience when in calamity, and better patience in avoiding Allah‟s prohibition.” Al-H.asan al-Bas.rī (w. 110 H/728 M) was reported to hold the same view.
Some interpretations given on the meaning of seeking (Allah‟s) help with s.abr (patient perseverance) and s.alāh (prayer), namely, above,
a. S.abr here means patience in carrying out religious obligations and increasing the performaance of prayer in order to purify onself from sins..
b. S.abr here means patience in defewnding Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.
c. S.abr here means patience in fasting and establishing the prayer; fasting is called “patience”, as a person who fast restrains himself from eating, drinking and indecent activities. (Mujahid‟s view).
d. S.abr here means patience in any misfortune faced by man. ( The view of Abū Ish.āq al-Zajjāj, w. 310 H/922 M)
e. There are three kinds of patience: 1. patience in facing calamity, 2. patience in obeying Allah, and this is harder than the first one, and with more rewrd, and this is meant in the abover verse, and 3. patience in avoiding rebillion (disobedience) against Allah, and this patience is harderest of all.
f. S.abr here inner obedience (to Allah), whereas prayer is outer obedience. Allah mentions in this verse the inner patience and the outer patience, the prayer, which is the hardest obedience, as it includes many kinds of patience: humbleness, concentration, calmness, reciting such as the tasbīh. (glorification of Allah) amd other readings in prayer. If these two kinds of obedience can be performed easily, other kinds of „ībādah (acts of worship) will be easier. There is no inner obedience harder to the body than patience. Therefore Allah oders us to be patient and to establish prayer.
With regard to the verse it is indeed hard, except to those who bring a lowly spirit [khāshi‗īn] (Q. 2:45), it means (a) seeking Allah‟s help is hard, (b) establishing prayers, except those who bring a lowly spirit, khushu‘, humble people.
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The above verse was revealed for Muslims to have patience with the insult of the Makkan idolators when they shifted the qiblah (direction of their prayer) towards the Ka„bah from Masjid al-H.arām in Jerusalem. The Makkan idolators said: “Muhammad will return to our religion as he has returned to our qiblah.” For this rerason, the Prophet‟s followers were told to seek Allah‟s protection with patience and prayers. “The posistion of s.abr in īmān (faith)” said „Ali bin Abi Talib r.a., “is like that of the head in the body, there will be no benefit for the body without a head.”13
The meaning of s.abr in the Qur’ān
According to al-Rāghib al-As.fahānī, the term s.abr basicly means “self-restraint in distress,” like the expression (lit. “I make the animal patience”) meaning “I kept the animal without food,” and (lit. “I make So-and-so patient”) meaning “I kept following him until he could not get rid of me.” S.abr is “self-restraint from what is required by one‟s mind or law or both.” The term is general and has many connotations, depending on one‟s condition. S.abr in calamity is called s.abr, the opposite of“anxiety”, “uneasiness”, “fear”, “anguish,” and “sadness.” S.abr in the battlefield means “bravery,” the opposite of “cowarness.” S.abr in facing annoying and grieving heavy blow, disaster, calamity, or misfortune is called “open-mindedness”, the opposite of “anger,” “displeasure,” “dissatisfaction,” “sorrow” and
“grief.” S.abr from taling is called “silence”, “secrecy", the opposite of “disclosure.” 14
Ibn al-Jawzī give the definition of s.abr slightly different from that of al-Rāghib al-As.fahānī mentioned above, namely, “restraining oneself from what it desires”. Anything that restrains something else is called “making it patience.” The prohibited thing called , is the animal made a target of launched spears till it dies. It is also said that a patient person from misfortune is called so, because he restrain himself from sadness, worry, dan remorse. Ibn al-Jawzī mentions three meanings of s.abr in the Qur‟ān, as follows:
13 Abū ayyān, al-Bar al-Muī, vol. 2, p. 86.
14 Al-Rāghib al-Ifahānī, al-Mufradāt, p. 474.
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1. Patience itself , and this is its most common meaning in the Qur‟ān, for example, ―(They are) those who are patient, those who are true (in Faith, words, and deeds) and obedient with sincere devotion in worship to Allah. And those who spend (give the zakat and alms in the ways of Allah), and those who pray and begs Allah‘s pardon in the last hours of the night.‖ (Q. 3:17). 15
2. Fasting ) , as in the verse “And, seek (Allah‘s) help with fasting and prayer.” (2:45)
3. Boldness, daring, recklessness, , such as the example given by al-Farrā‟, as follows: “Those are they who have purchased error at the price of guidance, and torment at the price of forgiveness. So how bold they are (for evil deeds which will push them) to the Fire!‖ (Q. 2:175)
Al-As.ma„ī related a story of a man lying to a Bedouin but swore with Allah‟s name. The Bedouin said to him, meaning “How bold (reckless) you are to Allah!” 16
We have seen that the term s.abr translated simply with “patience” has various connotations and meanings in the verses of the Qur‟ān. There are many similar terms found in the verses of the Qur‟ān, and rendering them into any other language would be difficult to give their extensive and deep meanings.
Reference:
A.Y. Ali, The Meaning of the Holy Qur‘ān. Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Education Services, 2005
Ministry of Islamic Affairs…The Noble Qur‘ān. Riyadh, n.d.
15 See also Q. 14:21 and Q. 38: 44.
16 Ibn al-Jawzī, Nuzhat al-A‗yun al-NawāÕir, pp. 378-388.
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16. FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN ISLAM (1)
(ANUMA 23.10.09)
Brothers in Islam,
Anything we say, and anything we do, either good or bad, it is all recorded by the angel, and we will be accountable for it in the Hereafter. Allah says:
―Not a word does he(or she) utter but there is a watcher
by him, ready (to record it).‖ (Q. 50:18)
In another verse Allah says:
He is the Irresistible (Supreme) over
over His slaves, and He sends guardians
(angels guarding and writing all of one‘s good and
bad deeds) over you, until when death approaches
one of you, Our messengers (angel of death
and his assistants) take his soul, and
they never neglect their duty.
(Q. 6:61)
In a h.adīth narrated by Ibn „Abbās r.a. the Prophet s.a.w. narrating about his Lord the Almighty, said:
Allah ordered (the appointed angels
over you) that the good and the bad deeds
be written, and He then showed (the way) how
(to write). If somebody intends to do a good deed
and he does not do it, then Allah will write for him a full
good deed (in his account with Him); and if he intends
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to do a good deed and actually did it, then Allah will write
for him (in his account) with Him(its reward equal) from ten
to seven hundred times,to many more times: and if somebody
wants to doa bad deed and he does not do it, then Allah
will write a full good deed (in his account) with Him,
and if he intended to do it (a bad deed) and
actually did it, then Allah will write
one bad deed (in his account)
(Reported by Bukhārī)
On the authority of Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Messenger of Allah (may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said:
―Let him who believes in Allah and
the Last Day either speak good or keep silent,
and let him who believes in Allah and the Last
Day be generous to his neighbour, and let him
who believes in Allah and the Last Day
be generous to his guest.‖
(Reported by Bukhārī and Muslim)
On the authority of Abū Sa„īd al-Khudrī: I heard the Messenger of Allah say:
Whosoever of you sees an evil action,
let him change it with his hand; and if he
is not able to do so, then with his tongue;
and if he is not able to do so, then with his
heart-and that it the weakest of faith.
(Reported by Muslim)
On the authority of Mu„ādh ibn Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: I said:
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O Messenger of Allah, tell me of an act which
will take me into Paradise and will keep me away from
Hell-fire. He said: You have asked me about a major matter,
yet it is easy for him whom Allah Almighty makes it easy. You
should worship Allah, associating nothing with Him; you should
perform the prayers; you should pay the zakat; you should fast in
Ramadan; and you should make the pilgrimage to the House. Then
he said: Shall I not show you the gates of goodness? Fasting [which]
is a shield; charity [which] extinguishes sin as water extinguishes fire
and the praying of a man in the depths of night. Then he recited: ―Who
forsakes their beds to cry unto their Lord in fear and hope, and spend
of that We have bestowed on them. No soul knoweth what is kept hid
for them of joy, as a reward for what they used to do. [Qur’an 32:16].”
Then he said: Shall I not tell you of the peak of the matter, its pillar, and
its topmost part? I said: Yes, O Messenger of Allah. He said: The peak
of the matter is Islam; the pillar is prayer; and its topmost is jihad [lit.
―exertion‖, .any effort made in furtherance of the cause of Islam,
including war in defending Islam]. Then he said: Shall I not tell
you of the controlling of all that? I said: Yes, O Messenger of
Allah, and he took hold of his tongue and said: Restrain this.
I said: O Prophet of Allah, will that what we say be held
against us: He said: May your mother be bereaved of
you, Mu‗ādh! Is there anything that topples people
on their face- or he said on their noses—into Hell-
fire other than the harvest of their tongues?
(Reported by Tirmidhī)
An unidentified poet says in his poems:
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Watch out for your tongue O man,
Do not let it bite you, for it is a snake
How many a person [lying] in his grave as a victim
of his tongue [the tongue] which brave
people are afraid to meet.
Another unidentified poet says in his poems:
Never talk about something you hate, the tongue
might talk about an accident then it [really] happens
Never joke about something you hate,
For it might actually happen to you.
