When Islamic civilization was at its zenith, non-Muslim students from all across Europe sought education at Islamic universities in places like Muslim Spain, Turkey, and Egypt. Their impression of the Islamic civilization was such that they would imitate most of its aspects. When Roger Bacon (one of the founding fathers of British educational system) returned to Britain after studying at the Islamic universities, he was so fond of Muslim dress and Arabic books some of his contemporaries called him "Muhammad Bacon". However, with the passage of time the wheel of history turned leading to the decline of the Muslim power and civilization. Not only did Muslims loose their freedom, they also had to go through one of the most damaging experiences forced upon them losing the right to educate themselves the way they believe they should. Neil Postman (an American writer and intellectual) writes in his book Conscientious Objections that: "Every age has its own special forms of imperialism. And so does each conqueror. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the British mastered the art, their method of invasion was to send their navy, then their army, then their administrators, and finally their educational system."1
a Using this methodology, and claiming that its purpose was to help Muslims achieve modernity since they are not capable of achieving it on their own, Britain dismantled the educational systems of its Muslim colonies. Hence, the Islamic schools in these countries, where both Islamic and secular sciences used to be taught simultaneously, were rendered ineffective. Some Muslim historians indicate that Al-Jami'ah al-Yusufiyah (Yusufiyah University) of Marrakech, Morocco, was the last Muslim educational institution to be ‘conquered' by the Western imperialism. Ever since, a network of schools and colleges based on the British educational system spread throughout the Muslim lands.
In all those schools and colleges, sooner or later, the same moral diseases, which had already infested the British and then, American schools and colleges, started to emerge. Chief among those illnesses is the malady of coeducation, which refers to the educational system in which boys and girls are taught in the same classroom in schools and colleges. On the other hand, some Muslim countries in their blind imitation of the Western educational models, adopted coeducation and implemented it in their school systems a trend prophesized by Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam, in an authentic hadeeth narrated by Abu Sa'id al-Khudri: "You will surely follow in the ways of those before you, inch by inch and step by step, so much so that if they were to enter an iguana's [a large lizard] hole, you would follow after them." (Muslim)
In the following discussion, the negative effects of coeducation and the benefits of single-sex education will be briefly presented in light of religion and modern science.
Coeducation: An Islamic View
Islam has given the Muslims a superior and comprehensive social system in which there is no room for unnecessary and reckless mixed gatherings.And based on its realistic approach to the human nature, Islam is perfectly aware of the fact that free mixing of men and women breeds moral vices which are significantly culpable in the destruction of the moral fabric of many societies, as past and present societal experiences reveal. In the Qur'an, Allah says the following to the believing men and women: "Tell the believing men to lower their gaze (from looking at forbidden things), and guard their modesty. That is purer for them.Verily, Allah is All-Aware of what they do. And tell the believing women to lower their gaze (from looking at forbidden things), and guard their modesty and not to reveal their adornment." [24: 30-31] After these verses in the surah of an-Noor, details of women's modesty inside the home are provided. Similarly, in the surah of al-Ahzab (verse 59), the commandments regarding a Muslim female's dress outside the home or Hijab are given. Likewise,Allah gave the commandment in the surah of al-Israa (verse 32): "And come not near to adultery (or fornication), verily, it is a shameful deed and an evil way (that leads to other evils)," which clearly closes all back-doors to deviant human desires and illicit behavior.
Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam, said, "Verily, I have been sent as a teacher." (Tirmithi) The Companion Muawiyah ibnul Hakam as-Sulami said about the Prophet: "I have neither seen any teacher before Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam, nor after him, who could teach better than him." (Muslim) For sure, the Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam, was the most successful teacher in the human history-who raised great students like Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, Umar ibnul Khattab, Ali ibn Abi Talib, Ibn Abbas, Aisha and many others who followed, and remained faithful to, his guidance in the field of education as well as in other walks of life. The teaching method of the Prophet did not include coeducation; for we learn from his Sunnah that he had appointed a separate day for the education of male Companions and another for the education of female Companions.
Moreover, the teaching method of Aisha, the mother of the believers, involved teaching male students from behind a curtain. In fact, a look at the Islamic history shows that the Islamic learning institutions, up to the university level,were separate for males and females or, at least, there used to be a separation between the two.
Islam is deeply aware of the differences between males and females with respect to psychological development. The Qur'an has clearly stated that males and females are not the same: "And the male is not like the female." [3:36]
The difference to which this verse refers is of wide range. Essentially, it refers to the biological, emotional and psychological differences between the two genders. There is no doubt that men and women have different biological traits that results in a number of differences in their respective developmental and learning patterns throughout their lives. The growth spurt of girls in the adolescent stage has been showed to be faster than that of boys. Biological processes do really affect and influence psychological tendencies. Due to the inherent biological differences between males and females, variation in their psychological tendencies and dispositions is inevitable.
An Alien Idea
Coeducation is an alien idea to the Islamic society. In fact coeducation is a by-product of the Western thought and its educational system.This system of education originated in the earlier part of the twentieth century in Scotland and was then taken up by several private and state-aided schools in England. Later, it was also adopted by the schools and colleges in the United States of America. In the 1950's, followers of the feminist movement started to propagate a broad-based idea of coeducation that will allow women to not only work with men side-by-side in the society, but to sit with them cheek by jowl in the schools and colleges.Today, this task has been taken up by many of the NGO's (Non-Governmental Organizations) working in the Muslim countries.Meanwhile, in the West, the continuous failures that have characterized its experimentation with the idea of coeducation over the previous 30 years have prompted some Western intellectuals to seriously consider the option of single-sex education.
Benefits of Coeducation as Advanced by its Advocates
Before discussing the problem with coeducation and highlighting the merits of single-sex education, it is necessary to consider coeducation in light of modern science, to present a more complete picture of the issue at hand. So, what do the advocates of coeducation say regarding the benefits of mixed-gender education?
In a five-year longitudinal study of single-sex schools becoming coeducational, reported in the 1989 issue of the Journal of Educational Psychology (vol. 81), Australian researcher Prof. H.W. Marsh looked at the advantages of coeducation and found out that there appeared to be some socialization benefits that can be achieved from coeducation.In addition, those benefits were not at the expense of academic achievement for either girls or boys.
In the same vein, in a study conducted by the Australian Research Council, researcher Ian David Smith of the School of Education Psychology (University of Sydney) measured academic achievement of both boys and girls at two Sydney high schools which had turned into coeducational schools. The study found that the academic performance of boys and girls did not change when they went from single-sex schools to mixed-sex schools. Similarly, researchers Robinson & Smithers (Research Papers in Education, 1999, vol. 14) argued in favor of coeducation on the basis that it is more realistic to everyday life when they stated: "It has been suggested that educating the sexes together is more like real life, and the experience of growing up with the opposite sex makes it easier to move on to the mixed environments of university and employment."
In addition, advocates of coeducation claim that educating girls side by side with boys does not harm the fundamental traits of the girls' feminine nature. A girl will not become masculine because she has been educated in a boys' school.The presence of both genders together in the class will have a wholesome effect on their character.According to the supporters of coeducation, mixed-gender education leads to improved social and personal development. Both girls and boys meet regularly to discuss their progress in a co-ed class. In so doing they learn that ‘equality' does not mean ‘sameness'- that men and women often have different perspectives on the same issues and that each gender has a great deal to offer the other. There may be some truth in the claims made by the proponents of coeducation. Nothing in this world is one hundred percent evil. Everything has harms and benefits associated with it. However, the approach of Islamic Shari'ah includes, among other things, weighing out the benefits and harms of things.This has been mentioned in the Qur'an clearly in the case of alcohol-drinking and gambling: "They ask you (O Muhammad) concerning alcoholic drink and gambling. Say:
‘In them is a great sin, and (some) benefit for men, but the sin of them is greater than their benefit.'" [2:219] Hence, in the case of alcohol and gambling, the Qur'an acknowledges that there are some benefits for people but at the same time, asserts that there are much more harms to the individuals as well as the society than these benefits. It is for this reason that Islamic law does not make alcohol and gambling permissible. Similarly, in the case of coeducation, there may be benefits such as socialization and self-confidence in the presence of the members of opposite sex, but the harms of mixed-gender education are much more than its benefits.This belief of ours will be further substantiated and furnished by corroborating facts and statistics below.
Psychological Harms of Coeducation
Placing boys and girls in the same class can be disadvantageous and harmful for both, psychologically as well as biologically. Famous Islamic scholar and theologian, Imam Ibn Hazm (d. 456 AH), in his book Tawq al-Hamamah (The Neck-Ring of the Dove), which is about the art, practice and psychology of love and lovers, describes some of the things that take place in mixed gatherings of women and men as "strange and uncommon" to imply a change in the psyche and attitude (thus behavior) prompted by the situation. Although they might seem simplistic, Ibn Hazm's observations and findings are supported and elaborated by modern scientific research.
In his book Men and Marriage, the American author and intellectual, George Gilder, notes that boys and girls attain puberty earlier when they are in coeducation environment.
The production of male hormone, testosterone, is increased to 20 times than normal in male adolescents and, as a consequence, they suffer from severe mental and sexual agitation. Similarly, female hormones production increases in adolescent girls and as a consequence, they suffer from lethargy and depression.At puberty, the limbic system (area of the brain) is stimulated by the surge of those sex hormones, which affects the behavior of both sexes. In such conditions, most of them think perpetually about the opposite sex. In the words of George Gilder, "First and most important, most of the boys and a good number of the girls are thinking about the opposite sex most of the time. If you do not believe this, you are a dreamer." It is interesting to note that feelings of men and women toward each other stay the same in colleges and universities. In the learning institutions where there is coeducation, loveaffairs and courtships are common.
Structural Differences in the Brains of Boys and Girls
Science has shown that long before the birth of the child, the sex hormones released in the womb of his/her mother induce specific, permanent and different developmental effects on the growing brains of the male and female child. For example, during pregnancy, the testicles of a developing baby-boy release as much testosterone (male sex hormone) as the amount produced by a young adult man. These sex hormones bind to the brain tissue of the fetus and permanently and irreversibly transform his brain. Furthermore, researchers Reuwen and Anat Achiron showed in a research paper, published in the medical journal, Prenatal Diagnosis (2001 issue), that the brain of an unborn baby-girl can be distinguished from a male brain during a regular ultrasound exam of women who are 26 weeks pregnant. Similarly, when a group of scientists compared the brain tissues of infant children, they found significant differences between the brains of boys and the brains of girls. So striking are the differences in the photomicrographs of the brain tissues of male and female children they are easily visible to the naked human eye. Interestingly, this research which was published in the year 2000 issue of Developmental Brain Research Journal was headed by a female research scientist Dr. Maria Cordero.
In the same vein, female researcher Dr.Tracey Shors of Rutgers University (U.S.A.) and her associates concluded, based on a study they conducted on male and female brains, that the nature of male brain is such that when it is under stress, its learning ability increases, whereas the learning ability of a female brain is impaired and reduced when it is exposed to stress (PNAS, Oct. 15, 2002). This finding indicates that boys need discipline and separate-sex environment for their abilities to be sharpened. Conversely, girls require a lenient environment for studying. This is also due to the fact that girls, whether children or grown ups, are very adept at face-reading. In a research published in the Journal of Genetic Psychology (vol. 154), a group of researchers at Wellesley College did a study on young children and found that 3-yearold girls have the ability to interpret facial expressions better than the 5-year-old boys. Obviously, this result indicates that girls can judge the signs of anger and irritation on the teacher's face. Boys, on the other hand, are very poor in this ability and, therefore, need admonishment.
Boys and Girls Learn Differently
Dr. Harriot Hanlan, a female scientist at Virginia Tech University, analyzed the male and female brain activity in a research conducted on 284 boys and 224 girls ranging from age 6 months to 16 years. Dr. Hanlan came to a conclusion that in girls, the brain centers that are related to language abilities are six (6) years more advanced as compared to those centers in boys. On the other hand, the spatial memory of boys is 4 years more advanced as compared to girls. It is for this reason that boys and girls learn languages, mathematics and geography differently. Similarly, boys develop digital coordination of hands nine months after girls. This is so because the nerves in the boys' fingers develop later as compared to the nerves in girls' fingers. Digital coordination of hands is important in activities such as holding the pencil and good hand-writing. To sum up, what really matters here is that these developmental differences often leads educators, teachers, and parents to unfairly sidelining boys as slow or dumb and
planting a seed of distaste for school in those boys as early as the first grade. But the gulf of learning differences between boys and girls increases with time more evidently so in the coeducation environment. Under such circumstances, one wonders how could the two sexes be placed in the same classroom for learning?!
Different Hearing Abilities of Boys and Girls
In researches carried out over the past 40 years, scientists have shown that right from childhood, the female sense of hearing is about four times better than the hearing ability in males.This finding has been affirmed in a recent research conducted by two female scientists, Dr. Jane Cassidy and Dr.
Karen Ditty, and published in the Journal of Music Therapy in 2001.When these two female scientists conducted a study on 350 newborns, they found that young girls have better hearing ability than boys of same age. This difference in the male and female hearing capacities has deep implications during their education. For example, in a mixed-gender classroom in which girls are sitting in the front rows and boys in the backrows, if the teacher speaks in a gentle and low voice, boys will engage in acts of naughtiness because they cannot hear the teacher. Conversely, if the teacher speaks with a loud voice so that the boys could hear him, the girls (whose sense of hearing is already four times stronger than boys) sitting in the front rows will feel as if the teacher is drilling in their ears.
Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D., founder and director of the National Association for Single-Sex Public Education, author of "Why Gender Matters", a family doctor and psychologist, argues that due to the hard-wired differences between boys and girls, it can become impossible for both genders to learn successfully in the classroom together. In one interview, Dr. Sax noted: "Almost every substantial choice you have to make will benefit one gender and disadvantage another." He further added that "girls hear better than boys and that part of boys' reasons for falling behind is simply that they can't hear the teacher." Needless to say, such problems do not exist in single-sex classrooms.
Long-Range Harmful Effects of Coeducation
On May 26, 2003, Business Week (one of the most prestigious magazines in the U.S.) printed a powerful article under the title, "The New Gender Gap" written by Michelle Collins, a female journalist. In that article, Michele noted the fact that there has been a continuous decline in the education of men in the past 20 years. Actually, she wrote, in the Western countries, a wide section of boys do not make it to college after finishing their high schools.The reason, she explains, lies in the fact that coeducation provides an unnatural and often feminine educational environment, and as a result, many boys get disappointed and lose their focus on education-some even react in negative ways as they try to show their manhood by committing crimes and resorting to violence. Furthermore, since 1970 as the number of coeducation schools increased in the U.S.A., suicide rates amongst young boys rose by three folds.
To add insult to injury, when teachers in the coeducation environment observe that boys (in comparison to girls) usually have hard time sitting in one place to learn, they commonly identify them as having the disease known as ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and some of these children end up taking drugs such as "Ritalin". In fact, about 80% of the Ritalin used in the whole world is given to children "diagnosed" with ADD in the U.S.A. Of course this is what the reality is, but lest we forget, this is also happening while the U.S.A. is leading the world in the area of coeducation.What is more important is that Ritalin use has increased 500% over the past decade, leading some to call it the new K-12 management tool. According to Paul R.Wolpe, a psychiatry professor at the University of Pennsylvania, there are school districts where 20% to 25% of the boys are on that drug.Wolpe notes, "Ritalin is a response to an artificial social context that we've created for children." The fact of the matter remains that, I believe, the children are not the ones who are sick, rather, it is the mixed-gender educational system that is sick and is in need of treatment.What most of us are not aware of is the appalling situation of children with similar psychological and emotional conditions in the many third world countries that follow coeducation systems.
Because coeducation environment creates similar cases of depression and lack of focus in these children, they show similar behavior to that of the children in American schools, but instead of getting Ritalin, they end up getting harsh physical punishment.The teachers assume that these children just do not like to learn and respect school's discipline so they punish them-to enforce discipline and change their behavior.
In summarizing the harmful effects of coeducation, George Gilder has this to say in his book Men and Marriage:
"Adolescent boys are radically different from adolescent girls. The boys, for example, are at the pinnacle of sexual desire and aggressiveness. In school, what they chiefly need is male discipline and challenge; ideally, without girls present to distract them. Girls, on the other hand, are less aggressive and sexually compulsive at this stage and are more willing to study without rigid policing and supervision. Thus a classroom that contains both boys and girls will hurt both." And a question remains to be answered: to what extent this harm may go and at what expense, when this system of education is forced upon the children for their lifelong schooling? Especially for parents and educators, before giving any answers, there is much for them to learn and reflect upon.
The Success of Single-Sex Education: Practical Evidence
Apart from Muslim countries-where education is still mostly a single-sex-classroom-based system (same curricula but separate classrooms)-and after experiencing the deleterious effects of coeducation, many countries in the West have recently started experimenting with the singlesex education system. An overwhelming majority of the people affected by this change indicated that seeing and experiencing the changes brought by applying single-sex education system in their schools helped them truly appreciate the idea and understand it better. Benjamin Wright, principal of the Thurgood Marshall Elementary School in Seattle,Washington, turned his previously co-ed school into one with separate-sex classrooms. Mr. Wright stated that previously in coeducation, most of the teachers' time was wasted in resolving issues arising from boys teasing the girls and vice versa. However, now in separate-sex environment, they are in fact teaching knowledge to the children. Mr. Wright also noted that in the state-level exams which were held in Washington in 2002 (The Washington Assessment of Student Learning), their school boys who were previously being taught under the coeducation system and were scoring 10%, increased their scores to 73%, courtesy of singlesex education, an outstanding success indeed.
Testimonials from Around the World
Jamaica
Single-sex education is quite common in the Caribbean country, Jamaica. In a large study of Jamaican schools published in the 1985 issue of the International Journal of Science Education, it was shown that girls at single-sex high schools performed much better in mathematics and science as compared to those girls who were studying at co-ed high schools.The study concluded that "the effects of sex stereotyping are more sharply apparent in the coeducational setting, for here there appears to be a stronger need to differentiate between the sexes.Thus, even if subjects such as mathematics and sciences are technically available to girls in this type of school [mixed gender school], they are more likely than their single-sex institutional counterparts to get the message that such subjects are unfeminine and beyond their grasp intellectually." Another very interesting study which confirms this contention is conducted in Britain by Lawrie and Brown who surveyed 284 students of the age group 14-15. The study findings, which were published in the 1992 issue of the British Journal of Educational Psychology, arrived at similar results as the above-mentioned research. Lawrie and Brown found that students at all-girls' schools reported enjoying math more, and found math less difficult, as compared to the girls who attended co-ed schools.Girls at the all-girls schools were more than twice as likely to say that they planned to take advanced math, compared to girls at co-ed schools.
Canada
Another shining example of the success of single-sex education comes from the inner-city James Lyng High School in Montreal, Canada that was a coeducational institution in the past. Five years ago, single-sex classrooms were introduced in the school and since then, students' absenteeism has declined, pass scores are higher and the number of students going on from this school to college has nearly doubled. All this is due to the blessings of single-sex education. Our next testimony from Canada is taken from a report published by the Montreal Gazette, the most widely circulated newspaper in Montreal, Canada, in its October 1999 issue titled: "Let's Separate Boys, Girls in Classes". This article reports on research conducted by the Superior Educational Council of Quebec and its final recommendation to the Canadian government advising it to end coeducation in its public schools and have them adopt the old system of the 1940s when schools separated males from females and even had separate entrances for boys and girls to the school buildings.The head of this educational council Celine Saint-Pierre (a female) was quoted as saying: "There is plenty of evidence that boys and girls learn differently." Celine further added that education should be separate-gender based, otherwise boys and girls will keep on getting weaker in their studying and the Quebec society will have to suffer its bitter consequences in the future. In addition, the article reported the council as being very concerned about the state of education in the province; quoting their statement that "Quebec is headed for a social crisis, a situation where males won't be able to get jobs in a knowledge-based economy."
Australia
In July 2003, a conference of educational experts was held in Sydney,Australia, where several speakers presented evidence that the boys who are educated in single-sex schools may do far better in terms of maturity and social adjustment than boys who attend coeducation schools.Dr. Bruce Cook, principal of the Southport School on the Gold Coast, told the audience of his experiences and observations that boys educated in singlesex schools prove to be better husbands in the future because, due to absence of girls around them in schools and colleges, they do not have to adopt a ‘masculine' attitude. Hence, boys in single-sex schools "become more sensitive men."
Personal Testimonials
We conclude this telling reportage of the news the development and growth of the single-sex educational systems is making by the following personal testifications to the benefits of single-sex education.
The first anecdote and good example is found in the personal experience of a known contemporary Western historian, Steven Miles. Dr. Miles put in plain words, in an interview, how attending a single-sex high school was a turning point in his life. He believes his attendance of a separate-gender school to be the main reason his abilities flourished and, eventually, he did his PhD in history. He said: "I began high school more shy than most adolescents. But I did take the enormous step of joining the speech team, and that opened a new world to me. It led me to other activities...I strongly believe that they made possible the development of interests and skills that led me to undertake a PhD in history. When I think back on the catalyst-joining the speech team-and I consider the fact that forensics in Illinois is dominated by girls, about 70/30, I cannot imagine that I would have joined the team in a co-ed school...I needed the chance to explore my own potential without worrying about looking foolish in front of the girls."
In a recent Newsweek article (October 24, 2005) titled, "With No Boys to Ogle,We Had Time To Learn," Christine Flowers wrote of her experiences as an undergraduate student at Bryn Mawr College (which follows separate-sex education at undergraduate level). She was exceedingly happy to get admission at Bryn Mawr, especially because it gave her the opportunity to extend her 12 years of single-sex education into 16. According to Flowers, "...it's far too distracting to have a member of the opposite sex sitting in class beside you." She went on, describing her female college mates: "At Bryn Mawr, the women I encountered were brilliant, independent and focused. Not all of them arrived that way, as this writer can confirm, but all of them exited confident of success in whichever fields they chose to enter." Studying at a separate-gender educational institution encouraged Christine Flowers to concentrate on her studies as she points out: "I immersed myself in French and Italian, history and philosophy, fencing and swimming. I never once worried about whether I was going to have a date on Friday night (I never once did), nor did I hesitate to contribute a comment in class because I felt intimidated by the attractive young man to my left...Bryn Mawr [college] helped me to understand that excellence has no gender preference." Flowers further clarifies that females are not the only ones who benefit from single-sex education. Educating the two genders in separate classes is beneficial for boys as well, and Christine Flowers' experience as a school teacher stands testimony to this fact as she writes: "I used to teach at a boys' school in suburban Philadelphia, and while I'm certain that my teenage scholars weren't completely unaware of female charms, they did seem to focus admirably on their schoolwork between the hours of 8 and 3...The ability to spend a few hours concentrating on developing their minds and not their social skills should take precedence over some misguided urge to integrate."
Summary and Conclusion
Evidence based on scientific research and empirical studies has been briefly presented and discussed in this article to support the claim that single-sex educational systems are best suited to the human fitrah and the function of education in the human life.The article also pointed out the negative effects of coeducation and the fact that it is an unnatural and artificial social construct with more harms than advantages. Boys and girls need separate training to suit their different rates of physical, intellectual and emotional growth. Research has shown that this gender gap in education extends from primary school to undergraduate levels at university. However, it becomes much more intense when boys and girls reach their adolescent age and then it continues in the higher classes. Single-sex schools provide better environments for young people where they remain free from the pull of the opposite sex.This differ-ence in the psychological make-up results in a huge difference in the way the two sexes learn in a class and in the way members of the two genders influence the learning of one another while present in the same classroom. It must be noted that Islam cares much for the preservation of morals and the maintenance of modesty and chastity in the Muslim society.To achieve this goal, Islam requires the highest degree of cautiousness when dealing with the members of the opposite sex. A Muslim is always asked to distance himself from any thing that stirs his sexual urge. Islam forbids free intermingling of sexes in the society. Islam has the basic requirement of young men and women maintaining the purity of their sexual lives from the very beginning. Muslim adolescents are specifically asked to maintain a safe distance from the opposite sex for their own benefit. Islam is a religion that is in complete accordance with human nature. Islam emphasizes the upbringing of children in an environment that would preserve their ‘fitrah' (inherent Islamic nature) state. If children or youth attend mixed-gender classes in education, there are good chances they will be exposed to acts that may tarnish their whole worldview of sexual morality.They may even lose the ability to distinguish between modesty and indecency, morality and immorality, chastity and promiscuity.
The Islamic approach to dealing with vice and corruption in the society is, as we stated above, to nip the evil in the bud. This can be better understood by learning about the wellknown principle of Islamic law called: sadd baab ath-Tharai'( i.e., blocking or narrowing means/ways that lead to commission of sins). According to this principle, if an act or event is capable of leading you to sin, you should avoid it even if it were not a sin in itself. It is due to this principle
that Islam always discourages free-mixing of the sexes, which includes coeducation as well. Imam Ibnul Qayyim writes in his I'lamul Muwaqieen (vol. 2) about this Islamic principle thus: "The Islamic principle known as sadd baab ath-tharai', means that some of the permissible acts (mubahat) are sometimes forbidden lest they serve as back doors for commission of prohibited acts. For instance, exchanging gifts among Muslims is a recommended Sunnah act, but it is forbidden to present gifts to a government official for fear that it might lead to bribery and corruption. Also, to ogle the face of a woman (who is not one's mahram) is prohibited because such intense staring is capable of sowing the germs of fornication in the heart."
In coeducation environments, students have more opportunity and temptations to go astray.They cannot maintain the right etiquette of intermingling as prescribed by the Islamic Shari'ah, at all times during school hours. Also, students in coeducation schools might become more consumed by how they appear or present themselves to the opposite sex than by their studies. Perhaps this is what many sociologists refer to on the subject of friendship between man and woman: that it is difficult to have pure friendship between the two, because the more friendship deepens, the more the instincts find their way to physical expression between the man and the woman.
Educational systems should not overlook the fundamental differences, in nature and role, between man and women. Ignorance of these differences has led the advocates of Feminism to believe that both sexes should have the same responsibilities, and hence the same type of education. Nothing can be more absurd.A man may learn cooking but he cannot bear a child. Similarly, a woman may handle a machine-gun but she cannot replace the role of men in real combat situations. God has meant for human beings, males and females, to be effective and creative soul nurturers and nation builders each in his/her own capacity and in ways that are most effective and best fitting to his/her innate nature.
References
1.Postman, Neil (1992). Conscientious Objections: Stirring up Trouble about
Language,Technology and Education. New York,Vintage Books
2. Tawq al-Hamamah quoted in:Abu Zahra, Muhammad (1989). Life of
Imam Ibn Hazm. Lahore, Sheikh Ghulam Ali & Sons Ltd
3. Gilder, George (2001). Men and Marriage. Louisiana, Pelican
Publishing Company
4. Shores,Tracey J. & Miesegaes, George (Oct. 15, 2002)."Testosterone in utero and at birth dictates how stressful experience will affect learning in adulthood." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99: 13955-
13960
5. Boyatzis, Chris, Chazan, E. & Ting, C.Z. (1993)."Preschool children's decoding of facial emotions." Journal of Genetic Psychology 154: 375-382
6. Cassidy, Jane & Ditty, Karen (2001)."Gender differences among newborns on a transient otoacoustic emissions test for hearing." Journal of
Music Therapy 38: 28-35
7. Horsey, Jen "Boys continue to struggle with reading and writing".
(Toronto (CP) Quoted in: (www.singlesexschools.org
8. Conlin, Michelle (March 26, 2003).The New Gender Gap: From kindergarten to grad school, boys are becoming the second sex. (Cover story)
BusinessWeek online
9. Conlin, Michelle (March 26, 2003).The New Gender Gap: From kindergarten to grad school, boys are becoming the second sex. (Cover story)
BusinessWeek online
10. Gilder, George (2001). Men and Marriage. Louisiana, Pelican
Publishing Company
11. Hamilton, Harriet (1985)."Performance levels in science and other subjects for Jamaican adolescents attending single-sex and Coeducation al high schools." International Journal of Science Education 69(4): 535-547.
12. Lawrie, L. & Brown, R. (1992)."Sex stereotypes, school subject preferences adn career aspirations as a function of single/mixed-sex schooling and preference/absence of an opposite sex sibling." British Journal of Educational Psychology 62: 132-138.
13. Horsey, Jen "Boys continue to struggle with reading and writing".
(Toronto (CP) Quoted in: (www.singlesexschools.org)
14. Sydney Morning Herald (July 6, 2003). Quoted in: (www.singlesexschools. org)
15. Single-Sex Education. (www.singlesexschools.org)
16. Flowers, Christine (October 24, 2005).With No Boys to Ogle,We Had
Time to Learn. Newsweek.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
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Friday, October 31, 2008
Falling into Sin
by Anonymous
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FALLING INTO SIN
al-Jumu'ah Magazine
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IN TODAY'S SOCIETY, WHAT CAN ONE DO TO PROTECT HIS EMAAN, IMPROVE HIS
CHARACTER AND BE THE MUSLIM HE WANTS TO BE?
As one of only two Muslims in a small Kentucky town one summer, it was
hard not to notice the stares. Coming from a mostly Muslim setting, it
was a difficult adjustment for the sixth-grader visiting Christian
relatives. "I felt I went from being a perfectly normal, happy child
with many interests and friends, to something akin to a monster."
Everything about her suddenly became wrong; and so, beyond the eyes of
the Ummah, some set about fixing her. "The funny thing is that I was
taught to have a healthy respect for Allah's revelations. And that, in
part, is what they used against me. I was in a nightmare filled with
emotional vampires and spiritual cannibals and I knew this was not the
teachings of the honorable Prophet Eesa alayhes sallam. But I wanted to
be liked and accepted."
The second-generation Muslim, and seventh generation American, left the
town with her faith shaken in a God who could have put her through
that, and in her belief in the inherent goodness and oneness of people.
But mostly her emaan, her faith in Allah now felt just beyond her
reach. Her better instincts had been dulled. She'd done a few things
she felt ashamed of and she sometimes lapsed into small bouts of
depression. There was a small ball of anger eating at her gut. She
didn't think she could ever tell anyone about her experiences. She just
wanted to be left alone...
EMAAN
Your most valuable possession
In a time when faith in God is many times considered a weakness, where
the relationship between cause and effect are bandied about as
negotiable, emaan may seem like a fantasy at best, an albatross at
worst. The line between right and wrong is deliberately blurred,
redrawn and blurred again. Throughout time-ancient as well as
modern-examples of what comes of the convolutions of mankind abound.
Yet still we allow ourselves to be guided into the web of the true
delusion: that in going against the blueprint for mankind that Allah
reiterates in the Qur'an, we can cheat the fate our own hands wring,
that among ourselves we make adequate lesser gods.
Anyone who contemplates the verses of the Qur'an will find people are
ultimately responsible for their own deeds. Allah is not unjust to
anyone, that the reason behind a person's deviations is one's own self.
Deeds, by heart or limb, result in steadfastness or perversion. They
are linked together in the same fashion a consequence is linked to its
cause and an effect to its influence. And sometimes Allah plots for you
a course of hills, valleys and straightaways that will ultimately make
the legs of your deen-your emaan-lean and well-muscled.
Shoring up your Character
Allah guides those who perform good deeds. And the more we do, the more
guidance we receive. Likewise, evil doing feeds on itself. Ibn-ul-Qayyim
said, "This is because Allah likes good deeds and rewards on them, and
abhors evil deeds, and punishes for them." Scholars have taken this
truth and crafted the rule: "Recompense is according to deeds."
Here are a few Qur'anic verses relating to the loss of guidance and
decrease in emaan:
"So when they turned away (from the path of Allah), Allah turned their
hearts away (from the right path)." [61:5]
"I shall turn away from My signs those who behave arrogantly on the
earth in a wrongful manner. If they see all the signs they will not
believe in them. And if they see the way of righteousness, they will
not adopt that way." [7:146].
"And recite to them (Oh, Mohammed) the story of the one to whom We gave
our verses (signs), but he turned them away, so Satan followed him up,
and he became of those who went astray. Had he willed We would surely
have elevated him therewith but he clung to the earth and followed his
own vain desires. So his description is the that of a dog; if you drive
him away, he lolls his tongue out, or if you leave him alone, he
(still) lolls his tongue out." [7:175-176].
The last verse tells us that some even have knowledge, but instead of
applying it, they choose to follow their whims and worldly desires. In
the end they lose their blessing and stray from Allah.
The young girl was eventually ensconced within the circle of her Muslim
community but she had changed. She felt disconnected somehow. "I always
did good deeds and tried to be helpful. I made good grades. But I was
trying to sort out my relationship with people and was trying to see
myself. My anger had turned to hatred and I thought that feeling, that
rush made me brave. But it wasn't my nature, to feed off of that kind
of negativity. It wasn't who I thought Allah wanted me to be. It wasn't
what my family brought me up to be. I could never reach my potential
holding on to that baggage. "There was a time when I feared nothing but
Allah. And now I had to admit that I feared what people could do when
they discover you're different. Going to school, walking to the store,
meeting new people, voicing an opinion..." The more she hid and tried
to blend in, the more obvious it became that she was different. "I
didn't gossip. I dressed modestly. I stood up for what I felt was right.
I thought globally ... I achieved things and some people admired me.
But that made me uncomfortable because I knew that any good that came
my way or through me was the will of Allah. I never really belonged. I
had yet to really stand up for myself, to allow people to get to know
me on my own terms. I had created something of a prison for myself that
only I knew I was in." Everyone is solely responsible for his/her
deviation. Allah does not oppress anyone. Nor does Allah turn away
servants when they sincerely strive for guidance. Allah is the most
just. And He is the most merciful.
Deviation from the right path and the degradation of emaan are a result
of one's own deeds and a reflection of one's own behavior and
character. Muslims must always be aware of that. They should assume
they will face challenges sometimes and be ready to protect themselves
and to heal and to grow. The first step towards achieving that is to
know why and how does it happen. Most times it isn't the big wars that
defeat a people, it is the little internal skirmishes which go unmet
that eat away at character long before a clear enemy comes knocking on
a half-opened door.
WHEN WE SLIP
Emaan is the core of all actions. It is the motivation necessary for a
Muslim to accomplish whatever needed to lead a good life. Depending on
the strength of his emaan, a person may or may not be able to abandon
sinning, strive against his own desire and compel his soul to take
heed.
The strength of emaan does not only show itself in the apparent deeds;
true emaan actually fills and saturates the heart. Allah's Messenger,
sallallaahu alayhe wa sallam, pointed out "three (factors), whoever has
them will find the sweetness of emaan: that Allah and His Messenger are
more beloved to him than any thing else, that he loves a person solely
for the sake of Allah, and that he hates to revert to disbelieve, as he
hates being thrown into hellfire." (Bukhari and Muslim) In another
hadeeth, Allah's Messenger, sallallaahu alayhe wa sallam said, "(He
has) experienced the taste of emaan, who is contented that Allah as his
Lord (Rabb), Islam as his religion and Mohammed as a Prophet."
(Muslim).
We have to be certain that our emaan is deeply rooted into our hearts. A
person may repent to Allah, following the path of righteousness, yet
emaan may not have entered his heart. So, at the first sign of
destructive desires, doubts set in and convictions dissipate. Signs
that this disease has entered the heart include rigidity of our
hearts, courage in committing sins and laziness toward good deeds.
Balance emaan with Islamic knowledge
Just as a person needs emaan for motivation, action and strength in the
heart, he, likewise, needs knowledge, to do what is right, rectify his
worship and purify his turning to Allah alone. When emaan and Islamic
knowledge are deeply rooted into a person's heart, there remains no
possibility for him to turn away from the path of righteousness. "The
seizing of amanah (trustworthiness) and emaan (which has been reported
in the authentic hadeeth) is not the seizing of knowledge,"
Ibn-Taymiyyah said, "For it is known that a person may be bequeathed
with emaan even though he lacks knowledge. An emaan like this one could
be snatched from his heart -like the emaan of Bani-Israel after they
saw the calf.
"As for the one bequeathed with both, knowledge and emaan, emaan is
never seized from his breast and such a person never reverts from
Islam. Conversely, if one is bequeathed with Qur'an alone or emaan
alone, emaan can be seized and this is the reality. We have seen it
often that the most to revert from Islam are those who recite Qur'an,
without understanding or emaan, or those who possess emaan without
knowledge and Qur'an. But as for the one who has acquired Qur'an and
emaan, and hence obtained knowledge, for this one, emaan is never
seized from his heart and Allah knows best." (Majmou'a al-Fatawa
18/305).
The mere memorization of the Qur'an and concepts does not mean one has
acquired knowledge, especially since the Qur'an is read by the munafiq
(hypocrite), the mu'min (believer) and the illiterate. Al-Hasan Al-Basri
said, "Knowledge is of two types; knowledge in the heart and knowledge
on the tongue." So knowledge in the heart is the useful one while
knowledge on the tongue is Allah's argument against His servants."
Seeking Islamic knowledge saves thoughts from turning to desires and
sins because there is no spare time, and because those things pale in
the face of the joy of the revelation of truth. He will be so engrossed
in the pleasure of acquiring knowledge such that the chance of him
looking for activities that may weaken his emaan or cause him to
deviate will be minimum.
Slough the dead skin of sin
Allah says, "You counted it a little thing while it was very great in
the sight of Allah." [24:15] Some companions said, as reported by Anas,
"You are doing deeds which you view to be finer than a hair, but we, in
the days of the Prophet, sallallaahu alayhe wa sallam, used to consider
them as major sins." (Bukhari).
Viewing sins as little things has adverse effects:
-The sins multiply in the sight of Allah.
-The path of repentance becomes distant, since he does not anymore feel
a need for it. It is the one who realizes its severity, adheres to
making istighfaar (asking for forgiveness) and regretfully seeks
repentance from Allah who has his sin erased.
-He is drawn to individuals similarly engrossed. This alone is among the
major factors behind a person's deviation. Moreover, it results in him
avoiding the gatherings where Allah is remembered. As a result,
opportunities that would otherwise help him remain steadfast on good
deeds are missed.
-The sin becomes a hard habit to break. Even if the sins are minor, they
gather around a person leading him to devastation, as Allah's Messenger
warned. Abdullah bin Mas'ood said, "Beware of viewing the sins as
little for they gather upon a person till he is devastated and
Allah's Messenger, sallallaahu alayhe wa sallam, has coined a
similitude for it as a group of people stopped in a desert and the
cook among them arrived. So a person would go and bring one stick,
and another one would go and bring one stick till they gathered many
of them, lit a fire and brought to ripeness all that they have thrown
in it." (Authentic, Ahmad)
Arrogance and pride are traps
These two attributes are among the worst for man to acquire. Arrogance
and pride led Iblis (Satan) astray, although he was in the company of
the angels. That happened because, Allah tells us, "I (Iblis) am better
than him (Adam). You created me from fire and him You created from
clay." [7:12].
If one does not rid himself of arrogance and pride, an end similar to
that of Satan is a sure result. But even a little part of
them-especially if related to how one views one's worship-can very
devastating to one's emaan:
-Claiming perfection leads one to not feel the need to improve himself
through good deeds and other means of nurturing his emaan. But emaan as
stated by scholars either increases or decreases. Therefore, it will
certainly decrease when one does not work hard to increase it with a lot
good deeds.
-Admiring one's own deeds results in the gradual relinquishment of
worshipping Allah, because worship is based on humbling oneself to Him
and acknowledging that all the gratefulness is to Allah and to Him
alone. How could one be proud of his deeds while Allah's Messenger,
sallaallahu alayhe wa sallam, used to say, "None of you will be saved
because of his deeds." They asked, "Not even you Oh Allah's Messenger?"
He said, "No, not even me, except that Allah bestows me with His
mercy." (Bukhari and Muslim)
-When one loses the fear of requital it becomes easy to forget about
falling from the straight path. A sense of security in this aspect can
be the first step towards falling a victim to it. Would such an
arrogant person continually beseech Allah for guidance and seek
steadfastness on his path?
-Vanity leads to backbiting and rumor mongering. Moreover, whomever
mocks his brother about a particular sin will not die till he himself
succumbs to it.
As the little sister grew, she continued to work at healing and finally,
through salah, good deeds and study was able to rid herself of much of
the scars of the past. Though it was painful, she admits she learned
some valuable lessons that helped shape her deen and character,
strengthen her emaan and define her sense of humanity.
Tackle Tarbiyah with Joy
After a person has turned to Allah in repentance, he leaves behind an
enormous amount of evil ideas, perceptions and habits. It is not
possible to get rid of all the past by a mere repentance to Allah. A
personal training effort (Tarbiyah) is required to erase all the
effects. An effort that ingrains the right emaan and sufficient Islamic
knowledge to further pave the road with a firm foundation. Taking a
quick look at the apostasy events that occurred in the days of the
Prophet, sallaallahu alayhe wa sallam, much evidence supports this
fact. Was there any among the Muhajireen or Ansaar who defected? Were
there any defectors among those who witnessed the battle of Badr? Or
the Ridwaan Pledge? Or those who accepted Islam in its initial phase?
Were there any of those among the apostates about whom Allah says,
"Only those are the believers who have believed in Allah and His
Messenger, and afterward doubt not but strive with their wealth and
their lives for the cause of Allah. Those, they are the truthful."
[49:15].
Most of the apostates/defectors comprised those who had just recently
entered the circle of Islam and had not yet received the type of
training that would instill emaan and its branches in their heart. Mere
repentance and an apparent change are neither the first step nor the
last. In fact, it is only one step in the right direction, which is
followed by putting in an effort to attain emaan and taqwa. To attain
emaan and taqwa, find a group which assists through regular encounters.
One cannot be expected to experience the fruits of brotherhood and
sisterhood, when isolated and not practically involved with others.
Find an appropriate example that can help one stand up against daily
challenges by holding tight to the rope of Allah altogether.
However, the being within a group must hinder one from developing his
own formidable relationship with Allah in the form of deeds far away
from the sight of people. One must spend the effort in worship at
night, charity, siyaam, seeking knowledge and so on. One must try to
create an intuition of individual responsibility within himself as it
is established in the Qur'an, "Whoever goes right, then he goes right
only for the benefit of his own self. And whoever goes astray, then he
goes astray to his own loss. No one laden with burdens can bear someone
else's burden." [17:15].
Furthermore, Allah's Messenger, sallaallahu alayhe wa sallam, explains
how a person is responsible and accountable for his own deeds by
saying, "There is none among you but his Lord will speak to him without
an interpreter. He will look to his right and will find only his deeds.
He will look to his left and will find only his deeds..." (Bukhari &
Muslim) All this and much more must make a person aware that his being
in a group is good and recommended, but still it does not exempt him
from the individual responsibility he has to account for on the Day of
Judgment.
Predominance of desires
Deviation from the right path is caused by one of the two factors-
either doubt which has mixed with clarity and truth, or desires which
predominated a persons heart and hence, deviated and obstructed him
from the truth and obeying Allah, a factor clearly noticed in our days.
The ones who repent and turn to Allah are just as human as any one else-
they desire as others do. The problem of lustful desires begins
primarily with an evil look or idea and ends with flooded actions or an
erupted volcano-leading a person to perversion.
You find a person following the path which pleases Allah but once he
sights something forbidden (e.g., a beautiful woman), a struggle in his
heart begins; the light of emaan is kindled within him calling him to
repent and turn to Allah. Eventually, the pitch of this call is reduced
and the call of the desire rises. In this way, an immense struggle
within begins. At one stage, the call of emaan might predominate and he
overcomes this hurdle, even if the dust of the sin might have touched
him, which he immediately washes off with repentance and good deeds.
On the other hand, he might respond due to a weakness in emaan and the
light of desire rises and predominates, ensnaring his heart and
obstructing any chances of turning to Allah. As a result, he falls
victim to the sin and can not turn to Allah in repentance, which would
raise him from this downfall. At this moment, he would say to himself,
"You have already been affected by the dirt of sin, so you might as
well keep on going. So many times you have tried to repent, but to no
avail. You are weak, there remains no hope for you to repent, and your
way is different from that of the pious!"
The ugly gut of excessiveness
Whenever Allah commands us to do something, Satan incites us to fall
into either extreme-either exaggerating the act on one hand or be
negligent and careless about it on the other. Even though the latter is
a common phenomenon with many, Satan chooses to incite one towards the
opposite extreme of exaggeration and immoderation. Accordingly, we have
been warned against taking such an approach as Allah says, "Say, O
people of the scripture, exceed not the units in your religion."
[5:77].
And Allah's Messenger, sallaallahu alayhe wa sallam, said, "Beware of
ghulow (excessiveness) in religion, for indeed, what devastated those
before you was ghulow in religion." (Nisaai) In another hadeeth he
said, "Those who go to extremes (in preaching their religion) were
killed and destroyed." (Muslim).
Being immoderate in worship is a deviation in itself, but nevertheless,
it is not the end of the road. When a person takes the first step
towards immoderation, he overloads himself in a manner while an easier
path could have been opted for.