In the Middle East, when they talk about a very smart or tricky person they say: “May Allah make him ugly (disgraceful), or “May Allah make his face ugly.” The term “bastard” which means “an illegitimate child” could be used colloquially either (1) as a term of abuse for ruthless insensitive person, such as “He is a heartless bastard, leaving his wife in that way.” (2) not abusively, but a friendly colloquial, such as, “Harry, you old bastard! Fancy meeting you here!‖ The word bloody which keeps reminding me of serious accidents has also two meanings colloquially: as derogatory (insulting), such as: “He is a bloody fool, or as a praise, such as: You are a bloody genius! The term damn, originally means “Allah‟s condemnation with everlasting torment” is used colloquially to indicate annoyance and impatience, such as, I don‘t give a damn, meaning “I don‟t care at all.” Instead of saying: “What the hell is going on, why don‟t we say instead, “What the heaven is going on?”
As these words and colloquial expressions have double and opposite meanings. We should understand them and be careful with them, and it would be better not to use them in order to avoid using them in the wrong place. There is another word we should not use as decent Muslims. Even the late Ahmad Deedat when he referred to it, out of courtesy, instead of even just saying it which is apparently a taboo for him, he said the words Father Uncle Cousin King representing the four letters of the word. (MAS)
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17. MUAFĀ MAMŪD
(ANUMA 6.9.09)
Brothers in Islam
The Prophet said in a long h.adīth on the authority of Abu‟l- Dardā‟ ―The ‗ulamā‘ (Muslim scholars) are inheritors of prophets‖ (Reported by Abū Dā‟ūd amd Tirmidhī). Last Saturday, on 31 October 2009, the Muslim world has lost a great scholar, a Muslim thinker, a physician, a writer, and a man of letters, Dr. Mus.t.afā Mah.mūd (27 December 1921 – 31 October 2009) at the age of 88. His full name is Mus.t.afā Kamāl Mah.mūd H.usayn Āl Mah.fūz., one of the sharīf (descendants of the Prophet) through „Alī Zayn al-Ābidīn b. al-H.usayn b. „Alī b. Abī T.ālib r.a.. His twin brother died the year they were born. His father Mahmūd died in 1939 after several years of suffering from paralysis. He studied medicine and was graduated in 1953, but he occupied himself exclusively with writing and doing researches in 1960. He got married in 1961, but the marriage ended with divorce in 1973 with two children, Amāl and Adham. Ten years later, in 1983 he married again, but again ended with divorce in 1987.
His Life
Dr. Mus.t.afā Mah.mūd lived in Tanta in Egypt near the well-known al-Sayyid al-Badawi Mosque which is well frequented by Muslims, especially the Sufis. This has influence on him. He was an outstanding student, and when his teacher beat him he stopped attending school until the teacher moved to another school three years later. At home he made a small soap and insect extermination factory, and studied the anatomy of these insects. When he entered the faculty of medicine he was nicknamed “the anatomist” for his staying long before the corpses, raising questions directing to himself around the secret of life and after-life, and of death and after-death. Among his 88 books are entitled (The Mystery of Life) and (The Mystery of Death). When he was offered a ministerial post by the late President Anwar Sadat, he declined saying that he failed in even a minor institution, the institution of marriage, as he had marriage twice and divorced twice.
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His Search for Allah
When the materialistic trend of the philosophy of existentialism of the French philosopher (Jean Paul Sartre) occurred in the sixties Dr. Mus.t.afā Mah.mūd was not immune of its influence. He said that it took him thirty years searching, reading books, spending thousands of nights alone contemplating and changing ideas in every aspect in order to find the right but thorny road to the truth. He read on Buddhism, Brahmanism, Zoroastrianism, the Hindu philosophy of pantheism , namely, Unity of Existence, the idea that the Creator and the creatures are One, the Lord and the Universe are One, which is the hidden force in every creature. In this period of confusion he never doubted the existence of Allah, but he doubted whether He is the three divine persons in the Christian doctrine of trinity, Yahweh of Judaism, or Kali in Hinduism. In Judaism, it is a taboo to mention the personal name of God, Elohim (in Arabic, Allah), so the Jews refer to Him as Yahweh (in Arabic, according to late Ah.mad Deedat, “O He”, and sounds like yahoo.com), and in English Jehovah. Kali is the feminine form of the Sanskrit kala, meaning “time”; this word is adopted in Malay-Indonesian language beside the term waktu which is from Arabic waqt . Kali is the consort of the Hindu god Shiva in her manifestation of the power of time. This reminds us of the expression of the pagan Arabs in the early period of Islam when they denied the Hereafter and said, “there would be nothing that would destroy us but time.” Kali represents an aspect of the terror of Shakti, or the dynamic energy of a Hindu god, personified as his female consort.17
This kind of experience, living in doubt, confusion and unsettled mind in search of the truth was not new. It happened to others like al-Imām al-Ghazālī and the philosopher Descartes. However, al-Imām al-Ghazāli spent six months only, while Mus.t.afā Mah.mūd spent thirty years in searching for the truth. Al-Ghazālī talked about the inner inspiration that rescued him, whereas Mus.t.afā Mah.mūd relied on fit.rah, the natural disposition in man in finding the truth.
His career:
1. He wrote 89 books in his 88 years on various subjects: science, religion, philosophy, society, politic, stories, plays, and travel stories. In addition, he presented 400 series of lectures (courses) on TV called al-‗Ilm wa ‗l-Īmān (Knowledge and Faith).
17 Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, s.v. kali.
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2. In 1979 he built his mosque in Cairo which he called Masjid Mamud in memory of his father, but known as Masjid Musafā Mamūd. Then he built three medical centres with various specialization for treating people with low income where patients come for their medical reputation, attended by 16 physicians. Besides, he also built four astronomical observatories, and a geological museum run by specialists. The museum contains a collection of granite rocks, embalmed butterflies, and some sea creatures.
3. He also founded a charitable organization called Musafā Mamūd Charitable Foundation
Among Dr. Musafā Mamūd‟s books are: (Allāh, Beirut, 1972)
(A Dialogue with My Atheist Friend, Beirut, 1974) The Mystery of Death, Cairo, 1961)
(Marxism and Islam, Cairo, 1975)
(The Qur‘ān: An Attempt to Understand It thorough
Modern Perception, Beirut and Cairo, 1394/1974)
( Existent and non-Existent, Cairo, 1976) (My Journey from Doubt to Faith)
In his book (A Dialogue with My Atheist Friend) he deals with the question raised by those who do not believe in God, i.e., “If God exists, then who creates God?” his answer can be outlined as follows:
a. The question itself is wrong, because: 1) the Creator cannot be, at the same time, created; 2) God who created time and space is not subject to them; 3) God who creates the law of causality is not subject to it.
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b. Emmanuel Kant (1724-1804 CE) himself admitted that reason cannot encompass the infinite truths. Reason in its nature is only capable of perceiving (juz‘iyyāt, particles), not the absolute existence , the existence of God. Kant asserted further that it is through conscience and not through reason that we perceive God, like the occurrence of thirst indicates the existence of water.
c. Aristotle (348-322 BC) in his sequent digression of causes said that the chair is made of wood, wood is from the tree which, in turn, is from a seed, and the seed is from the farmer, and so on, until this sequence ends with a first mover which does not need a cause, primum mubile. This, according to Mus.t.afā Mah.mūd, is God.18 There are many reasons that lead the atheists to reject the existence of God. One of them is the existence of evil. The atheists contend that since this world is full of evil it cannot be created by a Creator who is Wise, All Knowing, Merciful and Generous. In refuting this statement I have given his arguments in one of my khutbahs: that judging a play by watching only
one act of it is misleading; without wrong-doing , hurting and injustice there would be no forgiveness, mercy and justice; a thing that seems to be a defect in a partial view is actually a blessing and goodness in the whole sight; evil is one aspect of the nature of freedom given to man by God; Good and evil are two sides of one coin, as evil in its pure origin does not exist. There is only lack of goodness.19
With regard to God‟s Most Beautiful Names , which also indicate His attributes, among the ninety-nine names mentioned in the Qur‟ān, some of them are applicable to man. A man can also be generous, merciful, and so on, but cannot be Allah. This is because Allah is the name of God‟s Essence, while other names are the names of His divine attributes. However, he contends that although man shares some of God‟s attributes, man‟s attributes are limited, while those of God are unlimited. Man can be generous, but his generosity is limited to what Allah has given him, while Allah‟s generosity is unlimited to unlimited creatures.20
18 Mus.t.afā Mah.mūd, iwār ma‗a adīqī ‘l-Mulid, pp. 7-8.
19 Idem, Allāh, pp. 110-114; see also idem, iwār, pp. 20-23.
20 Idem, Allāh, p. 30.
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Speaking about Allah‟s attribute (al-‗Adl, the Just) in his book Allah, Dr. Mus.t.afā Mah.mūd says that the occurrence of justice cannot be imagined except with and from God Himself, because He encompasses everything with His knowledge. Any worldly disaster has goodness in it, because that disaster is a work of mercy and justice. Cursing with the occurrence of misfortune is a childish attitude. He says that there are many handicapped persons who are endowed with special gift and ability. Moreover, some diseases create trace in the body of the infected one. The body secretes a kind of substance to defend itself against a certain disease after it has been infected by it. (We have to remember that he was a physician).21
Speaking about the present situation of Islam and the Muslims he said that the believers see this world as a play in on the stage and a place to do good for the sake of the Hereafter, but very few of them do it. The majority of them has deviated from the right way and has been attached to this world, and their intellectuals have lost their identity, have forgotten their past and have denied their history and see the only way to reach success is through Western secularity. Their eyes have become blind of the dark side of secular life, such as sexual deviation, crime, mental sickness, suicide, spiritual emptiness, family disintegration, and the death of spirit out of thirst. At the same time we see that in the heart of the secular fortress in the West some people look at Islam as a solution, among them scholars, thinkers, politicians like Garoudy, Leopold Weis, and Maurice Buccaille. On the contrary educated Muslims in our country turned to atheistic materialism, and look scornfully at those who bring Islamic mission to the West.