One might be capable of enduring this path for some time, but eventually
after recognizing the tiresome effort he had to sacrifice, he starts
contemplating a retrieve. But here, the excitement which led him in the
first place to chose the road of extreme immoderation will not be
sufficient to return him to the road of balance and moderation. In
fact, it will transfer him to the opposite extreme of negligence and
carelessness. None of this overburdening approach is encouraged in
Islam since we should always remember that our deeds alone are not
good enough for us to enter Jannah. Allah's Messenger, sallaallahu
alayhe wa sallam, clarified this by saying, "Be moderate and practice
the same in proportion and know that your deeds will not make you
enter Jannah and the most beloved deeds to Allah are those which are
regularly done even if they were little."
Choose friends wisely
There is no doubt that the company of friends influences the formation
of our characters. For this reason, Allah's Messenger, said, "A person
is influenced by his companions religion, so watch who your companions
are." (Abu Dawood, Tirmidhi) This influence is acquired from two
aspects:
1. The first is acquired in the company of relatives, neighbors, school
and all those with whom a person is compelled to spend time.
2. The second type of influence is acquired within more religious
company which is likely to meet those who are less concerned. Though
they pray and fast, they are less serious in carrying the message of
Islam, dawah, sacrifice, etc. And if a person's faith is weak and is
inclined towards desire and negligence, he will find comfort in this
company.
The effects of this influence become apparent through certain factors
that include doing things he never used to do before. He begins
considering those on the deviated path as examples in life and as a
result, he starts imitating them saying, "If he can do this, why can't
I?"
He begins to please others at the expense of pleasing Allah by
performing actions never done before or abandoning some good deeds. He
abandons, for example, praying sunnah, or starts showing up late for
congregation salah, starts getting used to watching and hearing
forbidden things- as a result, he even stops forbidding the evil. All
this is no doubt a consequence of weak emaan and the influence of
either a bad company or a group who are less serious with Islam and
more inclined towards desire.
STEADFAST
On the Path to Righteousness
Change can happen sometimes in the blink of an adjusted perspective. For
many Muslims living in the West, it is simply the realization that it
is just as hard to live in a self-styled prison of ego and desire as it
is to strive toward the right path. Freedom of choice and religion only
develops and grows when it is exercised.
There is no doubt that the diagnosis of the causes behind an
individual's deviation is a primary step towards treatment. But what is
the cure?
Concentrate on tarbiyah (constant self-development)
particularly from the spiritual aspect. See everyday challenges as an
opportunity to exercise truth, patience, good deeds, courage and
constancy. One is encouraged to nurture his emaan by performing
righteous deeds as Allah says, "O you who believe, believe in Allah and
His Messenger..." [4:136] Usually, emaan is present in the hearts of
people but still, they are encouraged to nurture and increase it.
Be sincere and truthful to Allah.
Ikhlaas (sincerity) is a privileged characteristic for those who seek
Allah's pleasure. Its absence displaces a person's deeds, and it is a
requirement by everyone as Allah says, "And they were commanded not,
but that they should worship Allah, making their religion sincere for
him and offer salahs perfectly and give zakah and that is the right
religion." [98:5]
Ibn-Al-Qayyim, may Allah's mercy be upon him, further clarifies the
effect of Ikhlaas and truthfulness on a persons perseverance on the
path of Islam. He said, "A person experiences difficulty in abandoning
(bad) habits and customs only if he does so for the sake of other than
Allah. As for he who abandons them truthfully and sincerely with his
heart, he does not experience any difficulty except in the first
attempt, to be tested whether he was truthful or not. So if he remains
a little patient during that difficulty, desire would not last any
longer."
Being fearful of an evil death
A sincere believer must be overwhelmed with the fear of dying in a state
that would displease Allah. This was the condition of the righteous
predecessors- due to a constant fear of an evil death while in a state
of Islam since, if a person falls victim to a sin, a state of
negligence and transgression, it overpowers his heart and mind. A state
in which his light is extinguished, and his vision blocked- a moment
when no reminder would benefit- here, death might surprise him. He
would die in a state that would attain the wrath of Allah. Therefore,
one must always be fearful of an evil death and hence, use every moment
in a manner that pleases Allah, even though uncertain whether it is
accepted by Allah or not. He says, "And those who give that which they
give (good deeds) with their hearts full of fear (whether accepted or
not) because they are sure to return to their Lord (for reckoning)."
[23:60]
Duaa (supplication).
Supplication is a Muslim's refuge and resort when he is encountered with
hardship in this world. One must always turn to Allah and seek His
assistance. Allah's Messenger used to supplicate, "O rotator/turner of
the heart, make my heart steadfast on your religion." (Tirmidhi) And
he also used to say, "O Allah, increase my knowledge and do not let my
heart deviate (from the truth) after you have guided me and grant me
mercy from You. Truly, you are the bestower." [3:8] These and many
other forms and occasions of supplication makes one realize his need
to invoke Allah for guidance searching for its causes and abstaining
from all that blocks a persons urge to obtain it.
Persistence in doing good
The best of deeds and the most beloved of it are those which a person
does constantly as Allah's Messenger said, "And the most beloved of
deeds to Allah are those which are regularly done even if they were
little." (Bukhari & Muslim) Regular persistence in doing good deeds
eventually becomes a habit and a part of ones daily life after an
initial struggle to practice it. This persistence in good deeds
(salahs, charity, siyaam, and thikr...) will make one live in the light
of steadfastness and righteousness, and far away from deviation and its
causes.
Advice and counseling
When someone starts showing the signs of deviation, he must be
immediately advised, as it is one of the rights on a fellow Muslim.
Jabir bin Abdullah said, "I made a pledge to Allah's Messenger to offer
salah, pay zakah and advice every Muslim." (Bukhari & Muslim)
Counseling one another was the trend practiced by the companions of the
Messenger of Allah and if any of them showed any signs of weakness,
they would never hesitate in advising him. This must be our case. We
must not ignore anyone at the time of his weakness in emaan, because
such ignorance is a way of assisting Satan against our brother.
Participating in the dawah work
There are many fruits obtained doing dawah. One who strives in seeking
guidance for people is certainly guided by Allah. The one, who calls
people to do good deeds, will in turn be motivated to perform the deeds
he is asking people to do. Being involved in dawah keeps one from acts
that might result in deviation. There is a sweetness of emaan a person
feels when he observes people turning to Allah instead of observing
things forbidden by Him.
After spending some time pondering over this problem and its causes and
remedies it is clear that emaan is a blessing for which we each must
strive. If it is missing, it is we who misunderstand or underestimate
the power of our relationship with Allah. We must acknowledge the great
value of strong emaan. It is a lifelong challenge we must accept with
joy. And for those who succeed, they will be the first to acknowledge
that it is not due to their mental agility or consistent efforts as
much as it is a bounty from Allah, a bounty that deserves to be
protected and cared for in our hearts and in our lives.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FALLING INTO SIN
al-Jumu'ah Magazine
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IN TODAY'S SOCIETY, WHAT CAN ONE DO TO PROTECT HIS EMAAN, IMPROVE HIS
CHARACTER AND BE THE MUSLIM HE WANTS TO BE?
As one of only two Muslims in a small Kentucky town one summer, it was
hard not to notice the stares. Coming from a mostly Muslim setting, it
was a difficult adjustment for the sixth-grader visiting Christian
relatives. "I felt I went from being a perfectly normal, happy child
with many interests and friends, to something akin to a monster."
Everything about her suddenly became wrong; and so, beyond the eyes of
the Ummah, some set about fixing her. "The funny thing is that I was
taught to have a healthy respect for Allah's revelations. And that, in
part, is what they used against me. I was in a nightmare filled with
emotional vampires and spiritual cannibals and I knew this was not the
teachings of the honorable Prophet Eesa alayhes sallam. But I wanted to
be liked and accepted."
The second-generation Muslim, and seventh generation American, left the
town with her faith shaken in a God who could have put her through
that, and in her belief in the inherent goodness and oneness of people.
But mostly her emaan, her faith in Allah now felt just beyond her
reach. Her better instincts had been dulled. She'd done a few things
she felt ashamed of and she sometimes lapsed into small bouts of
depression. There was a small ball of anger eating at her gut. She
didn't think she could ever tell anyone about her experiences. She just
wanted to be left alone...
EMAAN
Your most valuable possession
In a time when faith in God is many times considered a weakness, where
the relationship between cause and effect are bandied about as
negotiable, emaan may seem like a fantasy at best, an albatross at
worst. The line between right and wrong is deliberately blurred,
redrawn and blurred again. Throughout time-ancient as well as
modern-examples of what comes of the convolutions of mankind abound.
Yet still we allow ourselves to be guided into the web of the true
delusion: that in going against the blueprint for mankind that Allah
reiterates in the Qur'an, we can cheat the fate our own hands wring,
that among ourselves we make adequate lesser gods.
Anyone who contemplates the verses of the Qur'an will find people are
ultimately responsible for their own deeds. Allah is not unjust to
anyone, that the reason behind a person's deviations is one's own self.
Deeds, by heart or limb, result in steadfastness or perversion. They
are linked together in the same fashion a consequence is linked to its
cause and an effect to its influence. And sometimes Allah plots for you
a course of hills, valleys and straightaways that will ultimately make
the legs of your deen-your emaan-lean and well-muscled.
Shoring up your Character
Allah guides those who perform good deeds. And the more we do, the more
guidance we receive. Likewise, evil doing feeds on itself. Ibn-ul-Qayyim
said, "This is because Allah likes good deeds and rewards on them, and
abhors evil deeds, and punishes for them." Scholars have taken this
truth and crafted the rule: "Recompense is according to deeds."
Here are a few Qur'anic verses relating to the loss of guidance and
decrease in emaan:
"So when they turned away (from the path of Allah), Allah turned their
hearts away (from the right path)." [61:5]
"I shall turn away from My signs those who behave arrogantly on the
earth in a wrongful manner. If they see all the signs they will not
believe in them. And if they see the way of righteousness, they will
not adopt that way." [7:146].
"And recite to them (Oh, Mohammed) the story of the one to whom We gave
our verses (signs), but he turned them away, so Satan followed him up,
and he became of those who went astray. Had he willed We would surely
have elevated him therewith but he clung to the earth and followed his
own vain desires. So his description is the that of a dog; if you drive
him away, he lolls his tongue out, or if you leave him alone, he
(still) lolls his tongue out." [7:175-176].
The last verse tells us that some even have knowledge, but instead of
applying it, they choose to follow their whims and worldly desires. In
the end they lose their blessing and stray from Allah.
The young girl was eventually ensconced within the circle of her Muslim
community but she had changed. She felt disconnected somehow. "I always
did good deeds and tried to be helpful. I made good grades. But I was
trying to sort out my relationship with people and was trying to see
myself. My anger had turned to hatred and I thought that feeling, that
rush made me brave. But it wasn't my nature, to feed off of that kind
of negativity. It wasn't who I thought Allah wanted me to be. It wasn't
what my family brought me up to be. I could never reach my potential
holding on to that baggage. "There was a time when I feared nothing but
Allah. And now I had to admit that I feared what people could do when
they discover you're different. Going to school, walking to the store,
meeting new people, voicing an opinion..." The more she hid and tried
to blend in, the more obvious it became that she was different. "I
didn't gossip. I dressed modestly. I stood up for what I felt was right.
I thought globally ... I achieved things and some people admired me.
But that made me uncomfortable because I knew that any good that came
my way or through me was the will of Allah. I never really belonged. I
had yet to really stand up for myself, to allow people to get to know
me on my own terms. I had created something of a prison for myself that
only I knew I was in." Everyone is solely responsible for his/her
deviation. Allah does not oppress anyone. Nor does Allah turn away
servants when they sincerely strive for guidance. Allah is the most
just. And He is the most merciful.
Deviation from the right path and the degradation of emaan are a result
of one's own deeds and a reflection of one's own behavior and
character. Muslims must always be aware of that. They should assume
they will face challenges sometimes and be ready to protect themselves
and to heal and to grow. The first step towards achieving that is to
know why and how does it happen. Most times it isn't the big wars that
defeat a people, it is the little internal skirmishes which go unmet
that eat away at character long before a clear enemy comes knocking on
a half-opened door.
WHEN WE SLIP
Emaan is the core of all actions. It is the motivation necessary for a
Muslim to accomplish whatever needed to lead a good life. Depending on
the strength of his emaan, a person may or may not be able to abandon
sinning, strive against his own desire and compel his soul to take
heed.
The strength of emaan does not only show itself in the apparent deeds;
true emaan actually fills and saturates the heart. Allah's Messenger,
sallallaahu alayhe wa sallam, pointed out "three (factors), whoever has
them will find the sweetness of emaan: that Allah and His Messenger are
more beloved to him than any thing else, that he loves a person solely
for the sake of Allah, and that he hates to revert to disbelieve, as he
hates being thrown into hellfire." (Bukhari and Muslim) In another
hadeeth, Allah's Messenger, sallallaahu alayhe wa sallam said, "(He
has) experienced the taste of emaan, who is contented that Allah as his
Lord (Rabb), Islam as his religion and Mohammed as a Prophet."
(Muslim).
We have to be certain that our emaan is deeply rooted into our hearts. A
person may repent to Allah, following the path of righteousness, yet
emaan may not have entered his heart. So, at the first sign of
destructive desires, doubts set in and convictions dissipate. Signs
that this disease has entered the heart include rigidity of our
hearts, courage in committing sins and laziness toward good deeds.
Balance emaan with Islamic knowledge
Just as a person needs emaan for motivation, action and strength in the
heart, he, likewise, needs knowledge, to do what is right, rectify his
worship and purify his turning to Allah alone. When emaan and Islamic
knowledge are deeply rooted into a person's heart, there remains no
possibility for him to turn away from the path of righteousness. "The
seizing of amanah (trustworthiness) and emaan (which has been reported
in the authentic hadeeth) is not the seizing of knowledge,"
Ibn-Taymiyyah said, "For it is known that a person may be bequeathed
with emaan even though he lacks knowledge. An emaan like this one could
be snatched from his heart -like the emaan of Bani-Israel after they
saw the calf.
"As for the one bequeathed with both, knowledge and emaan, emaan is
never seized from his breast and such a person never reverts from
Islam. Conversely, if one is bequeathed with Qur'an alone or emaan
alone, emaan can be seized and this is the reality. We have seen it
often that the most to revert from Islam are those who recite Qur'an,
without understanding or emaan, or those who possess emaan without
knowledge and Qur'an. But as for the one who has acquired Qur'an and
emaan, and hence obtained knowledge, for this one, emaan is never
seized from his heart and Allah knows best." (Majmou'a al-Fatawa
18/305).
The mere memorization of the Qur'an and concepts does not mean one has
acquired knowledge, especially since the Qur'an is read by the munafiq
(hypocrite), the mu'min (believer) and the illiterate. Al-Hasan Al-Basri
said, "Knowledge is of two types; knowledge in the heart and knowledge
on the tongue." So knowledge in the heart is the useful one while
knowledge on the tongue is Allah's argument against His servants."
Seeking Islamic knowledge saves thoughts from turning to desires and
sins because there is no spare time, and because those things pale in
the face of the joy of the revelation of truth. He will be so engrossed
in the pleasure of acquiring knowledge such that the chance of him
looking for activities that may weaken his emaan or cause him to
deviate will be minimum.
Slough the dead skin of sin
Allah says, "You counted it a little thing while it was very great in
the sight of Allah." [24:15] Some companions said, as reported by Anas,
"You are doing deeds which you view to be finer than a hair, but we, in
the days of the Prophet, sallallaahu alayhe wa sallam, used to consider
them as major sins." (Bukhari).
Viewing sins as little things has adverse effects:
-The sins multiply in the sight of Allah.
-The path of repentance becomes distant, since he does not anymore feel
a need for it. It is the one who realizes its severity, adheres to
making istighfaar (asking for forgiveness) and regretfully seeks
repentance from Allah who has his sin erased.
-He is drawn to individuals similarly engrossed. This alone is among the
major factors behind a person's deviation. Moreover, it results in him
avoiding the gatherings where Allah is remembered. As a result,
opportunities that would otherwise help him remain steadfast on good
deeds are missed.
-The sin becomes a hard habit to break. Even if the sins are minor, they
gather around a person leading him to devastation, as Allah's Messenger
warned. Abdullah bin Mas'ood said, "Beware of viewing the sins as
little for they gather upon a person till he is devastated and
Allah's Messenger, sallallaahu alayhe wa sallam, has coined a
similitude for it as a group of people stopped in a desert and the
cook among them arrived. So a person would go and bring one stick,
and another one would go and bring one stick till they gathered many
of them, lit a fire and brought to ripeness all that they have thrown
in it." (Authentic, Ahmad)
Arrogance and pride are traps
These two attributes are among the worst for man to acquire. Arrogance
and pride led Iblis (Satan) astray, although he was in the company of
the angels. That happened because, Allah tells us, "I (Iblis) am better
than him (Adam). You created me from fire and him You created from
clay." [7:12].
If one does not rid himself of arrogance and pride, an end similar to
that of Satan is a sure result. But even a little part of
them-especially if related to how one views one's worship-can very
devastating to one's emaan:
-Claiming perfection leads one to not feel the need to improve himself
through good deeds and other means of nurturing his emaan. But emaan as
stated by scholars either increases or decreases. Therefore, it will
certainly decrease when one does not work hard to increase it with a lot
good deeds.
-Admiring one's own deeds results in the gradual relinquishment of
worshipping Allah, because worship is based on humbling oneself to Him
and acknowledging that all the gratefulness is to Allah and to Him
alone. How could one be proud of his deeds while Allah's Messenger,
sallaallahu alayhe wa sallam, used to say, "None of you will be saved
because of his deeds." They asked, "Not even you Oh Allah's Messenger?"
He said, "No, not even me, except that Allah bestows me with His
mercy." (Bukhari and Muslim)
-When one loses the fear of requital it becomes easy to forget about
falling from the straight path. A sense of security in this aspect can
be the first step towards falling a victim to it. Would such an
arrogant person continually beseech Allah for guidance and seek
steadfastness on his path?
-Vanity leads to backbiting and rumor mongering. Moreover, whomever
mocks his brother about a particular sin will not die till he himself
succumbs to it.
As the little sister grew, she continued to work at healing and finally,
through salah, good deeds and study was able to rid herself of much of
the scars of the past. Though it was painful, she admits she learned
some valuable lessons that helped shape her deen and character,
strengthen her emaan and define her sense of humanity.
Tackle Tarbiyah with Joy
After a person has turned to Allah in repentance, he leaves behind an
enormous amount of evil ideas, perceptions and habits. It is not
possible to get rid of all the past by a mere repentance to Allah. A
personal training effort (Tarbiyah) is required to erase all the
effects. An effort that ingrains the right emaan and sufficient Islamic
knowledge to further pave the road with a firm foundation. Taking a
quick look at the apostasy events that occurred in the days of the
Prophet, sallaallahu alayhe wa sallam, much evidence supports this
fact. Was there any among the Muhajireen or Ansaar who defected? Were
there any defectors among those who witnessed the battle of Badr? Or
the Ridwaan Pledge? Or those who accepted Islam in its initial phase?
Were there any of those among the apostates about whom Allah says,
"Only those are the believers who have believed in Allah and His
Messenger, and afterward doubt not but strive with their wealth and
their lives for the cause of Allah. Those, they are the truthful."
[49:15].
Most of the apostates/defectors comprised those who had just recently
entered the circle of Islam and had not yet received the type of
training that would instill emaan and its branches in their heart. Mere
repentance and an apparent change are neither the first step nor the
last. In fact, it is only one step in the right direction, which is
followed by putting in an effort to attain emaan and taqwa. To attain
emaan and taqwa, find a group which assists through regular encounters.
One cannot be expected to experience the fruits of brotherhood and
sisterhood, when isolated and not practically involved with others.
Find an appropriate example that can help one stand up against daily
challenges by holding tight to the rope of Allah altogether.
However, the being within a group must hinder one from developing his
own formidable relationship with Allah in the form of deeds far away
from the sight of people. One must spend the effort in worship at
night, charity, siyaam, seeking knowledge and so on. One must try to
create an intuition of individual responsibility within himself as it
is established in the Qur'an, "Whoever goes right, then he goes right
only for the benefit of his own self. And whoever goes astray, then he
goes astray to his own loss. No one laden with burdens can bear someone
else's burden." [17:15].
Furthermore, Allah's Messenger, sallaallahu alayhe wa sallam, explains
how a person is responsible and accountable for his own deeds by
saying, "There is none among you but his Lord will speak to him without
an interpreter. He will look to his right and will find only his deeds.
He will look to his left and will find only his deeds..." (Bukhari &
Muslim) All this and much more must make a person aware that his being
in a group is good and recommended, but still it does not exempt him
from the individual responsibility he has to account for on the Day of
Judgment.
Predominance of desires
Deviation from the right path is caused by one of the two factors-
either doubt which has mixed with clarity and truth, or desires which
predominated a persons heart and hence, deviated and obstructed him
from the truth and obeying Allah, a factor clearly noticed in our days.
The ones who repent and turn to Allah are just as human as any one else-
they desire as others do. The problem of lustful desires begins
primarily with an evil look or idea and ends with flooded actions or an
erupted volcano-leading a person to perversion.
You find a person following the path which pleases Allah but once he
sights something forbidden (e.g., a beautiful woman), a struggle in his
heart begins; the light of emaan is kindled within him calling him to
repent and turn to Allah. Eventually, the pitch of this call is reduced
and the call of the desire rises. In this way, an immense struggle
within begins. At one stage, the call of emaan might predominate and he
overcomes this hurdle, even if the dust of the sin might have touched
him, which he immediately washes off with repentance and good deeds.
On the other hand, he might respond due to a weakness in emaan and the
light of desire rises and predominates, ensnaring his heart and
obstructing any chances of turning to Allah. As a result, he falls
victim to the sin and can not turn to Allah in repentance, which would
raise him from this downfall. At this moment, he would say to himself,
"You have already been affected by the dirt of sin, so you might as
well keep on going. So many times you have tried to repent, but to no
avail. You are weak, there remains no hope for you to repent, and your
way is different from that of the pious!"
The ugly gut of excessiveness
Whenever Allah commands us to do something, Satan incites us to fall
into either extreme-either exaggerating the act on one hand or be
negligent and careless about it on the other. Even though the latter is
a common phenomenon with many, Satan chooses to incite one towards the
opposite extreme of exaggeration and immoderation. Accordingly, we have
been warned against taking such an approach as Allah says, "Say, O
people of the scripture, exceed not the units in your religion."
[5:77].
And Allah's Messenger, sallaallahu alayhe wa sallam, said, "Beware of
ghulow (excessiveness) in religion, for indeed, what devastated those
before you was ghulow in religion." (Nisaai) In another hadeeth he
said, "Those who go to extremes (in preaching their religion) were
killed and destroyed." (Muslim).
Being immoderate in worship is a deviation in itself, but nevertheless,
it is not the end of the road. When a person takes the first step
towards immoderation, he overloads himself in a manner while an easier
path could have been opted for.
One might be capable of enduring this path for some time, but eventually
after recognizing the tiresome effort he had to sacrifice, he starts
contemplating a retrieve. But here, the excitement which led him in the
first place to chose the road of extreme immoderation will not be
sufficient to return him to the road of balance and moderation. In
fact, it will transfer him to the opposite extreme of negligence and
carelessness. None of this overburdening approach is encouraged in
Islam since we should always remember that our deeds alone are not
good enough for us to enter Jannah. Allah's Messenger, sallaallahu
alayhe wa sallam, clarified this by saying, "Be moderate and practice
the same in proportion and know that your deeds will not make you
enter Jannah and the most beloved deeds to Allah are those which are
regularly done even if they were little."
Choose friends wisely
There is no doubt that the company of friends influences the formation
of our characters. For this reason, Allah's Messenger, said, "A person
is influenced by his companions religion, so watch who your companions
are." (Abu Dawood, Tirmidhi) This influence is acquired from two
aspects:
1. The first is acquired in the company of relatives, neighbors, school
and all those with whom a person is compelled to spend time.
2. The second type of influence is acquired within more religious
company which is likely to meet those who are less concerned. Though
they pray and fast, they are less serious in carrying the message of
Islam, dawah, sacrifice, etc. And if a person's faith is weak and is
inclined towards desire and negligence, he will find comfort in this
company.
The effects of this influence become apparent through certain factors
that include doing things he never used to do before. He begins
considering those on the deviated path as examples in life and as a
result, he starts imitating them saying, "If he can do this, why can't
I?"
He begins to please others at the expense of pleasing Allah by
performing actions never done before or abandoning some good deeds. He
abandons, for example, praying sunnah, or starts showing up late for
congregation salah, starts getting used to watching and hearing
forbidden things- as a result, he even stops forbidding the evil. All
this is no doubt a consequence of weak emaan and the influence of
either a bad company or a group who are less serious with Islam and
more inclined towards desire.
STEADFAST
On the Path to Righteousness
Change can happen sometimes in the blink of an adjusted perspective. For
many Muslims living in the West, it is simply the realization that it
is just as hard to live in a self-styled prison of ego and desire as it
is to strive toward the right path. Freedom of choice and religion only
develops and grows when it is exercised.
There is no doubt that the diagnosis of the causes behind an
individual's deviation is a primary step towards treatment. But what is
the cure?
Concentrate on tarbiyah (constant self-development)
particularly from the spiritual aspect. See everyday challenges as an
opportunity to exercise truth, patience, good deeds, courage and
constancy. One is encouraged to nurture his emaan by performing
righteous deeds as Allah says, "O you who believe, believe in Allah and
His Messenger..." [4:136] Usually, emaan is present in the hearts of
people but still, they are encouraged to nurture and increase it.
Be sincere and truthful to Allah.
Ikhlaas (sincerity) is a privileged characteristic for those who seek
Allah's pleasure. Its absence displaces a person's deeds, and it is a
requirement by everyone as Allah says, "And they were commanded not,
but that they should worship Allah, making their religion sincere for
him and offer salahs perfectly and give zakah and that is the right
religion." [98:5]
Ibn-Al-Qayyim, may Allah's mercy be upon him, further clarifies the
effect of Ikhlaas and truthfulness on a persons perseverance on the
path of Islam. He said, "A person experiences difficulty in abandoning
(bad) habits and customs only if he does so for the sake of other than
Allah. As for he who abandons them truthfully and sincerely with his
heart, he does not experience any difficulty except in the first
attempt, to be tested whether he was truthful or not. So if he remains
a little patient during that difficulty, desire would not last any
longer."
Being fearful of an evil death
A sincere believer must be overwhelmed with the fear of dying in a state
that would displease Allah. This was the condition of the righteous
predecessors- due to a constant fear of an evil death while in a state
of Islam since, if a person falls victim to a sin, a state of
negligence and transgression, it overpowers his heart and mind. A state
in which his light is extinguished, and his vision blocked- a moment
when no reminder would benefit- here, death might surprise him. He
would die in a state that would attain the wrath of Allah. Therefore,
one must always be fearful of an evil death and hence, use every moment
in a manner that pleases Allah, even though uncertain whether it is
accepted by Allah or not. He says, "And those who give that which they
give (good deeds) with their hearts full of fear (whether accepted or
not) because they are sure to return to their Lord (for reckoning)."
[23:60]
Duaa (supplication).
Supplication is a Muslim's refuge and resort when he is encountered with
hardship in this world. One must always turn to Allah and seek His
assistance. Allah's Messenger used to supplicate, "O rotator/turner of
the heart, make my heart steadfast on your religion." (Tirmidhi) And
he also used to say, "O Allah, increase my knowledge and do not let my
heart deviate (from the truth) after you have guided me and grant me
mercy from You. Truly, you are the bestower." [3:8] These and many
other forms and occasions of supplication makes one realize his need
to invoke Allah for guidance searching for its causes and abstaining
from all that blocks a persons urge to obtain it.
Persistence in doing good
The best of deeds and the most beloved of it are those which a person
does constantly as Allah's Messenger said, "And the most beloved of
deeds to Allah are those which are regularly done even if they were
little." (Bukhari & Muslim) Regular persistence in doing good deeds
eventually becomes a habit and a part of ones daily life after an
initial struggle to practice it. This persistence in good deeds
(salahs, charity, siyaam, and thikr...) will make one live in the light
of steadfastness and righteousness, and far away from deviation and its
causes.
Advice and counseling
When someone starts showing the signs of deviation, he must be
immediately advised, as it is one of the rights on a fellow Muslim.
Jabir bin Abdullah said, "I made a pledge to Allah's Messenger to offer
salah, pay zakah and advice every Muslim." (Bukhari & Muslim)
Counseling one another was the trend practiced by the companions of the
Messenger of Allah and if any of them showed any signs of weakness,
they would never hesitate in advising him. This must be our case. We
must not ignore anyone at the time of his weakness in emaan, because
such ignorance is a way of assisting Satan against our brother.
Participating in the dawah work
There are many fruits obtained doing dawah. One who strives in seeking
guidance for people is certainly guided by Allah. The one, who calls
people to do good deeds, will in turn be motivated to perform the deeds
he is asking people to do. Being involved in dawah keeps one from acts
that might result in deviation. There is a sweetness of emaan a person
feels when he observes people turning to Allah instead of observing
things forbidden by Him.
After spending some time pondering over this problem and its causes and
remedies it is clear that emaan is a blessing for which we each must
strive. If it is missing, it is we who misunderstand or underestimate
the power of our relationship with Allah. We must acknowledge the great
value of strong emaan. It is a lifelong challenge we must accept with
joy. And for those who succeed, they will be the first to acknowledge
that it is not due to their mental agility or consistent efforts as
much as it is a bounty from Allah, a bounty that deserves to be
protected and cared for in our hearts and in our lives.
Ettiquette of Duaa'
by Erum M.
Ettiquette of Duaa'
From an ICNA conference presented by Iman Badawi and Erum Chisty
Notes by Erum M.
Rasoolullah (saws) taught that everytime you do Tasbeeh, a plant is being
planted for you in Jannah. Rasoolullah (saws) said what means:
"Du3aa is worship" [authentic hadith]
There are five elements that cause the du3aa to be answered:
I. A Reason related to the one making du3aa, or a state in which he is in
that makes his more likely to be answered (as mentioned in the Quran and
Sunnah), examples include:
1) fasting person
2) traveller
3) one who is oppressed
4) a pious child who makes du3aa for his parents
II. A Reason related to the du3aa itself; meaning the ettiquettes of du3aa
are adhered to so that the du3aa may be perfected:
1) begin by praising Allah and sending prayers and blessings upon
Rasoolullah (saws)
2) gain nearness to Allah through tawassul, either by:
a. calling upon Allah by His names and attributes
b. calling upon Allah by one's good deeds
(ex. like saying "O Allah, I have beautiful hair and I covered it for
your sake and for no other reason")
3) Be on wudu
4) Face the Qiblah
5) Never ask for that which is Haraam (such as breaking ties of kinship
6) Ask about anything and everything you need and the best way is to
generally asked for the good of dunya and aakhirah
7) Make you du3aa contingent upon Allah's knowledge (for examples say:
Allah give me such-and-such "if it is good for me" because only He truly
knows what is good for you.
8)Insist for it, beg, stay determined to get it b/c you are fully
dependent on Him.
9) Don't use "if you want/will to" because Allah does what he wants.
10) Raise hands to shoulder level with palms facing towards the sky
11) Lower one's gaze in humility and don't look to the sky
12) Lower one's voice in humility, don't say it aloud
13) End your du3aa with praise of Allah and prayers upon Rasoolullah
13) Be patient in waiting for the response:
Rasoolullah (saws) teaches us that whenever anyone makes du3aa, he
will be answered unless he says "Allah didn't answer me." And if he is not
answered in this dunya then either Allah will remove from him some harm in
this dunya because of his du3aa or he will save his reward for him on
the Day of Judgement.
III. Special Times when duaa'is most likely to be answered:
1) when it's raining (rain is blessing from ALLAH)
2) Last 3rd of night esp. before Fajr; called Sahr
3) Between Adhan and Iqama
4) Standing at mount 'Arafat (part of Hajj)*
5) During the Qoonoot of Taraweeh in Ramadan
6) Lailatul Qadr
7) Friday, after Asr till Maghrib
8) When a fasting person breaks his fast
9) Before drinking Zam-Zam
10) Right after salah**
11) In sujood
12) etc...
IV. That there be no obstacles for the du3aa to be answered: This
usually refers to one's relationship with Allah. Does one truly feel
dependant and humble in front of Allah? Does one truly believe that
Allah has the power to do whatever He wishes? And most importantly, is
this person so sinful, having no regard for Allah's commands, yet he
expects Allah to grant him what he wishes for? If one's food, drink, and
clothing are all from Halal sources, Allah would not honor such a person
with a response as is mentioned in a hadith.
NOTE: However, all humans are sinners, and they may , at any time,
choose to change and come back to Allah. True tawbah means that one's
istigfar changed their heart and being. This is what all of us should
seek. Allah accepts the repentance from his servants if they are
sincere. Even if we have sinned so much, we must always call upon Allah,
for we cannot live without His blessings and sustenance. In fact, to not
make du3aa is another sin which angers Allah. So if one fears that his
du3aa may not be answered because of sins, let him begin his du3aa with
istighfar and its conditions of acceptance are the following:
1) immediately stop the sin and anything related to it.
2) regret what you did sincerely.
3) to promise never to return to that sin
If it is between you and another person, then also:
4) ask their forgiveness
*fasting on the day of 'Arafah (for non-pilgrims) is highly
recommendedand and will expiate a preceding and future year of sins.
**Du3aa may be said in any language however in salah, only Arabic is
allowed. Also it is not from the sunnah to immediately start du3aa after
tasleem. Rather one should first say the following words from the sunnah:
Astaghfirullah 3 times then Allahuma antas salaam wa minkas
salaam tabrakata wa ta3alayta ya dhal-jalalee wal-ikram...
NOTE: For those who seek to gain tawassul to Allah, it is extremely
helpful to memorize the 99 names of Allah and use them in your duaa'
Ettiquette of Duaa'
From an ICNA conference presented by Iman Badawi and Erum Chisty
Notes by Erum M.
Rasoolullah (saws) taught that everytime you do Tasbeeh, a plant is being
planted for you in Jannah. Rasoolullah (saws) said what means:
"Du3aa is worship" [authentic hadith]
There are five elements that cause the du3aa to be answered:
I. A Reason related to the one making du3aa, or a state in which he is in
that makes his more likely to be answered (as mentioned in the Quran and
Sunnah), examples include:
1) fasting person
2) traveller
3) one who is oppressed
4) a pious child who makes du3aa for his parents
II. A Reason related to the du3aa itself; meaning the ettiquettes of du3aa
are adhered to so that the du3aa may be perfected:
1) begin by praising Allah and sending prayers and blessings upon
Rasoolullah (saws)
2) gain nearness to Allah through tawassul, either by:
a. calling upon Allah by His names and attributes
b. calling upon Allah by one's good deeds
(ex. like saying "O Allah, I have beautiful hair and I covered it for
your sake and for no other reason")
3) Be on wudu
4) Face the Qiblah
5) Never ask for that which is Haraam (such as breaking ties of kinship
6) Ask about anything and everything you need and the best way is to
generally asked for the good of dunya and aakhirah
7) Make you du3aa contingent upon Allah's knowledge (for examples say:
Allah give me such-and-such "if it is good for me" because only He truly
knows what is good for you.
8)Insist for it, beg, stay determined to get it b/c you are fully
dependent on Him.
9) Don't use "if you want/will to" because Allah does what he wants.
10) Raise hands to shoulder level with palms facing towards the sky
11) Lower one's gaze in humility and don't look to the sky
12) Lower one's voice in humility, don't say it aloud
13) End your du3aa with praise of Allah and prayers upon Rasoolullah
13) Be patient in waiting for the response:
Rasoolullah (saws) teaches us that whenever anyone makes du3aa, he
will be answered unless he says "Allah didn't answer me." And if he is not
answered in this dunya then either Allah will remove from him some harm in
this dunya because of his du3aa or he will save his reward for him on
the Day of Judgement.
III. Special Times when duaa'is most likely to be answered:
1) when it's raining (rain is blessing from ALLAH)
2) Last 3rd of night esp. before Fajr; called Sahr
3) Between Adhan and Iqama
4) Standing at mount 'Arafat (part of Hajj)*
5) During the Qoonoot of Taraweeh in Ramadan
6) Lailatul Qadr
7) Friday, after Asr till Maghrib
8) When a fasting person breaks his fast
9) Before drinking Zam-Zam
10) Right after salah**
11) In sujood
12) etc...
IV. That there be no obstacles for the du3aa to be answered: This
usually refers to one's relationship with Allah. Does one truly feel
dependant and humble in front of Allah? Does one truly believe that
Allah has the power to do whatever He wishes? And most importantly, is
this person so sinful, having no regard for Allah's commands, yet he
expects Allah to grant him what he wishes for? If one's food, drink, and
clothing are all from Halal sources, Allah would not honor such a person
with a response as is mentioned in a hadith.
NOTE: However, all humans are sinners, and they may , at any time,
choose to change and come back to Allah. True tawbah means that one's
istigfar changed their heart and being. This is what all of us should
seek. Allah accepts the repentance from his servants if they are
sincere. Even if we have sinned so much, we must always call upon Allah,
for we cannot live without His blessings and sustenance. In fact, to not
make du3aa is another sin which angers Allah. So if one fears that his
du3aa may not be answered because of sins, let him begin his du3aa with
istighfar and its conditions of acceptance are the following:
1) immediately stop the sin and anything related to it.
2) regret what you did sincerely.
3) to promise never to return to that sin
If it is between you and another person, then also:
4) ask their forgiveness
*fasting on the day of 'Arafah (for non-pilgrims) is highly
recommendedand and will expiate a preceding and future year of sins.
**Du3aa may be said in any language however in salah, only Arabic is
allowed. Also it is not from the sunnah to immediately start du3aa after
tasleem. Rather one should first say the following words from the sunnah:
Astaghfirullah 3 times then Allahuma antas salaam wa minkas
salaam tabrakata wa ta3alayta ya dhal-jalalee wal-ikram...
NOTE: For those who seek to gain tawassul to Allah, it is extremely
helpful to memorize the 99 names of Allah and use them in your duaa'
Muslims help Muslims in Boca Raton
by Unknown
As an act of charity--a congregation helping a young family get back on its feet--it was probably not unlike a thousand other small graces that occur in South Florida every day.
After falling out with his business partners, Daniel McBride, 39, found himself jobless in October 1999. He was struggling with bills, a lonely, homebound immigrant spouse, and two infants to feed. The chiropractor and his wife were living in a small apartment in a loud, seedy section of Oakland Park. Like other recent arrivals, they had no family nearby. They barely knew their neighbors, other transients who were fresh from one place and yearning for another, well away from the pawnshops and liquor stores. Like their neighbors, the McBrides were in transition: between cultures, lands, races and religions. In their short time together, the couple had made a series of category-killing choices that cut across color lines and catechisms. He is a lapsed Catholic from New York who converted to Islam in his mid-30s. She is South African -- a mixed-race "colored" in her native land, but black in the American racial context. Raised a Protestant evangelical, Estie McBride, 28, recently embraced her husband's newfound faith, most visibly reflected in the traditional hijab covering her hair and neck. What anchored them in South Florida--a megalopolis growing darker in complexion, more varied in religions, Babel-like in its many tongues -- was their faith. The McBrides are members of a small but devout congregation at the Islamic Center of Boca Raton, a mosque in an office park near Florida Atlantic University.
As word spread that they had hit a rough patch, members of the mosque pooled their money to help out. Returning to his car one afternoon, the doctor and his wife found it full of groceries: bags of food, baby formula and other necessities. Mirsad Krijestorac, a Bosnian refugee who had struck up a close friendship with the doctor, had spearheaded the effort. A small act, yes. And this, after all, is what communities--those networks of friends, families, co-workers or neighbors that define us--are supposed to do. But as race, language and cultures continue to meld in the yawning sprawl of South Florida, community is becoming ever more complex -- and simple acts a bit more extraordinary. "I came out to the car, and it was full of groceries. I mean, just packed full. I couldn't believe it," Daniel says. "Here were people, a lot of them, who are trying to make it here, too. Most of them aren't my race, aren't from my country, but they gave what they could to help us. "In South Florida -- with the crime and the urban sprawl -- people took care of us when we needed it," he says, shaking his head. The small mosque in Boca Raton has all the elements of a Norman Rockwell painting, but only if the famed artist of middle-class America added more skin tones, cell phones, kafiyyehs and Quranic verses to his portraits of community. As a microcosm of what's happening in the region, the Islamic Center offers a peek into the future of community here, and the McBrides a glimpse at one modern family.
Like South Florida's newer migrants, they and their fellow believers are young, often parents. Many are professionals working at universities or large corporations. Others are small- business men and women kneeling to pray in offices and workplaces in the afternoon or early evening. They are immigrants, foreign-born sojourners from a wide variety of countries, who may have spent time in New York City or another Northeastern city before moving here. And they are browner, part of a more diverse group of people moving in from countries like Trinidad, Pakistan, Egypt or Bosnia, as well as Latin America. Their migration can be spiritual and emotional as well as physical. Many are fleeing wars. Some poverty. Some convert to new religions even as they make new homes. Others are drawn back strongly to their native faiths as they search for community here. A Sun-Sentinel survey done by Florida Voter of 1,000 residents in Broward, Palm and Miami-Dade counties found that immigrants give greater importance to religion in their daily lives than do non-immigrants. Immigrants ranked religion just behind family and work in terms of its importance in their daily lives. U.S-born residents placed religion further down a scale, behind friends and recreation. Daniel McBride From the moment he started reading the Quran, Daniel felt it was the instruction manual for the religious life he had long been seeking. Daniel, raised Catholic in Elmira, N.Y., had always felt the presence of God. But he lacked a clear channel of communication. After finishing college in Virginia, Daniel spent almost a decade teaching physical education in elementary and junior high schools. In the early 1990s, he enrolled in an Atlanta college, his goal to become a chiropractor. As he continued to grapple with a crisis of faith in his early 30s, Daniel began investigating other religions. Judaism crossed his mind, but it never took hold. He ranged over Protestant theology, from fundamentalist Christianity to sitting in on African-American congregations. "I always had a strong belief in God, but I didn't know how to worship," Daniel says. "I didn't know how to pray. I didn't know how to show respect." A friend lent him a copy of the Quran.
"I realized this was it," Daniel says. "It was clear, straightforward thinking in the book. It just all came together: so many things I had been thinking for so long." By then, he was a chiropractor in Jacksonville. Seeking out a mosque he had read about in a newspaper, Daniel quizzed the imam, the spiritual leader, about the translation he was reading. After being reassured it was an accurate Quran, Daniel made his profession of faith, an act known in Islam as a shahadah. Even as he became spiritually moored, Daniel was becoming a global citizen. Just before his decision to convert, the chiropractor had taken a job in South Africa, filling in for vacationing native doctors for several months. In less than a year, Daniel had changed professions and religions and was about to move halfway around the world. "You always hear of people coming to a religion because of some crisis or catastrophe in their life, but that wasn't the way with me at all," Daniel says. "I was on top when I decided to convert: I had a new profession. I was moving to a new country. I was looking forward to life and things were coming into place." Estie McBride Arriving in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Daniel found himself isolated. He was lonely and trying to live according to the dictates of his new faith. And he had moved to a country that was in the midst of a massive racial revolution. In 1995, South Africa was shifting from an all-white rule under the system of apartheid to majority black rule under a democratically elected government. The year before, former political prisoner Nelson Mandela had been elected as the country's first black leader. A black majority upset age-old divisions that had governed relations between black, white and the mixed-race populations. The revolution seriously crippled Estie Grootboom's ability to find a teaching job just as she was trying to become independent. Just out of college, a child from a middle-class family of teachers in the small sheep-farming town of Graaff-Reinet, she had moved several hours away to the city of Port Elizabeth in search of work. A sheltered young woman from a small town now living in a big city, Estie was unable to find either a job in a school or more lucrative work as an airline hostess. "It's very hard to explain what it's like over there: It was like Boca Raton would be just where the whites live," she says. "Fort Lauderdale would be where the coloreds lived. And all the blacks would live in Miami. That's the way people live over there. It's organized like that. You don't really question it. "We had always grown up thinking we were inferior to whites, but knowing we weren't as bad off as blacks."
Walking one day by an office on her lunch break, Estie was stopped by a white man. He said that he was an American, and that he had noticed her walking by for several days and wanted to meet her. His name was Daniel McBride. "It was the first white man ever who wanted to be friends with me," she says. "And he was a professional. I was very scared. I had heard a lot of stories about white men attacking colored girls, taking advantage of them." Even though he had less than three weeks left in his stay, the two started seeing each other. Daniel left to return to the United States and Estie wasn't sure she was going to hear from him again. Within weeks, a letter arrived saying he wanted to continue their relationship.