Dr. Mus.t.afā Mah.mūd said further that we are living in the era where religious and intellectual trends are at the cross-road led by two big trends: Islamic trend brought by poor, weak and helpless people, whereas the secular trend is brought by powerful, intelligent, oppressive, watchful and immoral people. A merchandise of good quality brought by poor, barefoot traders wearing shabby clothes is being displayed on the sidewalk where flies sleep, whereas a merchandise of bad quality is being brought by traders who are rich, very intelligent, very tricky, and know very well how to advertise their commodity.
21 Ibid., pp. 36-38.
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The merchandise of bad quality is the one in demand and becomes dominant because of the intelligence and the great authority of its owners; this merchandise is secularism. The merchandise of good quality, i.e., Islam becomes unsalable (dead stock) because of the weakness and poor condition of its owner.
His Death
Dr. Mus.t.afā Mah.mūd passed away at 7.30 in the morning of Saturday 2nd of Dhu „l-Qi„dah 1430 AH corresponding to 31 October 2009 CE after several months of undergoing medical treatment, at the age of close to 88 years. His funeral procession started from his own mosque at Madinat al-Muhandisīn quarter in a suburb of Cairo.
Bibliography:
Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, s.v. kali.
.
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18. SLANDERING ISLAM
(ANUMA, 04.12.2009)
Recently we have seen the news on TV that people in Switzerland opposed the building of a minaret in a mosque, although the Swiss government had approved its building confirming and applying the policy of freedom of religion in that country. The reason: the minaret is a symbol of Islamic presence and establishment, ans they were suspicious of this religion due to allegations made by Western mass media. Out of approximately one hundred mosques there, only four of them have minarets.
One month after the event of September 11, 2001, the Italian President Berlusconi while talking with the German Chancellor Gerhard
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Schroeder and the Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced Islam as an uncivilized religion, and praised Western civilization as a superior one because it guarantees and maintains human rights. He made a conclusion that the West has to be able to conquer Muslims as it had done with the Communism. To his surprise, while his statement was still fresh in people‟s mind, bad news for him came from Riyadh. The Italian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Torquato Cardelli embraced Islam and pronounced the shahādah (the declaration that there is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah) on 15th November 2001, one day before Ramadan that year. After a long and strong spiritual struggle within his mind he decided to abandon his Catholic faith and to embrace Islam. He was the second Italian ambassador to the Muslim world who converted to Islam. The first one was Mario Scialoja. He embraced Islam at the end of 1988, when he was Deputy Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations in New York, with the rank of Ambassador.22 Alhamdu lillah, so far, we have not heard any Muslim ambassador who converted to any other religion.
Comparing God in Christianity and in Islam, the Evangelist Franklin Graham, the fourth son of the late Evangelist Billy Graham of the Southern Baptist Church, made his conclusion that they are different, and Islam is an evil religion, and that the Qur‟an preached violence.
Despite incessant slander on Islam in the West, a German scholar Dr. Gerard Anders, Rector of Bochum University which is one of the largest universities in Germany, and the Head of Arabic and Islamic Studies in this university said that the allegation of terrorism to Islam by the West is unfounded and unjustified. The term “fundamentalism” if it is meant “the total acceptance of Islamic teachings,” kāffah in Arabic, then this principle, Dr. Gerard Anders argues, is the one that united the Islamic world. Terrorism and barbarism of Muslims alleged by the West had nothing to do with Islam. The Taliban movement in Afghanistan, he argued, was only the different interpretation of Islamic law, which is normal in the field of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence).
In the same month of September 2001, a senior reported of the Sunday Express in London was captured by the Taliban on an undercover
22 Mario Scialoja was a retired Italian diplomat, and was born in Rome on July 29, 1930. His last post was Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1994 to 1996. Upon retiring he has decided to spend his last years serving the Muslim Community of Italy. .… (Wikipedia)
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assignment in Afghanistan. Her name was Yvonne Ridley. She was treated well by the Taliban and finally released. The shocking news of her capture by the Taliban was followed by shocking news for the West. Upon her return to England she converted to Islam. She said:
… I can define the moment that I lost faith in Christianity. And that was during the siege of Manger Square,23 when the Israelis were shelling the Church of Nativity, the holiest shrine in Christendom, and not a single church leader in this country [United Kingdom] condemned what was happening. Children up-and-down the country re-enact the Nativity every Christmas, it‘s so pivotal to the whole religion, and not one lousy bishop or archbishop – not one of them –stood up. If they don‘t have the conviction to stand up and shout about the abuse that‘s happening to the holiest shrine in Christendom, if they couldn‘t care less, why should I care?
Two years ago, in April 2007 Yvonne Ridley came to Australia and spoke at the Islamic Conference in Melbourne.
The more amazing story of conversion to Islam is that of Joseph Cohen. He was a devout Jew who emigrated with his family from the USA (Brooklyn, New York) to the occupied Ghaza by Israel, then moved to Netivot, and finally to Morocco.
After three years he decided to embrace Islam. He told his intention to his wife Luna whom he had married ten years ago, who was also a devout Jewish. He told her that he loved her and had to be honest with her, that he had read the Qur‟an and believed that it was a divine revelation. He
23 “Manger Square (Arabic: ) is an important city square in the center of Bethlehem. It takes its name from the manger where Jesus was born which, according to Christian dogma, is in the Church of the Nativity (Arabic: ), possibly the oldest existing church in the world, which surrounds the square. Also around Manger Square is the Mosque of Omar (the city's only mosque) and the Palestinian Peace Center …. In May 2002, during an Israel Defense Forces raid into the square, a number of locals (some of whom were armed) occupied the Church of the Nativity. It became the site of a 5-week stand-off. The number of people inside was estimated between 120 and 240 Palestinians that several Palestinians inside the church compound were shot dead by Israeli snipers during the siege. ”. (Wikipedia encyclopedia). The Mosque of Omar in Bethlehem) is not the Mosque of Omar (Dome of the Rock) which was built earlier in 1193 in Jerusalem. This mosque was built in 1860 and last renovated in 1954 on the location where Omar ibn al-Khattab prayed when he visited the city in 638 as an envoy of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.). (http://www.atlastours.net /holyland/mosque_of_omar.html).
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said further that if he kept claiming to be a follower of Judaism, he would have lied. The whole family embraced Islam, and moved from Netivot to a small village in East Jerusalem, and eventually to Tetouan in Morocco, the native town of his wife.
Joseph Cohen totally changed. He changed his name from Joseph Cohen to Youssef al-Khattab. Before, he was supporter of the Orthodox Jewish party, now he supported the radical Hamas, the Palestinian people‟s liberation movement against the Israeli occupation. He did not call any longer the land he was living in “Israel”, but “Palestine”, where he believed that an Islamic state had to be created. Before, his children were devout students of Judaism, now devout students of Islam. His eldest son, Abdul-Rahman was said to have memorized the Qur‟an on 2 November 2009, two month ago, at the age of 17 Here is what Youssef Khattab said about himself in 2006:
I was born to a Secular Jewish family, and at the age of 18 years old decided to look ―deeper" into belief in God. Like most people, I looked at religion from a view point that was closer to me. Being that my family was Jewish and I was raised to attend Jewish schools I looked into Rabbinical "Orthodox Judaism".
In the year 1988 I entered a Yeshiva and started my journey into the Orthodox Rabbinical racist cult. In 1991 I wed my 1st wife (then) Luna Mellul now Qamar al Khattab24. She was from the Moroccan town named Tetouan and was attending the racist Orthodox Jewish girl‘s seminary known as Breuers or Sampson Raphael Hirsh Bet Yaakov aka Bais Yakov.
1992 brought us the birth of my 1st child Abdel Rahman (formally Rachamim Cohen). Alhumdulilah he was then as he is now my pride and joy. Upon the birth of Abdel Rahman we were living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the Satmar Hasidic community. I used to see all the lying and cheating, government scams and money laundering using the Synagogue and Yeshiva bank accounts and the poor hygiene of these folk, and was nervous for my new born son not to grow up like these folk. We tried broadening our horizons and moved to the Ocean Parkway area of Brooklyn, later that year.
1994 till 1998 brought us the birth of 3 more wonderful children alhumdulilah. Hesibeh, Abdel Aziz (formally Ezra), and Abdullah (formally Ovadia) during these years I tried to convince myself that Judaism was a true path and I just didn‘t understand it because I never read the entire set of Talmud and it 3 different ways of understanding it including the "hidden level". You see this is the trick in the rabbinical cult, you will not EVER finish learning all the rabbinic text thus you are subservient to the Rabbis
24 Luna, in Roman mythology, the goddess of the moon and the month, in Latin and Italian means “the moon” itself, and in Arabic is qamar. So, the name Qamar is the Arabic translation of Luna.
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(aka Elders of Zion) who will interpret Judaism for you. During this time frame the Rabbis saw that we doubted their beliefs thus constantly followed our family contacting all new friends and employers etc. The Rabbis MUST ALWAYS know where you move to and who your friends are. The Rabbis were starting to be a big nuisance as were the Rabbinical Jews; so seeking a better future elsewhere we loaded up the family and moved to Palestine. (then like most westerners we were brainwashed to refer to the Jew entity as Israel).