He called once, then again and again. Soon, the two were speaking almost every night, often at the cost of hundreds, even thousands of dollars a month. Daniel asked her to marry him, sent a plane ticket. The couple moved back for a while to South Africa, where Daniel operated a chiropractory practice in Graaf-Reinet, a town that seemed a throwback to those Rockwellian communities of the 1950s. "Everything closed at 5, and on the weekends everything just shut down completely," he remembers. "For a year it was nice, but I really had grown used to 24-hour convenience stores, going out to the supermarket and knowing you can find something whenever you wanted it. It was time to leave." They lived for a while in the Bahamas, then decided to settle in South Florida. Daniel's parents lived in Sebastian, and he was looking for a place closer to them, yet tolerant of both his religion and his mixed-race marriage.
"We're an interracial couple, so South Florida made more sense," Daniel says. "We found an area close to an Islamic community, close to my parents, so we could tie it all together."
The imam After they find a home or an apartment near their job, after they check out the local schools, the migrants who make South Florida their home often search for a place to worship. For foreign-born immigrants especially, churches, mosques and synagogues can be important points of entry. The language and the values are familiar. Good friends as well as good business contacts can be made there. It's a natural place for those with a yearning to volunteer their time in the new world. The community of like-minded believers can be one-stop shopping: a crisis center, welfare shelter, day care center and chamber of commerce. Opened last year in Plum Plaza in Boca Raton, the 2,200-square-foot Islamic Center is the place of worship for about 200 people. Formed originally from a community of Muslim students and professors at FAU, the mosque is now a gathering place for many young families and career-minded singles. The many couples with children were what drew the McBrides, despite long commutes from their first home in Broward County. Though Daniel still works in Hollywood, the family recently moved into an apartment within walking distance of the mosque. The pressure of making it in South Florida often cripples marriages, stresses finances and hampers efforts to plant roots. Immigrants worshiping at the mosque often are supporting extended families in places as far-flung as Indonesia, Pakistan or the occupied West Bank. Still others are refugees, from war-torn cities like Sarajevo or Belgrade, who have lost everything. The imam of the mosque, Ibrahim Dremali, presides over this congregation with a mix of humor and devotion. If American television ever does a drama about Muslim families, central casting might call him for an Islamic version of Seventh Heaven or Touched by an Angel. "I'll get calls late at night from couples fighting over things like money or how to raise their children," Ibrahim says. "Islamically, a woman has the right to her money, the money she earns, her dowry money. It is her money. But a lot of men come to the United States and like to change the rules. "You get called on to help solve these problems. Maybe the husband needs money to help support his parents, maybe there is a fight over their kids," he says. "I like to use humor so they'll come to me. If you don't make people feel comfortable, they won't approach you with their problems." The act of immigration is rarely so simple as moving from Point A to Point B. Long after they arrive, immigrants wrestle with changes in perception that can alter personal beliefs, codes and creeds they had thought were long established. Each brings a concept of community rooted in his or her native culture. As if unpacking from a long journey, they discover things about themselves that had lain undisturbed since being tucked away. "When people move to another country, they are often looking for a new means of religious expression, as well as a job or a new life," says Edemilson A. Cardoso, a pastor with two Brazilian-based Seventh-day Adventist congregations in Broward County. "I see this a lot," he says. "Many in my congregations weren't Seventh-day Adventists in Brazil. Many had no religion at all. But they come here and they're looking for new way to believe as well as a new way to live." Mirsad Krijestorac Before he arrived in the United States seven years ago, Mirsad didn't give much thought to religion and even less to Islam. Mirsad, 33, a well-known rock music promoter in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, made his community in the fast-paced world of artists, intellectuals and nightclubs.
But as war broke out in the early 1990s, Muslims became targets in Belgrade. Mirsad's high-profile career in the Yugoslavia of dictator Slobodan Milosevic made him a marked man. "First they'd beat or killed Muslims who were successful businessmen," Mirsad says. "And they'd put that in the newspaper like it was shocking news. But the news actually served the purpose of sending the message. "Many people got the message and left," he says. "It got to the point that I was being stopped, guns were being pointed at me, so I left, too." Mirsad lost everything. Arriving in New York with few contacts and no community to turn to, he ended up depressed and spent most of his days in bed. "That war destroyed all the human values inside of me to the point that I literally collapsed," he recalls. "I was desperately trying to build the human values I had again, but there was nothing to hold on for." After about six months laid up with a bad back and other stress ailments, Mirsad began thinking more and more about Islam. He realized that he had little knowledge of the religion of his ancestors. He had no idea why Muslims were so hated, why a mere Muslim name had destroyed his glittering life in Belgrade. "Simply because of my name, what connected me to Muslims, I had to go through everything," he says. "So I said, `Let me see what this really means.'" Moving with his family to South Florida, he slowly found his way to the Boca Raton mosque. The equivalent of a born-again Muslim, he began educating himself about the religion that had determined his fate. The tiny storefront mosque quickly came to define his community in South Florida. His wife made her shahada here, her joyous friends calling him at work to give him the good news. His children found friends among the children of Arabic, black and white children whose parents come here: a diversity, he points out, that is lacking in many other religions. Attending religious lectures, he started to notice Daniel. Both stood out as white, non-Arabic speakers. Both were seeking to learn more about the religion, Mirsad as a child of secular European Muslims, Daniel as a recent convert. Both had served as the vehicles for their wives' conversion to Islam. Both had two children.
"Eventually we found a lot of things in common," Mirsad says. "You like to spend time with the people who like the same things you do." When the McBrides fell on hard times, there seemed little question as to what he must do.
"You know that your neighbor has a problem, what are you going to do?" Mirsad asks. "You're going to help him. Is that something special? I feel like it's nothing special. I actually feel like I didn't do enough." What Mirsad finds so wondrous about his new country is not the permanence of its communities, but their impermanence. The mobility, the sprawl that so many Americans complain about may be its saving grace, he suggests. So, the idea that a Bosnian refugee would rediscover his faith in exile, find his way to Boca Raton and end up helping an American who found his own way to a new faith--it really isn't that surprising at all. "When you go to Europe, you see people whose family have lived there for generations, and they feel this is very important and they want to hold on to it," he says. "And when I see this in America, I have to laugh. "Look, you build houses here so you can destroy them easily. It's a completely different kind of thinking. Over there in Europe, you build them so they'll last 200 years."
As an act of charity--a congregation helping a young family get back on its feet--it was probably not unlike a thousand other small graces that occur in South Florida every day.
After falling out with his business partners, Daniel McBride, 39, found himself jobless in October 1999. He was struggling with bills, a lonely, homebound immigrant spouse, and two infants to feed. The chiropractor and his wife were living in a small apartment in a loud, seedy section of Oakland Park. Like other recent arrivals, they had no family nearby. They barely knew their neighbors, other transients who were fresh from one place and yearning for another, well away from the pawnshops and liquor stores. Like their neighbors, the McBrides were in transition: between cultures, lands, races and religions. In their short time together, the couple had made a series of category-killing choices that cut across color lines and catechisms. He is a lapsed Catholic from New York who converted to Islam in his mid-30s. She is South African -- a mixed-race "colored" in her native land, but black in the American racial context. Raised a Protestant evangelical, Estie McBride, 28, recently embraced her husband's newfound faith, most visibly reflected in the traditional hijab covering her hair and neck. What anchored them in South Florida--a megalopolis growing darker in complexion, more varied in religions, Babel-like in its many tongues -- was their faith. The McBrides are members of a small but devout congregation at the Islamic Center of Boca Raton, a mosque in an office park near Florida Atlantic University.
As word spread that they had hit a rough patch, members of the mosque pooled their money to help out. Returning to his car one afternoon, the doctor and his wife found it full of groceries: bags of food, baby formula and other necessities. Mirsad Krijestorac, a Bosnian refugee who had struck up a close friendship with the doctor, had spearheaded the effort. A small act, yes. And this, after all, is what communities--those networks of friends, families, co-workers or neighbors that define us--are supposed to do. But as race, language and cultures continue to meld in the yawning sprawl of South Florida, community is becoming ever more complex -- and simple acts a bit more extraordinary. "I came out to the car, and it was full of groceries. I mean, just packed full. I couldn't believe it," Daniel says. "Here were people, a lot of them, who are trying to make it here, too. Most of them aren't my race, aren't from my country, but they gave what they could to help us. "In South Florida -- with the crime and the urban sprawl -- people took care of us when we needed it," he says, shaking his head. The small mosque in Boca Raton has all the elements of a Norman Rockwell painting, but only if the famed artist of middle-class America added more skin tones, cell phones, kafiyyehs and Quranic verses to his portraits of community. As a microcosm of what's happening in the region, the Islamic Center offers a peek into the future of community here, and the McBrides a glimpse at one modern family.
Like South Florida's newer migrants, they and their fellow believers are young, often parents. Many are professionals working at universities or large corporations. Others are small- business men and women kneeling to pray in offices and workplaces in the afternoon or early evening. They are immigrants, foreign-born sojourners from a wide variety of countries, who may have spent time in New York City or another Northeastern city before moving here. And they are browner, part of a more diverse group of people moving in from countries like Trinidad, Pakistan, Egypt or Bosnia, as well as Latin America. Their migration can be spiritual and emotional as well as physical. Many are fleeing wars. Some poverty. Some convert to new religions even as they make new homes. Others are drawn back strongly to their native faiths as they search for community here. A Sun-Sentinel survey done by Florida Voter of 1,000 residents in Broward, Palm and Miami-Dade counties found that immigrants give greater importance to religion in their daily lives than do non-immigrants. Immigrants ranked religion just behind family and work in terms of its importance in their daily lives. U.S-born residents placed religion further down a scale, behind friends and recreation. Daniel McBride From the moment he started reading the Quran, Daniel felt it was the instruction manual for the religious life he had long been seeking. Daniel, raised Catholic in Elmira, N.Y., had always felt the presence of God. But he lacked a clear channel of communication. After finishing college in Virginia, Daniel spent almost a decade teaching physical education in elementary and junior high schools. In the early 1990s, he enrolled in an Atlanta college, his goal to become a chiropractor. As he continued to grapple with a crisis of faith in his early 30s, Daniel began investigating other religions. Judaism crossed his mind, but it never took hold. He ranged over Protestant theology, from fundamentalist Christianity to sitting in on African-American congregations. "I always had a strong belief in God, but I didn't know how to worship," Daniel says. "I didn't know how to pray. I didn't know how to show respect." A friend lent him a copy of the Quran.
"I realized this was it," Daniel says. "It was clear, straightforward thinking in the book. It just all came together: so many things I had been thinking for so long." By then, he was a chiropractor in Jacksonville. Seeking out a mosque he had read about in a newspaper, Daniel quizzed the imam, the spiritual leader, about the translation he was reading. After being reassured it was an accurate Quran, Daniel made his profession of faith, an act known in Islam as a shahadah. Even as he became spiritually moored, Daniel was becoming a global citizen. Just before his decision to convert, the chiropractor had taken a job in South Africa, filling in for vacationing native doctors for several months. In less than a year, Daniel had changed professions and religions and was about to move halfway around the world. "You always hear of people coming to a religion because of some crisis or catastrophe in their life, but that wasn't the way with me at all," Daniel says. "I was on top when I decided to convert: I had a new profession. I was moving to a new country. I was looking forward to life and things were coming into place." Estie McBride Arriving in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Daniel found himself isolated. He was lonely and trying to live according to the dictates of his new faith. And he had moved to a country that was in the midst of a massive racial revolution. In 1995, South Africa was shifting from an all-white rule under the system of apartheid to majority black rule under a democratically elected government. The year before, former political prisoner Nelson Mandela had been elected as the country's first black leader. A black majority upset age-old divisions that had governed relations between black, white and the mixed-race populations. The revolution seriously crippled Estie Grootboom's ability to find a teaching job just as she was trying to become independent. Just out of college, a child from a middle-class family of teachers in the small sheep-farming town of Graaff-Reinet, she had moved several hours away to the city of Port Elizabeth in search of work. A sheltered young woman from a small town now living in a big city, Estie was unable to find either a job in a school or more lucrative work as an airline hostess. "It's very hard to explain what it's like over there: It was like Boca Raton would be just where the whites live," she says. "Fort Lauderdale would be where the coloreds lived. And all the blacks would live in Miami. That's the way people live over there. It's organized like that. You don't really question it. "We had always grown up thinking we were inferior to whites, but knowing we weren't as bad off as blacks."
Walking one day by an office on her lunch break, Estie was stopped by a white man. He said that he was an American, and that he had noticed her walking by for several days and wanted to meet her. His name was Daniel McBride. "It was the first white man ever who wanted to be friends with me," she says. "And he was a professional. I was very scared. I had heard a lot of stories about white men attacking colored girls, taking advantage of them." Even though he had less than three weeks left in his stay, the two started seeing each other. Daniel left to return to the United States and Estie wasn't sure she was going to hear from him again. Within weeks, a letter arrived saying he wanted to continue their relationship.
He called once, then again and again. Soon, the two were speaking almost every night, often at the cost of hundreds, even thousands of dollars a month. Daniel asked her to marry him, sent a plane ticket. The couple moved back for a while to South Africa, where Daniel operated a chiropractory practice in Graaf-Reinet, a town that seemed a throwback to those Rockwellian communities of the 1950s. "Everything closed at 5, and on the weekends everything just shut down completely," he remembers. "For a year it was nice, but I really had grown used to 24-hour convenience stores, going out to the supermarket and knowing you can find something whenever you wanted it. It was time to leave." They lived for a while in the Bahamas, then decided to settle in South Florida. Daniel's parents lived in Sebastian, and he was looking for a place closer to them, yet tolerant of both his religion and his mixed-race marriage.
"We're an interracial couple, so South Florida made more sense," Daniel says. "We found an area close to an Islamic community, close to my parents, so we could tie it all together."
The imam After they find a home or an apartment near their job, after they check out the local schools, the migrants who make South Florida their home often search for a place to worship. For foreign-born immigrants especially, churches, mosques and synagogues can be important points of entry. The language and the values are familiar. Good friends as well as good business contacts can be made there. It's a natural place for those with a yearning to volunteer their time in the new world. The community of like-minded believers can be one-stop shopping: a crisis center, welfare shelter, day care center and chamber of commerce. Opened last year in Plum Plaza in Boca Raton, the 2,200-square-foot Islamic Center is the place of worship for about 200 people. Formed originally from a community of Muslim students and professors at FAU, the mosque is now a gathering place for many young families and career-minded singles. The many couples with children were what drew the McBrides, despite long commutes from their first home in Broward County. Though Daniel still works in Hollywood, the family recently moved into an apartment within walking distance of the mosque. The pressure of making it in South Florida often cripples marriages, stresses finances and hampers efforts to plant roots. Immigrants worshiping at the mosque often are supporting extended families in places as far-flung as Indonesia, Pakistan or the occupied West Bank. Still others are refugees, from war-torn cities like Sarajevo or Belgrade, who have lost everything. The imam of the mosque, Ibrahim Dremali, presides over this congregation with a mix of humor and devotion. If American television ever does a drama about Muslim families, central casting might call him for an Islamic version of Seventh Heaven or Touched by an Angel. "I'll get calls late at night from couples fighting over things like money or how to raise their children," Ibrahim says. "Islamically, a woman has the right to her money, the money she earns, her dowry money. It is her money. But a lot of men come to the United States and like to change the rules. "You get called on to help solve these problems. Maybe the husband needs money to help support his parents, maybe there is a fight over their kids," he says. "I like to use humor so they'll come to me. If you don't make people feel comfortable, they won't approach you with their problems." The act of immigration is rarely so simple as moving from Point A to Point B. Long after they arrive, immigrants wrestle with changes in perception that can alter personal beliefs, codes and creeds they had thought were long established. Each brings a concept of community rooted in his or her native culture. As if unpacking from a long journey, they discover things about themselves that had lain undisturbed since being tucked away. "When people move to another country, they are often looking for a new means of religious expression, as well as a job or a new life," says Edemilson A. Cardoso, a pastor with two Brazilian-based Seventh-day Adventist congregations in Broward County. "I see this a lot," he says. "Many in my congregations weren't Seventh-day Adventists in Brazil. Many had no religion at all. But they come here and they're looking for new way to believe as well as a new way to live." Mirsad Krijestorac Before he arrived in the United States seven years ago, Mirsad didn't give much thought to religion and even less to Islam. Mirsad, 33, a well-known rock music promoter in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, made his community in the fast-paced world of artists, intellectuals and nightclubs.
But as war broke out in the early 1990s, Muslims became targets in Belgrade. Mirsad's high-profile career in the Yugoslavia of dictator Slobodan Milosevic made him a marked man. "First they'd beat or killed Muslims who were successful businessmen," Mirsad says. "And they'd put that in the newspaper like it was shocking news. But the news actually served the purpose of sending the message. "Many people got the message and left," he says. "It got to the point that I was being stopped, guns were being pointed at me, so I left, too." Mirsad lost everything. Arriving in New York with few contacts and no community to turn to, he ended up depressed and spent most of his days in bed. "That war destroyed all the human values inside of me to the point that I literally collapsed," he recalls. "I was desperately trying to build the human values I had again, but there was nothing to hold on for." After about six months laid up with a bad back and other stress ailments, Mirsad began thinking more and more about Islam. He realized that he had little knowledge of the religion of his ancestors. He had no idea why Muslims were so hated, why a mere Muslim name had destroyed his glittering life in Belgrade. "Simply because of my name, what connected me to Muslims, I had to go through everything," he says. "So I said, `Let me see what this really means.'" Moving with his family to South Florida, he slowly found his way to the Boca Raton mosque. The equivalent of a born-again Muslim, he began educating himself about the religion that had determined his fate. The tiny storefront mosque quickly came to define his community in South Florida. His wife made her shahada here, her joyous friends calling him at work to give him the good news. His children found friends among the children of Arabic, black and white children whose parents come here: a diversity, he points out, that is lacking in many other religions. Attending religious lectures, he started to notice Daniel. Both stood out as white, non-Arabic speakers. Both were seeking to learn more about the religion, Mirsad as a child of secular European Muslims, Daniel as a recent convert. Both had served as the vehicles for their wives' conversion to Islam. Both had two children.
"Eventually we found a lot of things in common," Mirsad says. "You like to spend time with the people who like the same things you do." When the McBrides fell on hard times, there seemed little question as to what he must do.
"You know that your neighbor has a problem, what are you going to do?" Mirsad asks. "You're going to help him. Is that something special? I feel like it's nothing special. I actually feel like I didn't do enough." What Mirsad finds so wondrous about his new country is not the permanence of its communities, but their impermanence. The mobility, the sprawl that so many Americans complain about may be its saving grace, he suggests. So, the idea that a Bosnian refugee would rediscover his faith in exile, find his way to Boca Raton and end up helping an American who found his own way to a new faith--it really isn't that surprising at all. "When you go to Europe, you see people whose family have lived there for generations, and they feel this is very important and they want to hold on to it," he says. "And when I see this in America, I have to laugh. "Look, you build houses here so you can destroy them easily. It's a completely different kind of thinking. Over there in Europe, you build them so they'll last 200 years."
5 Steps to reganing that lovin feeling
atima Barakatullah shows us how to re-kindle the fires of romance after 10 years and 5 kids!
Wondering what happened to the romance since you became parents? Can’t remember the last time you smelt a rose? Can’t remember how to get dressed up? It needn’t be that way! With a little effort, you can re-ignite the passion you once had for one another and, through it, renew the strength of your relationship.
Embrace one another
Physical contact is so important and even an embrace and a simple back rub or head massage can reduce stress levels and keep you connected to each other. Take time out to have a hug and renew yourselves.
Have a routine
If your kids are up till late, and your home is disorderly, then it’s hardly surprising that you don’t get a chance to bond with your spouse. There has to be time for you to be together as a couple, for you to be able to pay full attention to each other. So get your kids into a good meal and bedtime routine and stick to it! It’ll change your life!
Go on a date!
Have regular time alone together…uninterrupted! Even if that means asking your mum to keep the kids for a few hours. You could use that time to talk, remember how you met and what your feelings were for each other when you got married. Eat out together or go to a quiet spot by a river or for a stroll in the park. Only talk about positive things in that time that you have set aside for yourselves.
Flirt with each other!
Leave a little love note in his lunch box or stick it on his rear-view mirror. Send him a text message with a message of love and gratitude for all he has done for you. You are never more attractive than when you are smiling and happy. Be a bit of a bimbo sometimes! What I mean by that is: joke and be light hearted around your husband and don’t always bring up the heavy stuff when you’re with him.
Get your glad rags out!
You know! The make-up and jewellery you once wore but now don’t seem to be able to find. Make an effort to look good and both you and your husband will benefit! Even if you can’t do it every day, dress up once in a while and your husband is sure to notice the extra effort you’ve put in. Indulge in nice smelling bath scrubs that’ll make your skin soft and smelling sensual. A mud mask once a week will make your face shine with radiance!
Wondering what happened to the romance since you became parents? Can’t remember the last time you smelt a rose? Can’t remember how to get dressed up? It needn’t be that way! With a little effort, you can re-ignite the passion you once had for one another and, through it, renew the strength of your relationship.
Embrace one another
Physical contact is so important and even an embrace and a simple back rub or head massage can reduce stress levels and keep you connected to each other. Take time out to have a hug and renew yourselves.
Have a routine
If your kids are up till late, and your home is disorderly, then it’s hardly surprising that you don’t get a chance to bond with your spouse. There has to be time for you to be together as a couple, for you to be able to pay full attention to each other. So get your kids into a good meal and bedtime routine and stick to it! It’ll change your life!
Go on a date!
Have regular time alone together…uninterrupted! Even if that means asking your mum to keep the kids for a few hours. You could use that time to talk, remember how you met and what your feelings were for each other when you got married. Eat out together or go to a quiet spot by a river or for a stroll in the park. Only talk about positive things in that time that you have set aside for yourselves.
Flirt with each other!
Leave a little love note in his lunch box or stick it on his rear-view mirror. Send him a text message with a message of love and gratitude for all he has done for you. You are never more attractive than when you are smiling and happy. Be a bit of a bimbo sometimes! What I mean by that is: joke and be light hearted around your husband and don’t always bring up the heavy stuff when you’re with him.
Get your glad rags out!
You know! The make-up and jewellery you once wore but now don’t seem to be able to find. Make an effort to look good and both you and your husband will benefit! Even if you can’t do it every day, dress up once in a while and your husband is sure to notice the extra effort you’ve put in. Indulge in nice smelling bath scrubs that’ll make your skin soft and smelling sensual. A mud mask once a week will make your face shine with radiance!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Three Point Action Agenda for the Muslim Ummah
Three ayaat (102-104) of Surah Aal-e-Imran are of immense significance as they contain in a nutshell the comprehensive three-point plan of action Muslims are commanded to undertake in order to attain terrestrial success as well as salvation and felicity in the Hereafter. These ayaat and their English translation are as follows:
Believers! Heed Allah as He should be heeded, and see that you do not die except in the state of Islam.
And hold fast, all together, to the Rope of Allah (which He stretched out for you), and be not divided among yourselves; and remember with gratitude Allah´s favor on you, for you were once enemies and then He joined your hearts in love, so that by His Grace you became brethren; and you were on the brink of the pit of fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah make His Signs clear to you, that you may be guided to the right way.
Let there arise from among you a band of people (i.e., a party) who invite people to all that is good, and enjoin the doing of all that is right and forbid the doing of all that is wrong. It is they who will attain true success.
These ayaat occur almost in the middle of the Surah Aal-e-Imran and as such occupy a pivotal position in the numerous themes with which the Surah deals. As is commonly believed by Muslims, every single ayah of the Qur´an contains both theoretical wisdom and practical guidance. Similarly, though the above mentioned three ayaat too have philosophical points of wisdom or theoretical hikmah, I shall mainly dilate upon the practical guidance provided by them. I personally believe that pure academicism or too much philosophical or critical acumen exercised in understanding a particular point quite often hides from the scholar the concrete and practical guidance contained therein. Moreover, what the Muslim Ummah as a whole needs today is a clear and precise perception of the religious obligations and imperatives and a resolve to act upon them in the right earnest.
* The first ayah tells the Muslims very precisely, and yet very comprehensively, the obligations which they have to fulfill as members of the Muslim Ummah — the priorities in the conduct of life and the value-structure to be upheld during the course of this-worldly life.
* The second ayah enlightens the Muslims about the binding-force which unites and welds them into an Ummah (a religious fraternity) — the instrument which turns them into a disciplined community with a common aim.
* The third ayah delineates the objective and goal of the Muslim Ummah in general and that of the activist Islamic group or hizbullah in particular. In other words, it deals with the question: What is the mission and the target for which the Ummah has to strive?
One can very easily see that there is a strong logical relationship between these three points. Every organizational effort or collectivity depends ultimately upon the individual members — their existential commitment to the group´s world-view and determination to act accordingly. How can a group or a collectivity proceed in the right direction unless its individual members act and behave in the right manner? If individuals do not conduct themselves on the prescribed lines, how can the group as a whole work appropriately and achieve its envisaged targets? It is quite logical, therefore, that in organizing a collective effort the individual person himself comes first. In the context of Islamic Ummah´s mission and goal, the foremost point is that an individual Muslim should realize and perform his religious obligations. He should be quite clear as to what Islam requires him to do, and he must fulfill those requirements.
Let me illustrate this point with the help of an example. Suppose a person has to ascend a platform which has three steps. The surest and safest way for him will be first to rise up to the first step, then to the second and finally to the last. If, on the other hand, he tries to jump at the top he is most likely to fall down, thus failing to achieve his target. The ayaat cited above similarly unfold before us three steps or stages through which Muslims should pursue their ummatic goal.
So let us focus our attention on the first ayah that reads:
Believers! Heed Allah as He should be heeded, and see that you do not die except in the state of Islam.
Here two points are noteworthy before we embark upon an in-depth analysis of the contents of the ayah: First, almost two-third of the Qur´an consists of Makkan Surahs in which the expression "O Believers!" has not been used even once. This way of address was employed in the Medinan period when the Muslims had formally became a community. Thus this expression marked the formation of Muslim Ummah and Allah Almighty (SWT) used these words while addressing all the members of the Islamic polity.
Secondly, a major portion of Surah Aal-e-Imran was revealed in the third year after Hijrah, immediately after the battle of Uhud (Shawwal, 3 A.H.). If one tries to visualize, with the help of authentic historical accounts, the state of the Muslim community at that time in Medinah, one sees that the faith and belief of the community presented a wide spectrum. At the one end of that spectrum were true, staunch, and pious believers (among both Ansar and Muhajiroon) the depth of whose inner certitude and unflinching belief (Iman) was fathomless, whereas at the other extreme were those who lacked firm commitment and dedication to Islam — the vacillating and faint-hearted among the Prophet´s (SAW) followers. The highest degree of this attitude was exhibited by those whom the Qur´an terms as Munafiqun — people who had rancor or hatred against true Muslims and suffered from incredulity, impiety, shiftlessness, and dissimulation. The important point to note, however, is that these people were never treated as a separate group; rather they were included among the Muslims and the address starting with the expressions "O Believers!" also covered them. This point has far reaching implications. Legally, even the hypocrites are to be treated as Muslims in an Islamic society as they profess the Oneness of Allah (SWT) and prophethood of Muhammad (SAW). That is why in the whole of the Qur´an we do not read even once the words "O Hypocrites!" even though a complete Surah entitled "Al-Munafiqun" (the Hypocrites) deals with the wiles, plots, and false pretexts of the dissemblers, whom the Holy Book likens to propped-up timbers. At other places the hypocrites, faint-hearted, and weak-willed Muslims are described as a menace to military discipline, quislings under pressure and vacillators always guessing at their shifting fortunes. All those who profess to have Iman, the Qur´an says, are not necessarily trule believers; many have diseases of feebleness or hypocrisy in their hearts:
And there are some men who say: We believe in God and the Last Day; but they are not really believers ...in their hearts is disease…. (Al-Baqarah 2:8-10)
The Bedouins say, We believe. Say: You do not (truly) believe, rather say, "We have (outwardly) surrendered" — for faith has not yet entered your hearts. (Al-Hujurat 49:14)
O Messenger, let those who vie with one another in (the way of) kufr not grieve you, from among those who say with their mouths "We believe" while their hearts believe not…. (Al-Ma´ida 5:41)
So, here in this world, true and staunch believers as well as weaklings and hypocrites are all mixed together. However, Almighty Allah (SWT) will make a clear division between them on the Day of Judgment, when everybody will be rewarded on the basis of his belief and deeds (see Al-Hadeed 57:13). In other words, in this world a man´s being Muslim (i.e., his verbal attestation of the basic beliefs of Islam and outward actions) is all that matters; but in the Hereafter only true and sincere belief — Iman — and deeds performed with the sole intention of pleasing Allah (SWT) will save one from the torments of hell-fire.
Turning now to the meanings of the ayaat, one notes that they address all who claim themselves to be believers, and the first demand that is made is: "O Believers! heed Allah as much as He should be really heeded." This means that people who profess faith are being commanded to be true believers and to have fear and awe of Allah (SWT) to the utmost degree. The Arabic word Taqwa is very meagerly transliterated in the English word "fear." Fear is obviously of many kinds:
* the abject fear of the coward;
* the fear of a child or an inexperienced person in the face of an unknown danger, more properly called dread;
* the fear of a reasonable man who wishes to avoid harm to himself or to people whom he wishes to protect;
* the reverence which is akin to love, for it fears to do anything which is not pleasing to the object of love.
The first is unworthy of man; the second is necessary for one spiritually immature; the third is a manly precaution against evil so long as it is unconquered; and the fourth is the seed-bed of righteousness and piety. Those mature in faith cultivate the fourth; at earlier stages, the third or the second may be necessary. But even here it is both fear and reverential awe of Allah (SWT). The first, on the other hand, is a feeling of which anyone should be ashamed. To respond to the call of Allah (SWT) and His Messenger (SAW) even after one has been smitten by injuries indicates that one fears God. Taqwa is indeed God-consciousness that makes a person righteous and pious. Steadfastness and perseverance in obedience and loyalty to Almighty Allah (SWT) necessarily characterize the pious (i.e., a muttaqi). According to the Qur´an, Taqwa is an all-embracing moral-cum-spiritual quality of the highest order — the inner driving force that keeps a Muslim on the right track.
Let us try to understand Taqwa a little further. Taqwa does not merely imply any particular form, appearance or life-style. Rather, it is a state of mind and heart which no doubt does reflect in every aspect of life. It permeates the whole being of a true believer; it is not a mere veneer or outward show. Essentially, it can be termed God-consciousness: a human being´s awe of God, consciousness of one´s duty towards Him, and an awareness of one´s accountability to Him; to be conscious of the fact that the world is a phase of trial where Allah (SWT) has sent us for a specified period of time; that Allah´s decisions on the Day of Judgment on an individual´s future in the Hereafter will depend on how he makes use of his energies and capabilities in the period of time at his disposal in this world. A conscience which is fired by consciousness of Allah (SWT) becomes alive. Man´s sensitivity becomes sharp under this influence and he avoids everything that is against Allah´s will. He starts examining his own thoughts and feelings to see what tendencies are being nurtured within him. He begins to scrutinize his life to find out in what activities he is spending his time and energy.
Once the second Caliph Umar (RAA) asked Ubai Ibn Ka´b (RAA) as to how he would define Taqwa and what its essence is. Ubai Ibn Ka´b (RAA), acclaimed by the Holy Prophet (SAW) as a great scholar and reciter of the Qur´an, explained it in such a convincing and vivid manner that everyone of the Companions sitting in that meeting appreciated it. The explanation given by him may be paraphrased like this: If a man has to cross a jungle with thorny bushes on both sides of a narrow track, he will take extreme care and tuck up his garments in order to avoid any harm to his clothes or to himself. This attitude of caution and care is to be called Taqwa.
Keeping this connotation of Taqwa in view, let us first understand what Iman or Islamic religions belief is. Iman signifies that a person has acknowledged the unity of God and believed in Him as the Creator and the Sustainer of the universe, one has testified to the Day of Judgment, and, finally, believed the messengership of Muhammad (SAW). This tripartite belief entails crucially important practical imperatives, which are, in the words of the Qur´an, as follows:
So, obey Allah and obey His Messenger; but if you turn back, the duty of our Messenger is but to proclaim the Message clearly and openly. (Al-Taghabun 64:12)
So take and put in practice what the Messenger assigns to you and deny yourselves that which he withholds from you.... (Al-Hashr 59:7).
Then guard yourselves against the Day when one soul shall not avail another, nor shall compensation be accepted from her, nor shall intercession profit her, nor shall anyone be helped. (Al-Baqarah 2:123)
In a nutshell, the first and foremost demand of Iman on a Muslim is that he should have Taqwa. Not only does a person with Taqwa scrupulously avoid things which are explicitly prohibited, he also hesitates from getting involved in affairs which are in any way dubious or worthless. His sense of duty makes him fulfill Allah´s commands in a spirit of total submission. His fear of God causes a feeling of deep anxiety and agony whenever there is a possibility that he may be in danger of exceeding limits prescribed by Almighty Allah (SWT). Ensuring the discharge of his obligations towards God and towards his fellow-beings becomes his way of life; he shudders at the very thought of doing anything unjust and against the Islamic Shari´ah. He keeps a vigil on whatever his bodily limbs (arms, legs, eyes, ears, sexual organs) perform. He thinks himself accountable for all voluntary acts performed through them. Since, according to the Qur´an an angel always records whatever a man speaks out, a God-fearing man is vigilant about what he utters. This vigilance, control, concern, and caution are the hallmarks of the Taqwa-based attitude in life.
Again, the words which accompany and qualify the commandment for Taqwa are immensely noteworthy: "...as He should be heeded." While reciting this ayah we generally take a cursory and cavalier view of these words. How radically different was the attitude and response of the Companions of the Prophet (SAW) when they came to know of this challenging demand! They became extremely perturbed and thought that it was impossible for one to fear Almighty Allah (SWT) to the highest degree due Him. They, therefore, inquired from the Prophet about this and got consolation only when the following words of Allah, Most Merciful and Most Compassionate, were revealed: "So heed God as much as you can..." (Al-Taghabun 64:15). On hearing this, they were relieved of a terrible anxiety. Allah´s Taqwa combined with "as much as you can" obviously means: "lead lives of self-restraint and righteousness to the highest possible degree." And the Companions of the Holy Prophet (SAW) amply acted upon this Divine injunction. However, on our part we should not absolve ourselves of our obligation by underestimating our own capacities and capabilities. One should not deliberately forego the struggle for restraint and piety on the false (and self-deceiving!) pretext that he lacks the required mental and physical strength. The All-Knowing Allah (SWT) knows well how much strength and capability He has given to each person and everyone will be judged according to that measure.
Now let us discuss the second injunction contained in the ayah: "and see that you do not die except in the state of Islam." What does Islam literally mean? It means submission and surrender to Allah (SWT). Islam implies belief in the unity of God and the prophethood of Muhammad (SAW). Anyone who testifies to this belief fulfills the legal requirement for entry into the fold of Islam. This belief has very significant practical ramifications. The edifice of a complete Islamic life can only be built on a belief in God´s unity (Tauheed) that permeates a person´s entire personal and social life, and which is so strong that he considers himself and all that he possesses as really belonging to Almighty Allah (SWT); he accepts Him as the sole rightful Owner, Object of worship, Receiver of obedience, and Law-giver for himself as well as for the rest of the world; he considers Him the fountain-head of guidance, and is fully aware that disobedience to Allah (SWT) or indifference to the divinely revealed law constitutes deviation from the right path of Islam. Indeed, controlling the baser prompting and desires of the self and always striving to act according to the dictates of the Qur´an and Sunnah of the Prophet is what Islam essentially means.
Moreover, the command given in a most emphatic style — "and see that you do not die save in the state of Islam" — is very significant and subtle. As a matter of fact, nobody knows as to how long he is going to live and where and in what conditions his death will take place. We often hear that a person travels in the morning to a certain place on a business or pleasure trip. His family members fondly expect him back after a few days, but instead in the evening of the very same day he left his house, his wife and children receive his dead body. Thus, if a person firmly decides that death does not take him except in the state of submission and total surrender to Allah (SWT), he will have to be extremely and ceaselessly alert so that not even a single moment of his life is spent in sinful activity. Nobody has any guarantee whatsoever that he is not to die at the time of indulging in sin and thus transgressing the limits set by the Qur´an and the Sunnah.
Many Qur´anic ayaat and ahadith emphasize that an un-Islamic act cannot co-exist with Iman, indeed to the extent that, at least while man is committing a sin, his Iman leaves him. Let me here quote a very authentic hadith.
Hadrat Abu Hurayra (RAA) says that Allah´s Messenger (SAW) said: While one is committing fornication, he is not a believer; while one is stealing, he is not a believer; while one is taking liquor, he is not a believer; while one is plundering, as people look on, he is not a believer; while one is committing fraud, he is not a believer; so beware, beware! (Bukhari and Muslim)
Leaving aside for a moment the arguments of the jurists and theologians about Iman and its relation to a´maal (actions), one must try to understand the matter in the light of the Qur´an. It is crystal clear from the Qur´an that the inner conviction of faith and the practice of Islam are essentially interdependent. Allah (SWT) almost invariably mentions faith and righteous conduct together. Verbal profession of Islamic beliefs, though important in its own right, is not sufficient for supporting the edifice of an Islamic morality and way of life and for winning him salvation in the Hereafter. Just imagine the utter misfortune of a person whose soul is overtaken by death while he is committing a grievous sin and no time is left for him to repent and make amends. This situation can only be avoided by a Muslim who makes Islam the ultimate, paramount and all-time concern in his life.
First things first. This, then, is the foremost and base-line practical step or action which a true Muslim has to undertake most earnestly. Without accomplishing this, he cannot fruitfully move on to the two higher steps of the action-agenda. Allah (SWT) castigates the religious divines of the Jews with severest reproach on this account thus:
Do you enjoin right conduct on the people, and forget (to practise it) yourselves, and yet you study the Scripture? Will you not understand? (Al-Baqarah 2:44)
This attitude (of double standards) is also conspicuously visible in our own present day Muslim society. Many a preacher deliver moving and passionate sermons to others on religion and moral rectitude. A large group of spiritual mentors is seen engaged in Islamic da´wah activity across the Muslim world. High-quality and first-rate academic papers are being written and published by a host of scholars in the Muslim lands. Yet, on closer examination, one regrettably finds that most of these scholars, writers, and mentors do not practise Islam themselves. Their own lives and conduct, far from being based on Taqwa and Iman, exhibit many deviations from Islamic principles. Unfortunately, they forget that the first thing that Islam demands from them is to lead their own lives as much as possible according to the dictates of the Qur´an and the Sunnah of the Prophet (SAW).
The demand of the Qur´an as explained in the above lines is that we are required to worship and love Allah (SWT) with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our strength. In Islam, the religious concern is ultimate, it excludes all other concerns from ultimate significance. The concern for Islam is to be unconditional: independent of any condition of character, desire, or circumstance. The unconditional concern is total: no part of ourselves or of our world is excluded from it, there is no place to flee from it. The total concern is infinite: no moment of relaxation and rest is possible in the face of a religious concern which is ultimate, unconditional, total and infinite. The Qur´anic ayah: "O Believers! Enter wholly in Islam..." (Al-Baqarah 2:208) means exactly this. Allah (SWT) demands that man should submit, without reservation, the whole of his being and life to His will. Man´s outlook, intellectual pursuits, behavior, interaction with other people and modes of behavior should all be completely subordinate to Islam. Allah (SWT) does not accept the splitting up of human life into separate compartments, some governed by the teachings of Islam and others exempt from them. Whether seen from the point of view of Islam or Taqwa (i.e., God-fearing attitude and God-consciousness), the Qur´an instructs us to believe wholeheartedly and to bow in submission and obedience to God totally and completely. It allows no fragmentation of life. Taqwa is an all-embracing moral quality of the highest order. It manifests itself in an individual´s whole way of thinking and acting. The Qur´an emphasizes that the guidance given by Allah (SWT) cannot be split into parts — the peripheral, less important ones to be followed, the fundamental, more important ones to be put in cold storage. We can see with our own eyes in the lives of those who often enjoy great fame for their Taqwa that they are so particular about the minute details of the Shari´ah that deviation from the secondary injunctions of their own juristic persuasions is to them tantamount to heresy and threatened with hell-fire. But their neglect of the fundamentals of Islam — e.g., prohibition of interest in business and concern for economic exploitation and social injustice in society — reaches such heights that compromise and expediency seem to dominate lives.
Taqwa or God-consciousness must assert itself both in public life and in the inner denizens of private life. In case it is shallow and fake, it will manifest only in the external veneer of living and conduct. Once the Holy Prophet (SAW) pointed to his breast thrice and said that Taqwa resides in here. If the heart of a man is enlivened by Taqwa, it will permeate his entire being and dye his total personality with the "color of Allah." A Muslim has been commanded by Allah (SWT) not only to pray and fast, but also to put in practice His injunctions with respect to the social, political, and economic aspects of life. Islam does not allow in the least the modern secular approach in which religion is confined to one´s private life and modes of worship. On no pretext whatsoever — economic stringency, difficulties in interest-free monetary transactions, extravagant customary practices on weddings and other social occasions — can a true and committed Muslim justify himself in indulging in un-Islamic behavior. This is the basic and foremost lesson that comes out so clearly and emphatically from this ayah of Surah Aal-e-Imran for anyone who aspires to live as a Muslim and die as a Muslim.
And hold fast, all together, to the Rope of Allah (which He stretched out for you), and be not divided among yourselves; and remember with gratitude Allah´s favor on you, for you were once enemies and then He joined your hearts in love, so that by His Grace you became brethren; and you were on the brink of the pit of fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah make His Signs clear to you, that you may be guided to the right way.
The next ayah (ayah 103) of Surah Aal-e-Imran explains the second practical step that the Muslim Ummah is urged to undertake. All those who have accomplished to the maximum possible degree the requirement of the preceding ayah and attained the driving force of Taqwa (i.e., God-consciousness) in their lives — are called upon to unite and join together for the cause of Islam. Until and unless they join hands together and become like a solid steel-ribbed structure, they cannot achieve the supremacy and ascendancy of Islam at the global level. It is a well-established truth that any influential and wide-ranging mission, be it a moral or an immoral one, requires the concerted efforts of a group of people.
The noblest and loftiest end — to make humanity surrender to one God — that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) achieved in his life time was only achieved with the selfless, dedicated, and cooperative efforts of his Companions (RAA). But the Prophet (SAW) himself could achieve this within the boundaries of Arabian Peninsula and the task of disseminating Islam and making it dominant in the entire world was put on the shoulders of Muslim Ummah. This gigantic duty obviously calls for a united and organized struggle.
Now, just as a strong and solid wall requires strong blocks or bricks, the individual members of the Islamic Jihad movement should also be men of deep inner conviction and noblest character, who strive together to bring all power and all powers under God. If the individual Muslim suffers from lack of commitment to the Islamic cause and is not a dedicated worker, the Islamic Ummah cannot accomplish its Divinely ordained mission. In other words, each Muslim must first himself become a sincere, wholehearted, and authentic believer in order to play his role in the discharge of Ummatic obligations. The consolidation and invigoration of Iman or Taqwa in the individual person is the subject which has been dealt with most fully yet succinctly in the preceding ayah of the Holy Qur´an. Now, we move on to the second step.
We have seen that it is of utmost urgency for Muslims to join hands together for the realization of Ummah´s destiny as the standard-bearer of truth, the establishment of Divine Order of social justice and equity on earth; in other words, bringing God´s earth under God´s rule. The most important question that arises here is: What is that bond or cementing material which would bind the Muslims into a strongly united group or collectivity? The Qur´anic ayah under discussion provides answer to this very question: "And hold fast, all together, the cord of Allah (that he stretched out for you), and be not divided among yourselves...."
The simile used here is that of people struggling in deep water, to whom a benevolent Providence stretches out a strong and unbreakable cord or rope of rescue. If all hold fast to it together, their mutual support adds to the chance of their safety. One may wonder here as to what habl Allah — the cord of Allah (SWT) — really means. Mention of a few methodological points with regard to the commentary on, and understanding of, the Holy Qur´an will be in the fitness of things!