September, 1998 we now arrived in Ghaza or what the Jewish squatters refer to as Gush Qatif. Quickly my wife was turned off by the lies of the folk there and my son Abdel Rahman came running home from school one day saying "Daddy, my teacher doesn‘t cover her hair properly, her dress is to short, they don't learn Torah here and all they do is play"!! Maashaallah, my son was very correct so with no possessions or money we set off to find a home in the nearby Jew settlement of Netivot in occupied 1948 Palestine. Shas, a "religious political party" immediately helped us by providing a home and their private school system and my kids went from knowing NO Hebrew to being tops in their class alhumdulilah. During our stay in Netivot I met a Muslim from UAE and we had conversations for about 2 years where he would ask me questions about Jewish Aqeedah or Jewish creed, and then compare it to Tawheed al Elohiya a part of Islamic Monotheism. I would then go and ask major Rabbis questions about the Jewish creed and always got 60000 different answers. The Jews can't even tell you where there God is based on text; rather they say God is everywhere! (authubilah) One day I decided to go to the Arab souk and buy a translation of the meaning of the Holy Quran in the English language. Subahanallah!!!!! I could not put it down!! Every problem I had with Jews and Judaism was being addressed by Allah the Most High, in the 1st 3 chapters of the Quran.25 Allah swt answered most of my doubts about Judaism. The Quran is firm with the Jews and invites them to a just truth (Islam) to save them from the hellfire their ancestors are currently in.
25 The three chapters he means are (1) surah al-Baqarah (chapter 2) containing 286 verses. Here Allah talked directly to the Children of Israel in 34 verses, and about them in 28 verses; total: 62 verses;(2) surah Āl ‗Imrān (chapter 3) containing 200 verses. Here Allah talked directly to them and the Christians as „the People of the Book” three times, and indirectly through Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. also three times, and about them nine times; total: 15 times; (3) surah al-Nisā‘ (chapter 4) containing 174 verses. Allah talked to them directly twice, once as (“O People of the Book”) and the other “O you who have been given the Scripture (Jews and Christians( ” , indirectly twice “Say (O Muhammad), O People of the Book” , and about them 10 times; total: 12 times.
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When I finished reading the entire Quran, I could no longer associate with Jews any longer, thus I was obliged to tell my wife I am a Muslim. Alhumdulilah within 2 weeks my wife decided to read the Quran and became a Muslimah!!! Then the kids after her alhumdulilah.
Today 2006 alhumdulilah I live in Morocco with my wife Qamar and kids. My kids no longer remember Hebrew and their 1st language is Arabic. All the kids are learning in Islamic Arabic Schools, alhumdulilah we thank Allah subhana wa tala for blessing us with Islam.
Wearing a gamis (Arab gown dress) with a white cap on his head, Yousef al-Khattab tried to forget his fast and concentrate on his present to become a fully 100% Muslim, a kāffah (“fundamental”) Muslim. He still cites the morning prayer of the Jews, but instead of thanking God for not being born as non-Jews, he thanks Him for not making him a Jew, i.e., a follower of Judaism. We watched on the television long time ago Richard Dawkins, the world's most famous atheist from Oxford, England came to interview him in the mosque. To his disappointment Yousef al-Khattab told him that the Jews were occupying the land of Muhammad, a statement Richard Dawkins never expected. He left immediately.
When the newly appointed Pope Benedict XVI criticized Islam, Youseph al-Khattab gave his answer posted on 17 September 2006 as follows:
I believe the true reason that Pope Benadick [sic] made his recent statements condemning Islam as a religion of hate, is pure self hatred. Islam forbids forcing ANYONE to convert, and allows Jews and Christians the right to live and prosper in our lands. Case and point is the city that I live today Tetouan; this city was basically founded by Jews and Muslims that were thrown out of Spain due to the Catholic Inquisition. Historically, Morocco for example has been a bastion of peace for Islam, Christianity and Judaism where all lived without worry until the establishment of the Jew Enemy Entity in 1948. Could we say the same about the Jews under Catholic Europe? …
In conclusion, you can hide the truth to all people, but not all the time; you can hide it all the time, but not to all people, let alone hiding it to all people all the time. No matter how you hide the truth, eventually, it will prevail. (MAS 04.12.09)
Sources:
(http://www.atlastours.net /holyland/mosque_of_omar.html).
(Wikipedia)
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19. ABDULLAH IBN AL-MUBĀRAK
(118-181/736-797)
The Faqīh of the Arab from Khorasan
One of the great great scholars in the past whose books are still used in Indonesian Islamic boarding schools called pesantren was Shaykh Mutafā al-Ghalāyayn who was born in Beirut in 1889. He wrote at least six books, two of which are still in use by these schools, namely: Jāmi‗u ‘l-Durūs ("Extensive Studies" on Arabic Language) in which he traced the origin of the word , from which to call the listeners' attention and the word meaning "this." It is like saying "hey, this." So, if we say it literally means "hey (or attention) this is a book, and we can drop the and just say .
The other book is ‗IÕat al-Nāshi‘īn ("Advice for Youth") in which he advised young people, in order to obtain Islamic morality and good character, besides reading the biography of the Prophet Muhammad, s.a.w., they should also read the biography of heroes, champions
It is also important to read and learn the biography of our prominent ‗ulamā‘ (Muslim scholars).
In a long hadith Abū al-Drdā‟ narrated that the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. said: “The ‗ulamā‘ are inheritors of Prophets” (Reported by al-Bayhaqī). One of these Muslim scholars was „Abdullah ibn al-Mubārak (118-181/736-797), whom people used to call “the faqīh of the Arab from Khorasan”. He was a contemporary of Imam Abu H.anīfah, Imām Mālik, and Hārūn al-Rashīd. He was born in the time of the Umawi caliph Hishām ibn „Abd al-Malik, and died in the time of Harūn al-Rashīd. Abdullah ibn al-Mubārak was a scholar known for his many virtues. The historian al-Dhahabī related that his friends made the list of these virtues: “Knowledge, fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), literature, grammar, language, zuhd (ascetism), eloquence, poetry, praying at night, worship, hajj, jihad, bravery, chivalry, strength, speaking little in what doesn‟t concern him, justice, and lack of conflict with his companions
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His strong memory
Abdullah bin al-Mubarak has a strong memory. He memorized the Qur‟an and many adīths of the Prophet. One of his relatives called S.akhr said that when they were attending the Qur‟ānic elementary school (Kuttāb) they passed by a man delivering a long speech. After finishing the speech Ibn al-Mubārak said to S.akhr that he could repeat the speech. A man who happened to hear him asked him to repeat the speech which he did without any mistake.
His teachers
Among scholars who taught Ibn al-Mubārak were: Ibn Abī Laylā, al-A„mash, Sulaymān al-Tamīmī, al-Awzā„ī, Mālik, and he studied with Abū „Amr ibn al-„Alā‟, al-Layth and others. He learned fiqh from Malik and ath-Thawri, and he was the first of Abū anīfah's companions. Then he left him and abandoned his madhhab."
His search for knowledge
Ibn al-Mubārak was twenty-three years old when he started traveling and seeking knowledge from the tābi‗īn (people belonging to the generation after that of the s.ah.ābah, companions of the Prophet) and the generation after it, as well as joining in the battlefield until he died.
Qāī Abu'l-Fal said that a person called as-Sadafi said, "When Ibn al-Mubārak came of age, his father sent him 50,000 dirham to use for commerce. He spent the money in seeking knowledge. When the money was gone, his father met him and said, “What have you bought with the money?” He brought out his books to him and said, “This is my trade.” His father was happy and went into the house and gave him 30,000 dirhams more and said, “Take this and continue your trade with them.”
Ibn anbal said, "In the time of Ibn al-Mubārak, there was no one who sought knowledge more than him. He went to Yemen, Egypt, Syria, the Hijaz, Basra and Kufa, took knowledge from people, young and old, and related hadiths from his notes."
Ibn al-Mubārak was a good reader. Shaqīq al-Balkhī said that someone asked him:
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“Why don‟t you sit down with us after performing your prayer?” He answered: “What shall I do with you when you are gossiping and slandering people? I sit with the s.ah.ābah and the tābi‗īn reading their books.” At another time when he was criticized for staying alone and isolating himself he said that he was not alone, and was not isolating himself, but rather with the company of prophets, awliyā‘ (saints), wise people, the Prophet and his companions.
Ibn Waddah said, "Ibn al-Mubārak related about 25,000 hadiths. When he was asked, “How long will you keep studying?” he answered, “Hopefully until I die."
His Bravery
For his bravery and sincerity „Abdah bin Sulayman said: “We were on an expedition in the lands of the Romans with „Abdullah bin al-Mubārak. We met the enemy, and when the two armies met, a man came out from their side calling for a duel. One of our men went out to him and dueled with him for an hour, injuring him and killing him. Another came out, and he killed him. He called for another duel, and another man came out. They dueled for an hour, and he injured and killed him as well. The people gathered around this man, and I was with them, and saw that he was covering his face with his sleeve. I took the edge of his sleeve and pulled it away to find that it was „Abdullah bin al-Mubarak,” and in the version reported by al-Dhahabī, he made him swear not to reveal his identity until the day he died.26
His du’a was accepted
It is related that al-asan bin „Isa bin Sirjis would walk by Ibn al-Mubārak, and he was a Christian. Ibn al-Mubārak asked who he was, and was told: “He is a Christian.” So, Ibn al-Mubārak said: “O Allah, grant him Islam.” So, Allah answered his supplication and al-asan became an excellent Muslim, and he travelled to seek knowledge and became one of the scholars of the ummah.” („Tartīb al-Madārik‘ (1/162),
26 Ibn al-Jawzī, ‗ifat al-afwah‘ vol. 2, p. 329
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His wittiness
One day Ibn al-Mubārak prayed at the side of Abū anīfah. Ibn al-Mubarak began to lift his hands in each takbīr. Abū anīfah said to him, 'Do you want to fly?' He replied, 'If I had wanted to, I would have flown in the first one.'”, meaning takbīrat al-ih.rām.