The first principle to be kept in mind in the interpretation and understanding of the Qur´an is that its one ayah or portion is sometimes explained and elaborated by another ayah or portion of the Qur´an. In case one does not find such explanation within the Qur´an, then the second recognized principle is to explore the backgrounds of the Qur´anic revelations called the "occasions of revelation." They were recorded by the Companions of the Prophet (SAW) as a necessary aid for fixing the correct meaning of the Word of God. And linked with this is the belief with regard to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) vis-Ã -vis the Qur´an, for he clarified and elaborated the Qur´an, supplementing its broad general principles by giving them precise and detailed forms, and incorporating them into practical life, his own as well as those of his followers. Thus the Qur´an affirms this role of the Prophet in these words:
And we sent down the Book to you for the express purpose that you should make clear to them those things in which they differ, and that it should be a guide and a mercy to those who believe. (An-Nahl 16:64)
In the light of these principles, for an understanding of the expression "cord of Allah," we should turn to the traditions of the Holy Prophet (SAW). In the presence of authentic historical traditions of the Prophet (SAW) about a particular issue or point, it is wrong to resort to free-play of reason or fancy. Indeed such interpretation of arbitrary opinion (tafseer bil-ra´ay) has never found favor with orthodox Muslims. Many Urdu translators and exegesists of the Qur´an have not bothered to study the more than one available authentic (i.e., sound in terms of chain of transmission) statements of the Prophet (SAW) himself which elucidate the expression. For one renowned scholar, the expression generally refers to the "religion of God." I see no reason why one should deal with it so cavalierly and ignore a genuine, trustworthy and marfu´ hadith (in which the saying of the Prophet itself is reported). As a matter of principle, knowledge of Arabic language, grammar, lexicography, Arabic literature, and familiarity with Arabic idiom of the times of the Prophet (SAW) are all important as instruments for writing commentary on Qur´an. But recourse to semantic and linguistic analysis or personal opinion should not in any way overrule the primary importance of the Prophet´s sayings and explications. Following this paramount principle of Qur´anic exegesis, I shall mention here very briefly three ahadith of the Prophet (SAW) which explicate without an iota of doubt the real import and meaning of habl Allah.
1. A rather lengthy historical tradition on the Qur´an has been narrated by the fourth Caliph Ali (RAA), in which the Prophet (SAW) is reported to have said about the Qur´an: "It is this very Qur´an that is the cord of Allah." (Tirmidhi & Darimi)
2. In another hadith, reported on the authority of Abdullab Ibn Mas´ud (RAA), the Prophet (SAW) said: "This Qur´an is the cord of Allah which He has stretched from the heavens to the earth."
3. The third hadith has been reported by Jubair Ibn Mut´im (RAA) and included in Tibrani Kabir. This hadith so vividly gives the details of an episode in the lifetime of the Prophet (SAW) that the reader begins to feel for a few moments as if he himself is sitting in the company of the Prophet. Once the Holy Prophet (SAW) came out of his hujrah and saw a few of the Companions (RAA) studying and discussing the Qur´an in a corner of the mosque. The Prophet (SAW), very much pleased with this, approached them and asked them a strange question. This question we should also put to ourselves and see if we can sincerely give the same affirmative answer that was given by the Companions. The Prophet (SAW) asked them, "Do you not attest to the truths that there is no god but Allah who alone should be worshipped, that He is one and without partner, that I am His Messenger, and that this Qur´an has come from Him?" All the Companions firmly replied in the affirmative. (May Allah enable us also to attest sincerely and with heart-felt certitude the fundamental metaphysical beliefs of Islam. Although we all verbally attest these beliefs, what is required is inner conviction and faith of the heart). On this the Prophet (SAW) said, "Rejoice at what you have got with yourselves because one end of the Qur´an is in Allah´s hand and the other end is with you. So hold it fast. If you do that, you will never perish or go astray."
Despite these three authentic traditions of the Prophet (SAW), if someone maintains that habl Allah means something other than the Qur´an, his opinion cannot be taken seriously. Indeed he has no justification whatsoever for that. Allama Iqbal has expressed this very truth in the following Persian couplets thus:
That is to say, the collective life and Ummatic existence of the Muslims is due to the Qur´an that provides them with a common legal framework and code of life. The multitudes of Muslims have no significance; all significance rests with the Qur´an that functions like a throbbing heart in the socio political body of the Muslims. Iqbal, therefore, advises the Muslims to hold fast to the Qur´an as it is the cord of Allah (SWT).
The second imperative that is laid down by ayah 103 is, therefore, that all Muslims are commanded by Allah (SWT) to hold fast to the Divine cord, the Qur´an. The Arabic verb i´tesam used in this ayah is also very significant. The root of the verb — ismat — means security and protection; and the meaning of the verb i´tesam is to hold fast to something or somebody for security and safety in the face of danger or threat. Its real sense comes out clearly when we see a child who, in all his innocence, clings to his mother, thinking that she can protect him form all sorts of dangers and odds. Clinging or holding fast to somebody for security is i´tesam. So Almighty Allah (SWT) enjoins upon the Muslims to hold fast to the Divine cord — the Holy Qur´an.
The Arabic expression Jamee´an used in the ayah can be interpreted in two ways, and I think both meanings are to be taken here. First, it may mean that all Muslims should jointly hold fast and cling to the Qur´an. Secondly, it may also signify that the whole, and not a few parts, of the Qur´an is to be taken as guide for life. If only some fragmentary injunctions of the Divine writ are put into practice and others are simply ignored, this will be like the attitude of the Israelites who were reproached very strongly by Allah (SWT) in these words:
Do you believe in a part of the Scripture and reject the other? What else, then, could be the retribution of those among you who do this than they should live in degradation in the present life, and that on the Day of Resurrection they should be sent to the severest chastisement? (Al-Baqarah 2 : 85)
Belief in the Qur´an remains imperfect until the code of life it lays down is accepted in its entirety. It is ironic to see that the majority of Westernized and secularized Muslims take a partial view of Islamic life and do not at all see the need to extend, strengthen, and complete its Qur´anic foundations, with the result that the door to the highest stages of Taqwa and Ihsan are supposed to be open for a judge of court who may give judgments in violation of the Qur´an, for a lawyer who may argue on the basis of laws contrary to the Shari´ah, for the administrator who may manage the affairs of life in accordance with a system based on kufr, for the political leader and his followers who may work for founding and building of life on the social and political principles of the disbelievers __ in short, for everyone, provided he fashions his outward style of life after a certain pattern and observes a few rituals and ceremonies of worship.
The reason for the use of the word habl (cord) is that the Qur´an both establishes a bond between man and God and joins all believers together in the religious fraternity. To take a firm hold on this cord means that the believers should attach utmost importance to their religion: this should always be the center of their concerns; they should continually strive to establish it; and the common desire to serve it should make them cooperate with each other. As soon as Muslims turn their attention away from the fundamental teachings of their faith and lose sight of establishing its ascendancy in life they begin to concern themselves with matters of secondary importance. And, just as they rent the communities of the former prophets, enticing people away from their true objective in life, so schism and dissension are bound to plague their lives. If Muslims do this they are bound to suffer indignity and disgrace both in this world and the Next as happened with the followers of the previous prophets. So a true Muslim is only one whose whole being is permeated with Islam; it is not a mere veneer or outward show.
After this, an historical evidence from the period in which the Qur´an was being revealed was presented and the believers were addressed thus : "And remember with gratitude Allah´s favor on you, for you were enemies and He joined your hearts in love, so that by His grace you became brethren."
Yathrib, and indeed the whole of Arabia, was torn with civil and tribal feuds and contentions before the Prophet of Islam set his sacred feet on its soil. After that, it became the city of the Prophet (SAW), an unmatched brotherhood, and the pivot of Islam. Before the advent of Islam, there were animosities among the tribes which regularly broke out into fighting and devastation; every now and then there was much bloodshed. Things had reached a point where the entire Arabian nation seemed to be on the verge of destroying itself. It was due to the blessings of Islam alone that it was saved from being consumed by the fire to which this ayah alludes. The people of Yathrib (which later came to be known as Medinah) had embraced Islam some three or four years before this ayah was revealed. They had witnessed the blessing of Islam as it unified into one brotherhood the Aws and the Khazraj, two tribes which had long been sworn enemies. Moreover, both tribes treated the migrants from Makkah in a spirit of sacrifice and love seldom seen even among members of the same family. The ayah under consideration ends with the words: "Thus Allah makes His signs clear to you that you may be guided to the right way." That is to say, if people had eyes to see they could conclude for themselves whether their salvation lay in adhering firmly to the teachings of the Qur´an or in abandoning them and reverting to their former state. They could decide very easily whether their true well-wishers were Allah (SWT) and His Messenger (SAW) or those Jews, Polytheists, and hypocrites who strove to plunge them back into their former despicable state.
Before we proceed further, it is quite appropriate to see if the historical evidence alluded to in this ayah has any special bearing on the current political scenario of Pakistan. As Muslims, we believe that the teachings of the Qur´an have eternal and everlasting validity and that, as a source of guidance, the Qur´anic principles have applicability for all places and for all times to come. Seen in this perspective, we can better appreciate the gravity of the conditions prevailing today in Pakistan, and, at the same time, see a ray of hope offered to all believers in the Qur´anic ayah under discussion. Just as Allah (SWT) welded the warring Arab factions into a strong brotherhood fourteen centuries ago He can now turn the disarrayed and conflicting provinces of Pakistan into a strong unity, provided the people of Pakistan earnestly act upon the three-point action strategy explained in these three ayaat.
It is an undeniable historical fact that the Indian subcontinent was partitioned on the basis of Two-Nation theory, and that Pakistan was established on the foundation of Muslim Nationhood and in the name of Islam. Muslims living in the widely separated areas of India were united by the bond of Islamic faith, and demanded a separate homeland with the objective that Muslims of India, by removing all the taints of decadent and monarchical Islam, get an opportunity to re-establish the pristine Islamic system of political, economic, and social justice which is the most important manifestation of the Holy Prophet´s (SAW) universal mercy and blessing. We regret to say, however, that in spite of the fact that forty seven years have passed since Pakistan was established, no real progress has as yet been made towards achieving the envisaged goal. The political and economic system inherited from the British Raj has throughout been kept intact; not only in the overall system, but in matters of social and communal values also we are strictly maintaining the status quo. Both in practice and thought we exhibit the same old slavish mentality.
The system to which we are sticking in the political governance of our homeland has the following important features:
1.Territorial Nationalism, i.e., the concept of nationalism that was born of Western secularism and on whose absolute negation Pakistan movement was launched.
2.Parliamentary Democracy, the initial training of which was imparted to us by our English rulers.
3.The names and boundaries of the provinces demarcated by the British for their administrative expediency and which we consider not only permanent and everlasting but even sacrosanct.
4.The banking system — on which all our industry and trade, in fact our entire economy, is based — is contaminated to this day by the filth of interest. As a result, the entire nation and the country is, in the words of the Qur´an, at war with Allah (SWT) and His Messenger (SAW).
5.Accursed evils of gambling, speculation and lottery —declared by the Qur´an as "an abomination of Satan´s handiwork" (Al-Mai´da 5:90) — are rampant.
6.The system of feudalism and absentee landlordism, the worst and most abominable form of oppression and usurpation, has basically not changed at all in spite of the so-called land reforms introduced twice.
7.Mixed (non-segregated) social living that debased the West as far as modesty and chastity are concerned. It destroyed the domestic peace and confounded the family structure. And this evil is such that it did not take roots in our society even during the British rule to the extent it is now in vogue, and is increasing by leaps and bounds every day.
8.The distinction between the "tribal" and "settled" areas in the N.W.F.P. is still continuing.
The current scenario of Pakistan calls for a total change in the entire body politic and socio-economic system of the homeland. Unity among the people of Pakistan and the establishment of Islamic Social Justice is the need of the day. This, in fact, was the real purpose of establishing Pakistan, and only this can ensure her continued existence, stability and progress. It is on account of deviation from this very cause that the Muslim nation of Pakistan got divided into different regional, ethnic and linguistic nationalities. This breaking of our vow with Allah (SWT) and disloyalty to His Deen has led to tremendous plunder and bloodshed among the people of various regions. Divine punishment whipped us in 1971 and even now if we do not make headway towards the real objective of Pakistan, Divine punishment could whip us again any time and would whip us more severely. Indeed, Pakistan has to prepare herself to face all the threats posed by the New World Order. If, on the contrary, Pakistanis do not come out of their deep slumber and do not give up their materialistic pursuits, the anti-Islamic designs of the so-called "supreme world power" will subjugate it to the point of virtual nonexistence. An ostrich-like attitude will not save us from perilous dangers, and it is imperative that we, at the earliest and in right earnest, read the writing on the wall.
If a true Muslim reflects on the conditions of Pakistan diligently and thoughtfully, he will realize that the situation of Pakistanis totally resembles that of the Arabs before the advent of Islam depicted in the words of the Qur´an — "you stood on the brink of a pit of fire." And the only way out of this pit of fire is the one delineated by these ayaat of Surah Aal-e-Imran. As the Qur´an is the eternal Divine message for all humanity, its teachings too have abiding efficacy and applicability. No matter how degenerate our conditions and circumstances may be, the Qur´an offers a sure panacea for all our ills.
In the Khatm Al-Qur´an prayer we most humbly pray to Almighty Allah (SWT) that Qur´an may be made our leader, guide and beacon of light. But, surely, we cannot get it all merely for the asking. We have to struggle hard to achieve our solicited desires. Holding fast together to the cord of Allah — the Holy Qur´an — is, therefore, the second practical point of the strategy laid down by the Divine Book.
To summarize the action-agenda so far covered in these pages: the first practical step of the three-point Qur´anic strategy is with regard to Taqwa and Islam. That is to say, a true Muslim should remain steadfast in his obedience and loyalty to God. He should avoid everything which is not pleasing to Him and live his entire life in total submission to His commandments. As a corollary, acting on the injunctions of the Holy Prophet (SAW) is also included in it, as the commandments of the Prophet (SAW) are in fact the commandments of Allah (see Al-Nisa 4:80). The second practical step is with regard to the Qur´an: i´tesam bil-Qur´an — holding fast and attaching oneself firmly to the Qur´an. And this obligation is to be discharged in a unified manner. Division and dissension among Muslims is thoroughly disapproved by Allah (SWT).
Now the question is : What does "holding fast together the cord of Allah" mean and imply in practical terms. In the booklet The Obligations Muslims Owe To the Qur´an, I have made an impassioned call to the Muslims to return to the Qur´an, to rededicate themselves to its study, and make it the sole guide for their lives. Instead of making purely academic attempts at describing the unique merits and magnificence of Qur´an, the most pertinent thing for us to do is that we should clearly understand our responsibilities towards the Qur´an and then assess for ourselves whether or not we are conscientiously fulfilling them. Paying lip service or pompous tributes to the Qur´an will not be enough and these cannot substitute for actually discharging our obligations towards the Holy Book. Now what are these obligations? Or, in other words, what does the Qur´an demand from us? An objective study of the Book makes it amply clear that it makes five demands from every Muslim. Put in a simple language, these demands or obligations are as follows:
1.A Muslim is required to truly believe in the Qur´an.
2.He is required to read it properly.
3.He is required to understand it.
4.He is required to act upon its teachings in his private life to struggle for the implementation of Shari´ah and the establishment of Social Justice at the state level.
5.He is required to disseminate its teachings to others and operationalize Islam at the global level. He must spend most of his energies and monetary sources for this cause.
As a matter of fact, if Muslims rejuvenate their relationship with the Qur´an on these lines, it will weld them into one Ummah with utmost mental and emotional unity as well as unique singularity of purpose and objective. All sorts of dissension, strife and antagonism among them will automatically vanish, and they will become united like a solid cemented structure (in Qur´anic expression, bunyan marsus). And this will indeed be a concrete exemplification of the Holy Prophet´s saying according to which Almighty Allah (SWT) will bestow dignity and honor on those people who hold fast to the Qur´an and will degrade and disgrace those who turn a deaf ear to it and do not discharge their obligations towards it. Allama Iqbal has expressed these very ideas in beautiful Persian verses thus:
To sum up: there are the two practical steps through which a man personally becomes a true believer and the collectivity of believers takes the form of a strong ideological fraternity. Now the question that crops up is: what methodology is to be pursued by this ideological group for its global struggle? This indeed is the subject matter of the next Qur´anic ayah to be explained in the sequel. It is a happy coincidence that this methodology too consists of three points and we will dwell upon them at some length.
Let us now concentrate our attention on the third ayah (ayah 104 of Surah Aal-e-Imran) the English translation of which reads:
And from among you there must be a party (a group or band of committed Muslims) who invite people to all that is good, and enjoin the doing of all that is right and forbid the doing of all that is wrong. It is they who will attain true success.
An objective and detailed study of the preceding two ayaat of the Surah leaves no ambiguity or doubt in the mind of the reader that both of them call for a collectivity of believers, and that a serious and sincere action on their dictates necessarily demands the formation of a group or party. Now the question arises: what is the objective or goal this group should keep in view and work for? As a matter of fact, all creations and artifacts are made for serving some purpose. Even a small and modest association of people is constituted and organized for achieving certain goals defined in the memorandum of aims and objectives. So the question that quite naturally arises is: what is the purpose or goal of that group which results from collectively clinging to the Qur´an? This exactly is what is explained in the ayah under review.
This ayah has been translated in two different ways by the translators. For some, the preposition min of minkum in the ayah is general and descriptive, while for some others it is of particularizing nature. Leaving aside the technicalities of the two types of min just mentioned, let us see what difference, if any, is made in the meaning of the ayah by either use of it. According to the former the ayah would be translated as: "And you should together form a group that invites people to all that is good...," whereas according to the latter sense of min the translation would be: "And from among you there must be a group or party that invites people to all that is good .…" Now in my view both these translations of the ayah are entirely correct, and the logical import of the meaning of the ayah in hardly changed by the minor linguistic difference of the two translations. If all the Muslims of the world unite and together constitute an ideological fraternity (i.e., the Muslim Ummah) that performs the duties of inviting people to all that is good, enjoin the doing of all right actions and forbid the doing of all that is wrong — this would be the import of the ayah according to the descriptive or indicative use of min. But since this descriptive function of the whole of Muslim Ummah is repeated a little further on in ayah 110 of this very Surah, a large majority of Qur´anic scholars take min in the particularizing sense and interpret the ayah by maintaining that it demands the formation of a group comprising of committed and motivated Muslims from among the vast Muslim fraternity of less motivated believers. That is to say, this ayah provides answer to the question: what should be done when, by and large, the Ummah neglects its religious obligations and thus pays no heed to its Divinely ordained duties.
Let us frankly acknowledge the hard facts and conditions of present-day Muslims, however unpleasant they may appear to us. Theoretically, the words "Muslim Ummah" cover in their fold all the Muslims of the world and as such it is a universalistic concept. But, as a matter of fact, one global Muslim Ummah is at the moment a non-entity. Instead, there are many Muslim nations in the world. Even Allama Muhammad Iqbal, a great advocate of the unity of Muslim Ummah, had to be realistic about the actual condition of Muslims in the world. Accordingly, in his lectures, entitled Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, he wrote that there is no one united Muslim Ummah in the world; rather there are many Muslim nations living in different states. However, perhaps this too was true more than half a century ago when Allama Iqbal delivered the Lectures. The present situation of most Muslim nations is worse still and most Muslim nations are split into numerous regional, ethnic, or linguistic groups.
The readers of these lines can very well appreciate this fact if they consider the case of Pakistan. At the time of its appearance in 1947 as a separate homeland for the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent, Pakistanis were considered as one Muslim nation by all. Both wings of Pakistan were united and considered Islam the basis of their unity. Soon afterwards, however, regional sentiments and concern for regional languages came up on the surface and eventually paved the way for the ceding of East Pakistan. Consequently, it became Bangladesh in 1971 and asserted her Bengali identity more than the former Muslim character. Every one of us laments how savagely and brutally non-Bengali Muslims were tortured and murdered by the Bengali nationalists of East Pakistan. And in the truncated Pakistan, too, there is no ideological unity in the people. The Pakistani nation stands divided and fragmented on the bases of ethnicity, culture, and language, and different groups are constantly at loggers head with each other. Since not a single province of Pakistan has only one ethnic community, we often hear news of gruesome violence and brutalities among various communities living in one province and even in one city. For example, in Baluchistan there are at least three large ethnic groups, and to a lesser degree this is also true of other provinces of Pakistan. In Sindh the Mohajirs (migrants from India) have formally assumed the status of a politico-cultural entity. Indeed, from the very beginning, distinction was made almost every where in the country but particularly in the province of Sindh between the locals and the migrants, and this discrimination eventually led to the formation of MQM in urban Sindh. Again the Arab world, where all speak and write Arabic, is divided in a number of nation-states and people there identify themselves with reference to distinct nationalities.
So the hard fact that we must accept is that today a united world Muslim Ummah is non-existent. The de facto position is frankly none other than this. The Ummah only exists as an ideal concept in the minds of Muslims who consider theoretically all believers of Islam and the Prophet (SAW) as members of one global religious fraternity. According to this belief, each confessor of Muhammad´s (SAW) Prophethood is regarded a member of the universal Muslim brotherhood. This belief in itself is perfectly correct, but the question is whether Muslims all around the world do in fact behave as a well-knit ideological group? Is there any discipline among the Muslims? Is there a plenary leadership among Muslim nations and are the directives and recommendations of that leadership heeded by the member states? I regret to say that the answer to all these questions is in the negative. Was not a large part of Afghan army with the Russians when the latter were killing Afghan people mercilessly? Were not the most inhuman atrocities against Afghans committed by their own Islam-professing Afghan brethren? Again was not the long and devastating war between Iran and Iraq between two Muslim countries? Armed clashes between different factions of Muslims in Lebanon and brutal and murderous assaults on Palestinian refugee camps are known to anyone who is in touch with modern media. And the recent Gulf war has proved beyond any doubt that, as a matter of fact, one world-wide Muslim Ummah does not exist.
In the light of these facts the ayah under consideration with the particularizing sense of preposition in the expression minkum assumes special significance and its meanings become quite intelligible. In effect, what it means is that even when the vast multitudes of people in the Muslim Ummah are in a state of slumber, are divided among themselves and pursuing only secular ends, there must arise a group or party within the larger Ummah that performs the duties laid down by the Qur´an in this ayah, and also make the rest aware of them.
Some readers may wonder as to what an Ummah within the Ummah means. I am sure you must be familiar with the expressions of "a state within a state" and "a party within a party." For instance, those among you who have read about the freedom struggle of the Indian subcontinent know very well that the Indian National Congress was a big political party and there was a forward block of it within the Congress that consisted of rather more revolutionary members. The forward block stood for more radical strategy as compared with the ordinary political policies approved by the Congress. Despite their membership and loyalty to the Indian Congress, they constituted a separate group under the leadership of Subhash Chandra Bose.