His generosity
Ibn al-Mubārak was a successful rich business man, but at the same time an ascetic man. His friend called Abū „Alī asked him: “You have told us to be ascetic, but we see you bringing goods from Khorasan to the holy land, how could it be?” He said: “I do it in order to protect my face, to ptotect my honour, to help me in obeying my Lord, whenever I find any of Allah‟s rights I would immediately do it.” Ibn al-Jawzī mentions that Ibn al-Mubārak “spent a hundred thousand dirhams a year on the poor.”27
On his way to hajj Ibn al-Mubārak entered Kufah and found a poor woman was sitting on a rubbish heap and plucking a carrion of duck to feed her family. He stopped his mule and asked her where she lived. Then he left her and went to an inn where he paid one dirham to someone to take him to the woman‟s house. The man knocked at the door with his stick. The woman opened the door half-way. Ibn al-Mubarak asked her to open her door fully, then got off his mule, hit it with his stick, and the mule went into the house. Then he told her that the mule and the provision, money and clothes it was carrying were all gifts to her, then went into hiding until people returned from the pilgrimage.
When people congratulated him for his pilgrimage, he told them that he was sick and did not go to pilgrimage that year. One of them said, 'Glory be to Allah! Did I not leave you my goods with you while we were at Mina and we were going to „Arafat?' Another said, 'Did you not buy for me on the way?' He said to them: “I do not know what you are talking about. As for myself, I did not go on hajj this year.” One night he dreamed someone talking to him, “Abdullah, rejoice! Allah has accepted your sadaqah (charity), and sent an angel in your form to perform the hajj for you.”
27 Ibid., p. 327.
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A similar incident happened to Ibn Taymiyyah. While he was in jail, people still saw him outside the prison. When they asked him in jail about it he said that it was a Muslim jinni who took his form to be like him to help people.
What Ibn al-Mubārak did is the opposite of what we used to do. We keep going to h.ajj, if possible every year, keeping blind eyes on the poor in our community, let alone people in distant places where they need our help very badly just to survive. When the late Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazālī advised a rich man to help a young student who had just graduated in chemistry to establish himself as Muslims need chemists, rather than going to hajj which he had done before, he did not take the advise. When Shaykh Yūsuf al-Qarad.āwī advised a rich man who had performed hajj many times before to send his money to Bosnia instead of going to hajj that year, he did not take the advise. We forget that helping the poor is more important that going to hajj for the second or third time.
His Wise-saying and advice:
This is the dialogue between H.abīb al-Jallāb and Ibn al-Mubārak who asked him:
“What is the best thing given to man?” asked H.abīb.
“Instinct of reasoning, “ answered Ibn al-Mubārak.
“If he does not have one?”
“Then good behaviour.”
“If he does not have either?”
“Then a compassionate brother who would advise him.”
“If he does not have?”
“Long silence”
“And if he does not have either?”
“Then eminent death.”
There is no point of living without any of these things: reason, good behaviour, someone who would give advise, and keeping silent.
Ibn al-Mubārak gives us ten advices, as follows:
1. No matter how bad you think you are, you can always become better 2 - You should associate with honorable people 3 - You should be a helpful guest.
4 - You should give money to the poor
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5 - You should always return borrowed items to their owners. 6 - You should be brave, and hide your good deeds: 7 - You should have a tender heart. 8 - You should be generous to your friends. 9 - You should not give in to Satan‟s whispers. 10 - You should sincerely pray for people to accept Islam.
Ibn al-Mubārak criticized people who claimed to love Allah, but disobeyed Him. In one of his poems he said:
You disobey Allah and yet, you proclaim that you love Him,
This, upon my life, is in effect unprecedented
If you really love Him you would have obeyed Him,
Verily, the person who loves obeys whom he loves.
We used to hear people say to show his love and obedience: “If you ask me to jump, I would say „how high?‟”
20. KHUTBAH IN OTHER THAN ARABIC LANGUAGE
(ANUMA 5 MARCH 2010)
Brothers in Islam,
All of you are aware that the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. delivered his khut.bah on the Jum‟ah prayers in Arabic language, and I have mentioned earlier that his khut.bahs were not recorded as they contained mostly Qur‟anic verses. This is with the exception of his farewell sermons where he delivered on the top of Mt. Rahmah witness by approximately one hundred thousand people.
After the death of the Prophet the companions kept delivering the Jum‟ah khut.bahs in Arabic, their language, even in the land of non-Arabs. This tradition kept going on in Indonesia until the turn of the 20the century. After the country‟s independence 1945 the government of
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Indonesia formed a cabinet including a ministry of religious affairs with its statement that the khut.bah could be delivered in other than Arabic with the exception of the h.amdalah (saying al-h.amdu lillāh), shahādah (bearing witness that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah) and s.alawāt to the Prophet (asking Allah‟s blessing for the Prophet).
This process of transition was very slow in rural areas, but in cities it was highly accepted, even by using local languages rather than Indonesian, the official language of Indonesia. For example, in 1957 the khat.īb in the mosque of Surakarta, one of the centres of learning in Central Java, instead of using the Indonesian language, he used the local Javanese language.
This issue of using non-Arabic in the khut.bah is not new, but has been dealt with by the fuqahā‘ (Muslim jurists) long time ago. They have three different views on the possibility of delivering the khut.bah in other than Arabic language, as follows:
a. It has to be in Arabic language for the person who is able to do it, except if the whole members of the congregation do not understand Arabic, then he should deliver it in their language (until they learn Arabic). This is the right view according to the Shāfi„ī school and some of the jurists of the H.anbalī school.
The argument of this view is as follows:
(1) It has to be in Arabic for the person who is able to do it is through qiyās (analogy) with reciting the Qur‟an where there will be no reward unless it is read in Arabic. (The weakness of this argument is that the Qur‟an without being recited in Arabic would not become an evidence of the prophethood of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. (mu‗jizah), whereas the purpose of the khut.bah is to give advices, to remind people of their Islamic duties, to praise Allah and to ask blessings to Prophet Muhammad s.a.w., the consideration here is the meaning rather then the wording, and therefore there would be reward in delivering in other than Arabic).
(2) It is possible in other than Arabic language if he is unable to speak it, as the khut.bah is advice and reminder to people and therefore should be delivered in their language. (The weakness of this argument is that if it is so, then he does not have to deliver it in Arabic, although he speaks it).
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b. The second view is that has to be in Arabic, although the congregation does not understand it. This is the view of the Mālikī school, and the prevalent view in the H.anbalī school. The argument is based on the sunnah, athar, and ma‗qūl (what is logical, reasonable), as follows:
(1) The Prophets.a.w. said “‟āH.uwayrith). As the Prophet delivered the khut.bah in Arabic, we also have to do the same. (The weakness of this argument is: khut.bah is not part of the prayer. The Prophet did not say, “Deliver the khut.bah the way you see me doing it.”).
(2) The s.ah.ābah (companions of the Prophet delivered the khut.bah in Arabic, and we should follow them. (The weakness of this argument is that Arabic was their language and perhaps the only language they knew).
(3) The khut.bah is an obligatory citation and has to be in Arabic, such as the tashahud, and takbīrat al-ih.rām. (The weakness of this argument is that there is difference between the khut.bah abd the pryer itself; unlike the tashahhud and takbīrat al-ih.rām there is no specified formula for the khut.bah, as the purpose it is to give advice with any language.)
c. The third view, it is recommended to be in Arabic language. This is apparently the view of the H.anafī school which allows the khut.bah to be delivered in other than Arabic, and this is also the other view among the Shāfi„ī school. The argument of this view is that the purpose of the khut.bah is to give advice, and therefore can be delivered in any language (Delivering in Arabic is better, as it is the language chosen by Allah for His Book and spoken by His Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. and his companions).
According to the fatwa (personal legal opinion) of the late Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibrāhīm Āl al-Shaykh and (the Saudi Arabian Permanent Board of Scientific Research and Fatāwā) which is chosen by Shaykh Muhammad ibn S.ālih. al-„Uthaymīn, the khut.bah should be delivered in Arabic, unless the whole
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congregation does not understand it, then it should be delivered also in another language after Arabic. In some mosques such as Omar mosque in Melbourne and Canberra Mosque in Yarralumla the first khut.bah is in Arabic, the second in English. This was also what we did in Edmonton, Canada, where the majority of the members of the congregation were Arabs from Lebanon and Egypt, whereas others from Indian sub-continent and Turkey.
This is the most common in many mosques in Australia: the Arabic language or the ethnic language of the organisers of the mosques in the first khut.bah then the English language in the second. In the Turkish or Albanian mosque, the first khut.bah is in Turkish or Albanian, then in English in the second. In some others, the English translation of the khut.bah is delivered either before or after the Jum‟ah prayer, and therefore this English translation is not considered part of the khut.bah. Whether we are following the H.anafī school where the khut.bah is delivered in non-Arabic, or with dual languages, Arabic and English, or even in Arabic only, there should be no problem.
The H.anafī madhhab (school of Islamic jurisprudence) is in general more accepted in many issues, such as the possibility of paying zakat al-fit.r with its value, money, so that it would be easy to carry and to distribute to the poor. Otherwise, we have to carry bags pf flour or rice to the mosque to be distributed to the poor who need something else than rice and flour. They have to sell it to buy something else. Imagine if thousands of people each of them bring a bag of flour or rice to the mosque as zakat al-fit.r, we shall have problem in storing them. We would need a storehouse just for that day, and we have to distribute them to the needy on the same day.
Allah knows best. May this short essay give some light on the position of the Jum‗ah prayer among Muslims.
Brothers in Islam,
There is a very important short story which gives a moral lesson, especially for us in these days, as follows:
An Arabic reading book used in elementary schools in Egypt in the early 1940s, was etitled (“The Proper Reading for Elementary Schools”), I do not remember which volume. It contains an
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interesting story, but I do not remember the title of the story. There were two pictures in the story. In one picture two rams (goats) were fighting, and in the other picture one ram was laying down, and the other ram was stepping on it. Without reading the story you would make a conclusion that one of the two fighting rams won the fight and stepped its legs on the defeated one.
After reading the story we found out that what we have thought was wrong. Actually, there were two separate stories about the two rams. In both pictures the two rams met in the middle of a very narrow footbridge (a pathway), so that they could not pass each other. As none of them would yield, they fought until both of them fell into the narrow valley (canyon, ravine, gorge, chasm) and perished.
As for the second picture, one of the ram yielded, lay down, and let the other ram pass by stepping on it. Both rams were safe. A good story, but who would be like be like the ram that yielded? Here lies the problem.
21. THE TERMS ZAWJ AND MAR'AH IN THE QUR'AN
(ANUMA, 30 April, 2010)
Brothers in Islam,
In one of the khubah I talked about the eloquence of the language of the Qur'an. Here is another one:
The term (zawj) in Arabic means: one of a pair; husband; wife; mate, partner; couple, pair. It can be used for a pair of something, such as shoes. According to commentators of the Qur'an the term zawj has three meaning:
a. (qarīn), companion, associate, fellow, such as the following verses:
(It will be said to the angels): "Assemble those who did
wrong, together with their companions (from the devils)
and what they used to worship." (Q. 37:22)
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The term here means "their companions among the devils." So, here Allah wanted the wrong-doers to be raised from death with their evil companions and with what they worship.
When the souls shall be joined together
[as companions].(Q. 81:7)
It means the souls of non-believers will be joined with those of the devils as companions, and the souls of believers will be joined with those of the inhabitants of paradise.
b. (kind, specimen; genus, species, class, category; sex), as in the following verses:
Glorified is He Who created all the pairs of which the
earth produces, as well as their own (human) kind (male and
female), and of which they know not.(Q. 36:36)
We said: "Embark therein, of each kind two
(male and female)…" (Q. 11:40)
Here the term zawj means "kind, pair" in the above verses. The verse deals with Allah's order to Prophet Noah to bring into his ark a pair of male and female of animals.
c. (wife), as in the following verses:
… and they shall have therein purified wives
and they will abide therein forever. (Q. 2:25)
This verse is dealing with believers and do good and
righteous deeds, that they will enter Paradise forever and have purified wives.
In that which your wives leave, your share
is a half if they have no child…
Here the term means (wives). The verse is dealing with inheritance where the husband gets half when there is no child.
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The terim zawj indicates something as a pair of something else of the same species, kind. There has to be harmony, similarity, and integration between the two, such as between male and female of the same species.
And He created the pairs, male
and female…(Q. 53:45)
And made of him two sexes, male
and female.(Q. 75:39)
Each of the zawj (pair) is in need of each other and makes each other complete, without which his or her humanness will not be completed. Both complement each other. The English proverb says, "A man without a wife is half a man." Therefore, a woman without a husband is also half a woman. This longing for each other and mutual desire for union can only be achieved Islamicly through legal binding called marriage.
There are two Arabic words for the term wife: a. (zawj meaning "a pair, a spouse") and b. (imra‘ah) meaning "a woman, a wife". The Qur'an makes distinction between the two terms in its verses. When it deals with a harmonious marriage where there is no religious, physical and spiritual difference, the husband or the wife is called zawj. For example:
And we said: "O Adam! Dwell you and your
wife in Paradise… (Q. 2:35)
And among His Signs is that He created for
you Wives From among yourselves, that you may
find repose in them, and He has put between you
affection and mercy. Verily, in that are indeed
signs for a people who reflect. (Q. 2:35)
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And those who say: "Our Lord! Bestow on us
from our wives and our offspring the comfort of our
eyes, and make us leaders of the pious." (Q. 25:74)
But if the marriage is not in full harmony because of the difference of belief, or any other problem, the term used for the wife is not zawj, but imra‘ah. For example:
Allah sets forth an example for those who disbelieve:
the wife of Nuh (Noah) and the wife of Lut (Lot). They
were under two of Our righteous slaves, but they both
betrayed them [by rejecting their doctrine]. So
they availed them not against Allah and it
was said: "Enter the Fire along with
those who enter (Q. 66:10)
We see here the use of and where the term imra'ah is used. There was no harmony in these two marriages, although the husbands were prophets, because the wives rejected the faith. We also learn from this that there is no guarantee that a pious person would have a pious wife. Faith and piety are of Allah's blessing.
And Allah has set forth an example for those who
believe: the wife of Fir'aun (Pharaoh), when she said:
"My Lord! Build for me a home with You in Paradise,
and save me from Fir'aun (Pharaoh) and his
work, andsave me from the people who
are wrong-doers." (Q. 66:11)
The term is used indicating the unharmonious marriage, as Pharaoh was a non-believer, while his wife was a believer. The term is also used in surah al-Qasas [82]:9.
The most interesting episode is when Prophet Zakariyyā (Zechariah) prayed for a son, as his wife was barren, the term used
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for his wife is imra'ah as marriage without a child is incomplete. Prophet Zakariyyā prayed:
"And verily, I fear my relatives after me, and my wife is
barren. So give me from Yourself an heir." (Q. 19:5)
When Allah promised him a child, he wondered and said:
He said: "My Lord! How can I have a son, when my wife is
barren, and I have reached the extreme old age." (Q. 19:8)
However, when Allah blessed him with a son, Yahya (John the Baptist), the term was no longer used, but it was zawj. Zakariyyā's marriage became harmonious and complete. Allah said:
And (remember) Zakariyya (Zechariah), when he
cried to his Lord" "O My Lord! Leave me not single
(childless), though You are the Best of inheritors."
So We answered his call, and We bestowed upon
him Yahya (John), and cured his wife (to bear
a child) for him… (Q. 21:89-90)
The expression "and We cured his wife for him" means Allah cured the barrenness of Zakariyyā's wife, where the word is used rather than .
This is one of many peculiarities of the Arabic language of the Qur'an. The term of zawj for "wife" is used when the marriage is in full harmony and integration, whereas imra'ah is used when the marriage is not fully harmonious because of the difference of faith, physical and spiritual incompatibility and the like. As far as I know we do not make any distinction between the two terms in meaning. In formal style the word (qarinah) meaning "wife, spouse, consort" is used. In daily conversation the term imra‘ah, with the definite article it becomes ( al-mar‘ah) are commonly used, all become marah and al-marah in our slang.
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22. SCIENTIFIC INTERPRETATION OF THE QUR‟ĀN
(ANUMA, 21 MAY, 2010)
Brothers in Islam,
Allah says in the Qur‟ān,
"ALM, [These letters are one of the miracles
of the Qur'an, and none but Allah Alone knows their
meanings]. The Romans have been defeated. In the nearest
land (Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Palestine), and they
after their defeat, will be victorious…" (Q. 30:1-2)
The term is derived from the verb meaning: to be near, to come close, to get close. It is also derived from the verb meaning: to be low, lowly, to be contemptible. The classical commentators of the Qur'an used the first meaning of the term in the above verse, namely, to be near. Al-Nasafī, for example, said that the term means "in the nearest land of the Arabs, the parts of Syria" which was at that time included Jordan and Palestine. Another commentator, Muqātil, specified the land, namely, Jordan and Palestine.
However, geologists found out that the land where the Romans were conquered by the Persians was low, so that the second meaning of the term is also applicable in this verse. It is on this land where the Dead Sea, which is actually a lake, is located. It is 78 kms long and and 17 kms wide at its widest, and has a maximum depth 399 meters. It surface is 403 meters below the sea level, lower than any other known place on this planet. Its water comes from the River Jordan, but it has not outlet, so that its salinity keeps increasing, more than six times saltier than the ocean. No wonder no fish or animal can live in this lake. We see here that the two meanings of are applicable in this verse.
In another verse Allah said:
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"And We brought forth iron wherein is mighty power,
as well as many benefits for mankind, that Allah
may test who it is that will help Him (His religion)
and His Messengers in the unseen. Verily,Allah
is All-Strong, All-Mighty. "(Q. 57:25)
Classical interpretation of this verse is that the term which literally means "We sent down" is translated by al-asan and others as ("We created"), so that the verse means that Allah created iron, not sent down from the sky or outer space to the earth. It is like the verse: )
"…and He sent down for you of cattle eight pairs
(of the sheep two, male and female; of the goats, two,
male and female; of the oxen, two, male and female;
and of the camels, two, male and female)."
(Q. 39:6) (Tafsīr al-Alūsī).
They also understand in the same way the following a adīth attributed to the Prophet by Ibn „Umar:
"Verily, Allah the Most High sent down four blessings
from the sky to the earth: He sent down iron, fire,
water and salt." (Reported by al-Daylamī).28
However, according to geologists, before human beings lived on this planet, it had been continuously bombarded with meteorites (literally means "rocks from the sky"). These rocks contained nickel and iron. The sudden disappearance of the dinosaurs which had successfully lived for more than 160 million years on this earth was caused, according to one theory, by the fall of a huge meteorite. So, Allah did really send down iron from the sky, and according to one theory, the metal iron of the earth is
28This adīth is considered "weak" as Ibn ajar attributed it to al-Tha„labī and said that there was among its chains of narrators who was unknown to him. See Tafsīr al-Baghawī on his commentary on Q. 57:25 above). Al-Albānī put it in the category of weak and invented adīths, as one of its narrators, Sayf ibn Muammad, the nephew of the scholar Sufyān al-Thawrī, was unreliable. See al-Albānī, al-Silsilah al-a‗īfah wa ‘l-Mawū‗ah,vol. 6, p. 58.
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originally from outer space, in line with literal translation of the above verse.
In another verse, Allah said:
Out of them both [i.e. salt and fresh water]
came out pearl and coral (Q. 55:22)
Classical commentators of the Qur'an, such as Ibn „Abbās and Qatādah say that is the big pearls, whereas is the small one.29 In fact, it is another meaning of this term beside coral. Pearls are produced in pearl oysters at sea. But nowadays, people find pearls in freshwater mussels in Mississippi River and its tributaries, and in Japan pearls are made in freshwater.
After reading the translation of the Qur'an a non-Muslim asked whether the Prophet was a sailor or had been at sea. When he was told that
the Prophet never sailed all his life but riding camels, he wondered how the Qur'an explained what he had experienced and the Prophet never did. What he read in the Qur'an was this verse:
"Or (the unbelievers' state) is like the darkness in
the deep sea. It is covered by waves, above which
are waves, above which are clouds. Darkness
one above another. If a man stretches out his
hand, he cannot see it." (Q. 24:40)
The experience of total darkness where you cannot see your hand if you stretch it out is hardly to occur in Makkah or Madinah where this verse was revealed. It is because of lack of rain and clear sky you still can see your way at night with the lights of thousands of stars, although with dim light.
The person accepted Islam, as he believed that this revelation was really from Allah, not from the Prophet's own words. This is what common people understand from this verse. But for oceanographers this
29 Tafsīr al- abarī.
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verse has deeper meanings. It talks about the darkness in deep sees. At a depth of 200 meters there is almost no light. People can dive unaided till 40 meters only, so there is still light. Below 1000 meters there is no light at all.
Scientists discovered that there are internal waves between less dense water on top and dense water at the bottom. They act like surface waves, and also can break. We cannot see them but we can detect them by studying the salinity change and temperature. On the top of these internal waves are the surface waves which we can see. On the top of these waves are clouds. "Darkness one above another". This is the scientific interpretation of this verse.
Ibn „Abbās's interpretation of this verse is this:
Darkness is the deeds of man. Deep sea is the heart of man, covered by waves, above which are waves, above which are clouds are those that cover the heart, the hearing and the sight of man. It is like the verse
"Allah has set a seal on their hearts and on their
hearing, and on their eyes there is a covering.
Theirs will be a great torment." (Q. 2:7)
Brothers in Islam
We know that the first revelation was:
Read! In the Name of your Lord Who has created
[all that exists). He has created man from a clot (a piece
of thick coagulated blood). Read! And your Lord
is the Most Generous. Who has taught (the
writing) by the pen. (Q. 96:1-5)
The word is a collective noun of meaning (coagulated) blood and blood clot. But the term also means "leech" (including modern time "medicinal leech)" and "a suspended thing" which is closer to its verb meaning "to hang, to be suspended; to stick, to cling." The coat hanger is called (its slang is ).
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In another verse Allah mentions the various stages of the development of human embryo.
"We created man [i.e. Adam] from an extract of clay.
Then We made him [Adam's offspring]as a nufah drop
in a place of settlement, firmly fixed [womb of a woman].
Then We made the drop into an alaqah (leech, suspended
thing, and blood clot), then We made the ‘alaqah into a
mudghah (chewed substance), then We made out of that
mudghah bones (skeleton), the We clothed the bones
with flesh (muscles), then We develop out of him
another creation [i.e. fetus which grows and has
soul]. So blessed be Allah the best to
create." (Q. 23:12-14) stage at when the embryo is at 24-25 days. state is when the embryo is at 26-27 days
We notice that at the „alaqah stage which lasts at 24-25 days there is similarity between a leech and an embryo, suspending in the womb, and looked like a blood clot because of the presence of a large amount of blood at this stage. Therefore, the three meanings of are all included in the above verse,
The truth of the Qur‟ān is absolute, as it is from Allah the Creator. The truth of science is relative based on research and investigation. The more knowledge you have, the deeper understanding of the Qur‟ān you will have, and the more your faith will increase, that the Qur‟ān is truly from Allah. Allah said:
"And that those on whom knowledge has been bestowed
may learn that the Qur‘ān is the truth from your Lord, and that
they may believe therein, and their hearts may be made
humbly (open) to it; for verily Allah is Guide of those
who believe to the straight way." (Q. 22:45)
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23. INTERFAITH MARRIAGE
(ANUMA 12 JUNE 2009)
Brothers in Islam,
In my khubah about mixed marriage according to Islam which is actually a respond to a friend‟s request in this matter, he suggested that my sentence “It is prohibited for a non-Muslim male to marry a Muslim female” should be added with “unless he converted to the Islamic faith.” For me, this expression “unless he converted to the Islamic faith” is redundant and unnecessary, because if he converts to Islam he will be no longer non-Muslim, and the prohibition will become nullified. It is like saying, “It is prohibited for a non-Muslim to go to pilgrimage in Makkah unless he converts to Islam, it is prohibited for a Muslim drink alcohol unless he becomes apostate, it is prohibited to proceed when the traffic light is red, unless it turns green.”
The other feedback is that translating the word makrūh as “reprehensible” seems to be a too strong word, as it means “not tolerated, blame, censure” and asked, “Shouldn't „makrūh‟ mean “preferably not but acceptable”? My respond is as follows:
If we go back to the origin of the word makrūh it is derived from the verb
1. kariha – yakrahu –karhan, kurhan, karāhatan, karāhiyatan which means “to feel disgust (at), be disgusted (by); to detest, loath, abhor, hate; to dislike”
2. karuha –yakruhu – karāhatan which means “to be repugnant, offensive, hateful, odious, detestable”
The word makrūh, literally means something “detested, abhorred, hated, hateful, odious, loathsome, disgusting, distasteful, disagreeable, unpleasant” In Islamic law it is translated as “reprehensible, abominable”. In this case, although the word makrūh has also the sense of "preferably not but acceptable" as suggested in the feedback, the word itself indicates
of being discouraged and detested. When something is extremely makrūh it could come to a level close to arām (prohibited), and . However, the lenient meaning of makrūh is “inconvenience, discomfort, nuisance, adversity; accident, mishap, misadventure,30 such as the
30 Arabic-English Dictionary, Hans Wehr, edited by J.M. Cowan, s.v. k.r.h.
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expression meaning “something unpleasant (accident) happened to him.” But this cannot be applied to a Muslim male marrying a non-Muslim female, because marriage is intentional, an act of personal choice and not accidental.
The feed-back also says,
Whilst your article gives an insight into past
mistakes, I feel that it is hard for me to use it as
points to articulate that view. The reason is today's
youth or generation are brought up to reason unlike the
past where people are less educated and do not questions
what they have been asked to do so. This is not to suggest
they are less intelligent but more because they were
brought up in a submissive society. Today's Muslim
youths in Western society are better educated,
independent and is more able to express
and articulate views better than
the older generations.
What he means is our younger generation is brought up to ask the reason for everything, including mixed marriage in Islam. The most difficult question to answer is “why?”, especially if it is Allah‟s prescription: Why should we pray five times, not twice, why should we prostrate twice in every rak‗ah in our prayer, not once, and why should we bow once and not twice? Why is pork arām although we cook it or even burn it into ashes so that no bacteria would survive in it? Allah said
He cannot be questioned as to what He does
while they will be questioned (Q. 21:23)
In our daily life we have to obey the traffic light, you have to stop on red light, although you are sure there is no car approaching, and we do not question it, because we know that it is for our own benefit and safety.
There is danger in mixed marriage, as the gap between Islam and other religions is deep. In Islamic marriage the union between the husband and the wife is supposed to continue to the next world, the Hereafter, that they will be admitted together to Heaven, while in mixed marriage, the non-Muslim wife will not. The Qur‟ān states many times that believers (in Islam and do good things) will enter Heaven (Q. 2:82; 4:124; 7:42; 9:111;
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11:23; 19:60; 29:58; 36:26; 40:40; 43:70; 46:15-16); non-believers, rejecters of Islam called in Islam kāfir, are not only deprived from Heaven, but also will suffer in Hell (Q. 7:40; 2:39, 126, 174-175, and 217; 3:10, and 116; 7:36; 8:14; 9:17; 13:5, and 35; 14:28-30; 21:39; 22:72; 24:57; 33:64-66; 38:27; 39:8; 40:6; 45:31-34; 46:20 and 34; and 64:10).
According to Islam, reason alone is not sufficient to be our guidance in this life, as it has its limitation, and therefore we need revelation. What we think is abnormal in the past may become normal today, such as living together out of wedlock, marriage of the same sex, to mention a few. Allah brings laws to be obeyed called sharī‗ah for our benefit. The objective of the shariah is to preserve: religion, individual life and honour, wealth, family and progeny.
Beware that wealth and children could turn into enemy. This is the warning from Allah, Who says:
O you who believe! Verily, among your wives and
your children there are enemies for you (who may stop
you from the obedience of Allah); therefore beware
of them! But if you pardon (them) and overlook,
and forgive (their faults), then verily, Allah is
Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful (Q.64:14)
Your children may blame you for allowing them interfaith marriage when you know the danger of it in term of the continuation of commitment to Islam.
The other feed-back of a friend is that as we are living in Western society, where most of us are first generation migrants, what are the chances of today Muslim youths marrying someone of their ownfaith? Very slim I must confess.
My response to this argument is that there are many Muslim families who have many sons and daughters of marriageable age, and they have many chances to find each other through parents, friends, Islamic organizations that arrange match-making.
It is true that the companions of the Prophet s.a.w. when they migrated to spread Islam did have any fear in their mind of mixed marriage, as they were scholars of Islam and had strong faith, unlike the youth of present generation living in the West where many if not most of them have limited knowledge and faith in Islam.
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Becoming a Muslim and embracing Islam is a commitment, as it is a way of life. There are many prescriptions to be followed, such as establishing the five-daily prayers, abstaining from alcohol, eating port and gambling, total surrender to the will of God (Allah). One does not become a Muslim just to marry a Muslim girl without following its teachings.
24. HEARING AND SEEING IN THE QUR‟ĀN
(ANUMA, 24 October 08)
Brothers in Islam,
When Allah mentions the sense of hearing and the sense of seeing in one verse, He mentions the sense of hearing first, and in singular number, )al-sam‗ not in plural which is al-asmā‗). Then he mentions the sense of seeing in plural, al-abār, (the plural of al-bas.ar). Allah says in the Qur‟ān:
Say (O Muhammad), ―Who provides for you from the sky and
the earth? Or who owns hearing and sight? And who brings out the
living from the dead and brings out the dead from the living? And who
disposes the affairs?‖ They will say ―Allah.‖ Say: ―Will you not
then be afraid of Allah‘s punishment (for setting up
rivals in worship with Allah)?‖ (Q. 10:31)
And Allah has brought you out from the wombs of your mothers while
you know nothing. And He gave you hearing, sight, and hearts
that you might give thanks (to Allah). (Q. 16:78)
It is He Who has created for you (the sense of) hearing
(ears), eyes (sight), and hearts (understanding).
Little thanks you give. (Q. 23:78)
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.
And He gave you hearing (ears), sight (eyes) and
hearts. Little is the thanks you give! (Q. 32:9)
We notice that in the five verses above, the term al-sam‗ (hearing) is mentioned before the term al-abs.ār (sight), and that al-sam‗ is in singular number (not in its plural which is al-asmā‗) and al-abs.ār (sight) in plural (not in singular number which is al-bas.ār). Hearing is in singular, whereas sight is in plural. The verses above do not say in singular, or in plural, except one verse where both words are used in singular number, as follows:
And follow not that of which you have no knowledge. Verily,
the hearing [i.e. ears], and the sight [i.e., eyes], and the heart,
of each of those one will be questioned (by Allah). (Q. 17:36)
]
Here Allah uses the three words in singular, hearing, seeing, and heart, all will be responsible for what they did in the world.
In other verses Allah says:
They are those upon whose hearts, hearing and sight Allah
has set a seal. And they are the heedless! (Q. 16:108)
Till, when they reach it (Hell-fire), their hearing [i.e. ears]
and their eyes, and their skins will testify against
them as to what they used to do. (Q. 41:20).
Again, in the above two verses the hearing is mentioned before sight (seeing), and in the expression hearing is in singular whereas sight is in plural. Similar verses are as follows:
And you have not been hiding yourselves (in the world),
lest your hearing [i.e. ears], and your sight [i.e., eyes],
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and your skins should testify against you; but you
thought that Allah knew not much of what
you were doing. (Q. 41:22)
And indeed We had firmly established them with that
wherewith We have not established you (O Quraysh)! And
We have assigned them the (facility of) hearing (ears), seeing
(eyes), and hearts; but their hearing (ears), seeing (eyes),
and their hearts availed them nothing since they used to
deny the āyāt of Allah, and they were completely
encircled by that which they used to
mock at! (Q. 46:26).
We have seen from the verses mentioned above that hearing is mentioned before sight (seeing), and hearing is used in singular number, whereas sight (seeing) is used in plural number, except in one verse where hearing and sight (seeing) are in singular number where it is mentioned that both will be questioned by Allah in the Hereafter. This difference could be ignored and neglected in translating these verses into other languages. This is one example indicating the importance of knowing Arabic in order to have deeper understanding of the verses of the Qur‟ān.
What is the wisdom behind these phenomena of mentioning the word sam‗ (hearing) before the word bas.ar (sight), and using the hearing in singular and the sight (seeing) in plural? Is there any preference here, that hearing is more important than seeing, that the ears are more important than the eyes? Suppose we are to choose between hearing and seeing, living in a noisy but totally dark world, or a bright but totally silent one? It is said that 90% of our knowledge comes through our eyes, and that seeing is believing. We would choose seeing. The eye sight is so important that in Arabic language a person who calls his beloved one “O my beloved one” also calls him “O my eye,” indicating that the beloved one is so precious to him like his own eye. However, there is something more important than eyesight; it is insight. When „Abdullah ibn „Abbās, the Prophet‟s cousin became blind at his old age, probably suffering from cataract, Mu„āwiyah ibn Abī Sufān who turned the caliphate into a dynasty
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by appointing his son Yazīd to succeed him, said one day to Ibn „Abbās: “O you, Banī ‟l-„Abbās clan, you have lost your eyesight” . Ibn „Abbās answered back, “And you, O Banī Umayyah clan, you have lost your insight (mental vision)
So, what is then the significance of mentioning hearing before mentioning seeing in the Qur‟ān? Shaykh Muhammad Mutawallī al-Sha„rāwī, who was the Minister of Awqāf (Endowments) and the Affairs of al-Azhar in late 1980s, gives us some explanation of it. He says that when a person loses his eyesight he loses everything, and lives permanently in darkness; he cannot see anything, and he will strike and bang against anything on his way. A person who loses his hearing still can see, he faces less danger than a person losing his eyesight. But when Allah mentions “hearing” He always mentions it first before mentioning “seeing” which is one of the miracles of the Qur‟an (i‗jāz al-Qur‘ān). The reasons, according to Shaykh al-Sha„rāwī, are as follows:
1. When a baby is born his ears function earlier than his eyes. He can hear, but he cannot see. If you make a noise when a baby is just born he will be disturbed and cry. But if you put your hand close to his eyes he will not move and will not sense any danger, because he is still blind, his eyes do not function yet.
2. When a person is asleep his eyes totally stop functioning. He cannot see anything, and yet, (to some extent) he still can hear. If you want to wake him up, just make a noise, and he will be awake. Some people cannot sleep, even with a slight noise, let alone hearing some-
one snoring. This reminds me of the case of mothers who are sleeping beside their babies, they will keep sleeping when they hear the noise of passing cars, and so on, but will be awake when they hear their babies crying.
3. Ears and hearing are the link between man and this world. If the ears totally stop functioning, his link with the world will also stop, like the case of as.h.āb al-kahf (the people who ran away from their king‟s persecution and took refuge in a cave, where he fell asleep for hundreds of years). Allah says in the Qur‟an,
So we cast [a cover of sleep] over their ears within
the cave for a number of years…(Q. 18:11)
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Because their ears were covered and totally stopped functioning, no noise would disturb them from their deep sleep. These are the reasons why Allah mentions the word “hearing” before the word “seeing” in the Qur‟ān.
With regard to the verses in the Qur‟ān where Allah mentions “hearing” in singular number (sam‗), whereas “seeing” (abs.ār) in plural, Shaykh al-Sha„rāwī gives us his explanation as follows:
Seeing can be controlled by man. He will see when he opens his eyes, and he will not see if he closes his eyes. He can control what to see and what not to see by closing his eyes or by turning his face away from something he does not want to see. No so with his ears. If he is inside a room where many people talk, he cannot control his ears and listen only to the voice he wants to hear. He will hear every voice and sound, whether he wants it or not. He cannot choose the sound or voice he wants to hear. He has no choice with his ears, he can ignore the voice or sound, and yet, it reaches his ears, whereas with his eyes, he can choose what and whom to see and not to see. Everybody in the room hears the same thing, one thing only, the sound, the noise. So, Allah put “hearing” in singular number (mufrad). But these people in the same room see different things; one person is looking at the other person he is talking to, another person is looking at the pictures hanging on the wall, etc., they look at and see different things in the room. There are various seeing and objects of seeing. A person can stop seeing by closing his eyes, but those people in the room will keep hearing every sound in it, as if they have one and the
same “hearing” For this reason, according to Shaykh al-Sha„rāwī, Allah mentions “seeing” is plural, abs.ār, the plural of baar.
In conclusion, Shaykh al-Sha„rāwī says that Allah makes preference of the sense of “hearing” over the sense of “seeing” in the Qur‟ān by mentioning it earlier, because “hearing” keeps functioning, does not sleep, and a thing which does not sleep is in higher position than the one that sleeps. “Hearing” starts functioning at earlier age, since the baby was born, whereas “seeing” develops later. The ears keep functioning while we are sleeping, as we can wake up any time by any noise. The ears keep functioning days and nights, whereas the eyes can only function with the presence of light, and therefore cannot see in the dark. Moreover, in the Hereafter it is the ears who will function first when the angel Israfil, the angel who will sound the trumpet on the Day of Resurrection.
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