Similarly, since in the contemporary context the universal Muslim Ummah has been reduced to the level of an abstract concept, its reification is needed in the form of a smaller group (from among the larger Ummah) consisting of such Muslims as have fulfilled, to the maximum possible degree, the requirements and demands made in ayah 102 of the Surah with respect to the individual behavior and practice of a true Muslim. They attain the driving force of Taqwa in their hearts and meticulously observe the commandments of the Holy Prophet (SAW). Moreover, in compliance, to a fair degree, with the imperatives of the next ayah, they hold fast to the Qur´an for guidance even in minor details of their lives, and unite and join together as comrades in order to make up an ideological group. Ayah 104 of Surah Aal-e-Imran enlightens us about the three aims and objectives this collectivity of God-conscious and motivated Muslims is to work for:
1.Calling and inviting people to all that is good and noble.
2.Enjoining and dictating the doing of all that is right and virtuous.
3.Forbidding the doing of all that is wrong and immoral.
First of all, let us discuss the first two objectives and goals of the real and hard-core Muslim Ummah´s struggle. The Islamic summons have, by and large, been understood by Muslims to be in general call to Iman and A´mal Saleh (righteous action) in conformity with the guidance of Revelation, summoning people to God and inviting them to follow His and His Messenger´s dictates. But the crucial question that must be asked here is: Do the Qur´anic injunctions "calling and inviting people to all that is good" and "enjoining the doing of all that is right" mean one and the same action? We, however, cannot think for a minute that Almighty Allah (SWT) has used synonymous expressions in the same ayah for pointless repetition. They certainly mean and imply different performances or levels and intensity of operations. da´wah ilal-khair and amr bil-ma´roof are obviously semantically distinct expressions and thus connote different types of activities. Most probably, da´wah ilal-khair means calling and inviting people to the Qur´an, as according to the Holy Qur´an the highest khair (i.e., good) is the Qur´an itself. To substantiate this the following ayaat of Surah Yunus can be cited:
O mankind! There has come unto you an Admonition (or an Exhortation) from your Lord, and a Healing for the diseases in your hearts, and for those who believe a Guidance and a Mercy. Say: In this bounty of Allah and in His Mercy, therein let them rejoice; it is better than all (the worldly wealth) that they may amass! (Yunus 10: 57, 58)
These two ayaat clearly tell us how majestically Qur´an describes its own magnificence. Those who do wrong have a disease in their hearts, which causes their spirits to suffocate. Allah (SWT) in His Mercy declares His Will (i.e., the Qur´an) to them which should direct their lives and provide a healing for their spiritual malaise. If they accept faith, the remedy acts; they find themselves in right guidance and receive Allah´s forgiveness and mercy. Surely this guidance — the Qur´an — is far better a gift than material gains, wealth, or possessions. Therefore, according to this ayah, the referent of khair is Qur´an itself, something far superior to what worldly people hoard. To be sure, worldly possessions and wealth have also been termed as khair by the Qur´an. For example, an ayah of Surah Al-Aadiyaat reads:
... for, verily, to the love of wealth (khair) is he most ardently devoted. (Al-Aadiyaat 100:8)
This, of course, refers to a natural inclination and disposition of man. Yet, we are told in very clear and categorical terms that the Divine gift bestowed upon us in the form of the Qur´an is in reality far better than material riches and belongings. So da´wah ilal-khair (that is to say, inviting and calling people to goodness) is, in fact, exhorting men to study and act upon the teachings of the Qur´an.
While the first objective or aim of the Ummah´s missionary work is specifically with respect to the Qur´an, the second one is quite general and broad. It includes advising, admonishing, preaching, and exhorting people to all that is morally right and virtuous. However, the literal meaning of the Arabic verb amr is definitely more, and stronger, than just advising or preaching sermons; it additionally implies commanding and implementing with force. Thus amr is quite a wide expression. Starting from moralizing it goes right up to the bringing about of a revolution in political leadership so that corrupt and ungodly people are forced to be righteous and follow Divine guidance.
Another difference between da´wah and amr is that the former (i.e., preaching and exhorting) is never undertaken in an authoritative manner. On the contrary, it is always performed in a warm and heart-moving manner. In da´wah one pleads and even requests people most humbly to uphold goodness and probity. The da´ee (i.e., one who performs the da´wah) is always on the look out for an appropriate moment when he can approach people in a receptive mood. He even requests them in the name of God to order their lives according to the dictates of Islam. His role is both of an evangelist (i.e., one who gives glad tidings on moral actions) and of a warner of the torments of hell-fire. He is always very polite and never harsh, aggressive, or authoritative. This indeed is the attitude which members of the Tableeghi Jama´at have adopted for the past several decades for their missionary activities.
In da´wah, one speaks from the depth of ones heart and strikes a cord in the interlocutor´s heart as the preacher is definitely taken as a well-wisher. This difference amply shows why calling people to goodness has been mentioned by the Qur´an as distinct and separate from "enjoining what is morally right." The mild and polite manner to be adopted in da´wah was required of Prophet Musa (AS) and Prophet Haroon (AS) when the two messengers were ordered by Allah (SWT) to go to the Pharaoh. We read in Surah Taha the following ayaat:
Go forth (then), you and your brother, with My messages, and never tire of remembering Me. Go forth, both of you, unto Pharaoh, for verily he has transgressed all bounds of equity! But speak unto him in a mild manner, so that he might bethink himself or (at least) be filled with apprehension (Taha 42:44).
Thus amr bil-ma´roof is a step higher than mere da´wah ilal-khair or preaching and, as such, it calls for a different methodology and approach. The word amr literally means to order, dictate, or enforce on the basis of authority. This necessitates, at the societal or state level, a change or revolutions in the whole power structure so that the morally good and right is implemented and enforced with the authority of governmental institutions. Supporting evidence for this is also provided by the fact that the expression amr bil-ma´roof was first used in Surah Al-Hajj when the Prophet (SAW) and his Companions (RAA) were obliquely given the glad tiding of political power. English translation of ayah 41 of this Surah reads:
(They are) those who, if we establish them in the land, organize regular prayer and give regular charity, enjoin the right and forbid wrong…(Al-Hajj 22:41).
Soon after the revelation of this Surah, the foundations of an Islamic state were laid in Medinah, and the Prophet (SAW) began to enforce the laws of Shari´ah and religious practices in the capacity of a political ruler. However, it may be noted that full and total authority in the Arabian peninsula was achieved only after the conquest of Makkah, some ten years latter.
A very important point must be clearly appreciated and understood by all of us at this juncture. Absence of Islamic political power at the state level does not imply that the Qur´anic injunction of amr bil-ma´roof has no scope or relevance for Muslims. Each individual Muslim who wields power over some persons in his home, factory, office, or business establishment, is under obligation to act upon this injunction. He or she must enforce religious and moral commandments upon his or her subordinates and dependents. If need be, even force or moderate punishment may be resorted to in this regard. No true Muslim can absolve himself of this obligation of amr bil-ma´roof (of course, within the sphere of his/her authority) on the pretext that this duty can be discharged only by the Muslim political leadership of the State. Complete and total observance of Islamic law and morality, no doubt, is possible only when a change or revolution in favor of the Qur´an and the Prophet´s (SAW) Sunnah is brought about by the Islamic revivalist movement in the country´s leadership. This all-important point was very clearly realized and forcefully presented by late Maulana Sayyid Abul A´la Maududi — one of the chief influential writers and leaders of the contemporary Islamic resurgence. I shall here quote a long relevant passage from his Tehreek-e-Islami ki Akhlaqi Bunyadain rendered into English by Khurram Murad. These lines will put into bold relief the difference between da´wah and amr bil-ma´roof:
The objective of the Islamic movement, in this world, is revolution in leadership. A leadership that has rebelled against God and His guidance and is responsible for the suffering of mankind has to be replaced by a leadership that is God-conscious, righteous and committed to following Divine guidance. Striving to achieve this noble purpose, we believe, will secure God´s favor in this world and in the next. It is regrettable that both Muslims and non-Muslims have tended to lose sight of the significance of this revolution. Muslims all too often consider it necessary only from the point of view of political expediency, and have no appreciation of its central place in their religion. Non-Muslims, partly from prejudice and partly from lack of information, do not understand that ungodly leadership is at the root of the evils afflicting humanity, and that it is essential for human well-being that the affairs of the world should be directed by moral and God-fearing people. Whenever corruption is let loose in the world, whenever injustice is done, whenever tyranny or oppression exists, whenever poison flows in the veins of human culture, economic life, and politics, whatever misuse of resources and human knowledge for destruction instead of welfare and enlightenment there may be, the reason is bad leadership. There is no lack of good and high-minded people in society; the problem is that power is concentrated in the hands of people immersed in materialism and ungodliness. To change this situation it is not enough to preach sermons, exhort people to obey and worship God or to invite them to adopt high moral standards. Rather it is necessary for morally-just people to search each other out and strive to achieve enough collective power to wrest control of society from the morally corrupt. What is needed to change the centre of power and authority is effort. The revolution requires a coming together of the righteous in a common cause. (The Islamic Movement — Dynamics of Values, Power and Change; Edited by Khurram Murad)
After having understood the first two objectives for which the Muslim Ummah should earnestly work for and the subtle but crucial difference between them, let us now move on to discuss at length the third one as delineated by the ayah — viz., nahee anil-munkar or forbidding people from all that is morally bad and evil. Unfortunately, a large majority of religiously devout and noble people remain unmoved at the sight of evil deeds and morally wrong actions. They just remain complacent or unconcerned while people are engaged in un-Islamic activities. They think that only inviting them to good and virtuous actions through advice and sermon is enough and something worth doing. The truth, on the other hand, is that I can at least cite nine such places from the Qur´an where inviting or calling people to good and forbidding and stopping them from evil have been mentioned jointly. They have been mentioned together so constantly that it seems as if the two are integral aspects of one single activity or two parts of one organic whole. Or else, one is, as it were, concomitant to the other. For example, in Surah Luqman, among the advice given by Luqman to his son, we read:
O my dear son! Be constant in prayer, and enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong, and bear in patience whatever (ill) may befall thee. (Luqman 31:17)
How much nahee anil-munkar is important and how much emphasis was put on it by the Prophet (SAW) can be seen in the light of two Ahadith from Sahih Muslim — one of the most authentic collections of Prophetic traditions. The first hadith goes like this:
Abu Said Al-Khudri (RAA) says that Allah´s Messenger (SAW) said: If any of you sees some wrong he should change it with his hand; if he is unable to do so, then with his tongue; if he cannot do even that, then with his heart; and that is the weakest Iman.
A close and thoughtful perusal of this Prophetic saying brings out the following noteworthy points:
1.In this hadith there is no mention of amr bil-ma´roof or enjoining the good. This means that nahee anil-munkar, i.e., changing or stopping the evil, is an independent and equally significant activity in the value-structure and obligations of our faith. A religiously wrong or evil action is in fact a transgression of the limits laid down by the Creator, and, as such, a true and faithful believer cannot remain passive or unconcerned on the violation of Divine commandments.
2.Changing or stopping evil with one´s hand obviously means that all available power and authority should be used in curbing wrong action and routing out evil from the society. If there is an Islamic government in the county, it is its duty and responsibility to use all its force to eliminate un-Islamic practices. But in case the government remains complacent in this regard, it is the duty of all true Muslims to force people to shun evil and loathsome actions within the sphere in which they can exercise authority. For example, a father or an employer should use a reasonable amount of force in correcting such subordinates who indulge in immoral and forbidden activities.
3.If neither the State authorities discharge their duties with regard to nahee anil-munkar nor an individual Muslim can muster the power to check all that is wrong, he must, as the second best alternative, verbally denounce it and ask or request the person concerned to give it up. In the present age this will also include writing and publishing in the print media articles condemning un-Islamic patterns of behavior so that public opinion is mobilized against the evil. Indeed, "changing or stopping the evil with tongue" involves all the variegated moves of protest and agitation permissible in a democratic set-up. Both individuals in their private capacity and Islamic groups collectively should use all their resources of speech and printed word for increasing people´s awareness and sensibility against satanic tendencies of thought and action. They should do this boldly, remaining undaunted by the criticism and harassment of the general public or government.
4.In case social and political conditions in a place are so repressive that a truly committed Muslim cannot even use his tongue or pen in denouncing the evil, then he should at least feel pain inwardly. He should feel disgusted and condemn evil with his heart. Far from showing apathy, he must feel disturbed and perturbed. This will itself be a pointer to the fact that the person has Iman or faith, even though minimal and of the lowest degree. The word ad´af used in the hadith is of the superlative degree and as such signifies the "weakest" or the "faintest." In another Prophetic saying instead of the expression "that is the lowest Iman," the following description has been used: "and after this, Iman is not present even in as meager a quantity as a small grain." That is to say, if one of the attitudes out of the above three is not adopted by a Muslim, it would mean that true faith and Iman is almost nonexistent in the core of his heart.
5.The three attitudes mentioned and the corresponding states of Iman are not to be measured and judged by any external observer. No objective formula can be used in determining the faith-state of a person. Each individual Muslim can be a judge in his or her own case and choose the best and the highest possible course of nahee anil-munkar. It all depends on the intensity and depth of one´s Iman and the degree of one´s commitment to the cause of Islam. Each individual Muslim himself can measure these for himself. Nobody else can do it for him or make a wholly correct judgment upon his assessment. Nevertheless, the inward state of one´s Iman is reflected by the external attitude and behavior. For example if a person keeps silent or remains passive when his father or mother is publicly disgraced, this attitude of his is a sure indication of his unconcern or apathy towards his parents. Or else it shows that he lacks courage or even that he is impudent or disrespectful. If a person is not shameless but somehow lacks the means to physically counteract or defend, at least his face will become red with rage, exhibiting utter disgust and displeasure.
The example given in the preceding paragraph also sheds light in a parallel way on the degree and depth of a Muslim´s commitment to Islam and Iman. If he is not in a position to check and physically stop anti-Islamic actions, he protests against them using all the means at his command. He is even ready to face the atrocities of State agencies like baton-charging and firing. Indeed, his greatest desire is to lay down his life for the cause of Islam. The last part of the hadith under consideration — "and that is the weakest Iman" — implicitly demands that Muslims as a collectivity should try their utmost to acquire strength and power so as to completely eradicate evil from the society.
Now let us study closely the text of the second hadith:
Abdullah Ibn Mas´ud (RAA) says that Allah´s Messenger (SAW) said: There was never a prophet sent before me by Allah (SWT) to his nation who had not among his people (his) disciples and companions, who followed his ways and obeyed his commands. Then there came after them their successors who said what they did not practise and did what they were not commanded to do. He who struggles against them with his hand (i.e., physically), he is the believer; and he who struggles against them with his tongue, he is the believer; and he who struggles against them with his heart, he is also the believer: but beyond that there is not even a grain of Iman.
In this long hadith the Holy Prophet (SAW) starts by mentioning the fact that whenever Allah (SWT) sent a messenger to a people, he would get from amongst them some disciples or companions who truly acted upon God´s commandments and followed the messenger´s example. This would continue for a few generations and then religious fervor would gradually start diminishing. Moral purity preached by the prophet and his companions gradually declines and gives place to degeneration and innovation. (And, as a matter of truth, each innovative addition to Islam replaces an action enunciated by the Qur´an and Sunnah.) The later generations of so-called believers have been very aptly described by the Prophet (SAW) thus: "…people who say what they do not practise and do what they have not been commanded to do." And this is all the more true about we Muslims living in the 15th century after Hijrah. Temporally, we are so far removed from the times of the Holy Prophet (SAW) and the Companions (RAA) that there is tremendous deviation from ideal Islam as projected by the teachings of the Qur´an and the Prophet (SAW). And the present hadith is a clarion call for changing and stopping all that is disliked and disapproved by the Creator of the universe.
This hadith too is a pointer to three levels of nahee anil-munkar, exactly in the same manner and order of priority as were delineated by the hadith discussed earlier. The three levels are:
1.Struggling against evil and un-Islamic actions with hand;
2.struggling against them with tongue; and
3.struggling against them with heart.
The first two have already been explained in the above paragraphs. Some additional points with respect to the third level should be noted here. Disliking the evil inwardly and struggling against it with one´s heart necessarily implies that a true and committed Muslim will not develop warm and close relationship with those indulging in un-Islamic practices. But if he does not do that, he will be generally taken to endorse or accept the un-Islamic practices and thus lose the whole point of his protest against them. Indeed, according to another hadith of the Prophet (SAW), such a complacent and "liberal" Muslim gradually ceases to have even passive inward disapprobation of evil practices, and himself starts indulging in them openly. Serious notice of this point should be taken by all of us. The criterion and the norm for all our likes and dislikes and for all our social relations and friendships should be Islam, and nothing else.
The last assertion of the Prophet (SAW) in the above mentioned hadith is particularly noteworthy. The words "...beyond that there is not even a grain of Iman" should provide an impetus to all God-fearing Muslims for deep thinking and soul-searching. They should assess their own Iman in the light of this hadith and should refrain from making a judgment about others. Earlier, in this essay, we have endeavored to state clearly the distinction between Islam and Iman and so we can, at this juncture, very well appreciate the point that the Iman that is being negated here is the true faith and Iman of the heart or inner self. A man failing in the said requirements or performatives would not cease to be a Muslim in the strict legal sense of the term. However, on the Day of Judgment only true inner conviction and Iman would be of significance in winning a man his salvation and felicity. It will be the real basis of final loss or gain as we read in Surah Al-Taghabun:
The Day that He assembles you (all) for a day of Assembly — that will be the day of mutual loss and gain (among you); and those who believe in God and work righteously, He will remove from them their sins and admit them to gardens beneath which rivers flow to dwell therein forever; that will be the supreme achievement
(Al-Taghabun 64:9).
The most significant point of the hadith should be kept very clearly in mind. The Holy Prophet (SAW) has enjoined upon all Muslims to struggle against evils, in particular those perpetrated and supported by the so-called Muslim rulers and heads of governments in Muslim countries. Since they control the print and electronic media and other influential agencies, they can very effectively promote un-Islamic ideas and practices in the society. In the hadith, the Prophet (SAW) has explicitly mentioned the gradual decline of religious and moral fervor particularly in persons at the helm of communal affairs, and has commanded the true believers to reform and correct them. Similarly, religious scholars and spiritual leaders are also covered by this category as they too influence the populace through their teachings and example. And if they go wrong, misconceptions and false notions may spread very widely. As already explained above, this hadith behoves all committed and true Muslims to mobilize their resources to the full and employ all the variegated forms of protest and non-violent agitation — rights of which are guaranteed to them by the democratic set-up — to struggle against the evil-mongers and anti-Islam agents. A recourse here to the technicalities of Khuruj (i.e., revolt or uprising against the established political authority) is simply besides the point and pure (and idle!) scholastic academicism that kills the dynamism and religious activism required for Islamic revival.
Believers! Heed Allah as He should be heeded, and see that you do not die except in the state of Islam.
And hold fast, all together, to the Rope of Allah (which He stretched out for you), and be not divided among yourselves; and remember with gratitude Allah´s favor on you, for you were once enemies and then He joined your hearts in love, so that by His Grace you became brethren; and you were on the brink of the pit of fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah make His Signs clear to you, that you may be guided to the right way.
Let there arise from among you a band of people (i.e., a party) who invite people to all that is good, and enjoin the doing of all that is right and forbid the doing of all that is wrong. It is they who will attain true success.
These ayaat occur almost in the middle of the Surah Aal-e-Imran and as such occupy a pivotal position in the numerous themes with which the Surah deals. As is commonly believed by Muslims, every single ayah of the Qur´an contains both theoretical wisdom and practical guidance. Similarly, though the above mentioned three ayaat too have philosophical points of wisdom or theoretical hikmah, I shall mainly dilate upon the practical guidance provided by them. I personally believe that pure academicism or too much philosophical or critical acumen exercised in understanding a particular point quite often hides from the scholar the concrete and practical guidance contained therein. Moreover, what the Muslim Ummah as a whole needs today is a clear and precise perception of the religious obligations and imperatives and a resolve to act upon them in the right earnest.
* The first ayah tells the Muslims very precisely, and yet very comprehensively, the obligations which they have to fulfill as members of the Muslim Ummah — the priorities in the conduct of life and the value-structure to be upheld during the course of this-worldly life.
* The second ayah enlightens the Muslims about the binding-force which unites and welds them into an Ummah (a religious fraternity) — the instrument which turns them into a disciplined community with a common aim.
* The third ayah delineates the objective and goal of the Muslim Ummah in general and that of the activist Islamic group or hizbullah in particular. In other words, it deals with the question: What is the mission and the target for which the Ummah has to strive?
One can very easily see that there is a strong logical relationship between these three points. Every organizational effort or collectivity depends ultimately upon the individual members — their existential commitment to the group´s world-view and determination to act accordingly. How can a group or a collectivity proceed in the right direction unless its individual members act and behave in the right manner? If individuals do not conduct themselves on the prescribed lines, how can the group as a whole work appropriately and achieve its envisaged targets? It is quite logical, therefore, that in organizing a collective effort the individual person himself comes first. In the context of Islamic Ummah´s mission and goal, the foremost point is that an individual Muslim should realize and perform his religious obligations. He should be quite clear as to what Islam requires him to do, and he must fulfill those requirements.
Let me illustrate this point with the help of an example. Suppose a person has to ascend a platform which has three steps. The surest and safest way for him will be first to rise up to the first step, then to the second and finally to the last. If, on the other hand, he tries to jump at the top he is most likely to fall down, thus failing to achieve his target. The ayaat cited above similarly unfold before us three steps or stages through which Muslims should pursue their ummatic goal.
So let us focus our attention on the first ayah that reads:
Believers! Heed Allah as He should be heeded, and see that you do not die except in the state of Islam.
Here two points are noteworthy before we embark upon an in-depth analysis of the contents of the ayah: First, almost two-third of the Qur´an consists of Makkan Surahs in which the expression "O Believers!" has not been used even once. This way of address was employed in the Medinan period when the Muslims had formally became a community. Thus this expression marked the formation of Muslim Ummah and Allah Almighty (SWT) used these words while addressing all the members of the Islamic polity.
Secondly, a major portion of Surah Aal-e-Imran was revealed in the third year after Hijrah, immediately after the battle of Uhud (Shawwal, 3 A.H.). If one tries to visualize, with the help of authentic historical accounts, the state of the Muslim community at that time in Medinah, one sees that the faith and belief of the community presented a wide spectrum. At the one end of that spectrum were true, staunch, and pious believers (among both Ansar and Muhajiroon) the depth of whose inner certitude and unflinching belief (Iman) was fathomless, whereas at the other extreme were those who lacked firm commitment and dedication to Islam — the vacillating and faint-hearted among the Prophet´s (SAW) followers. The highest degree of this attitude was exhibited by those whom the Qur´an terms as Munafiqun — people who had rancor or hatred against true Muslims and suffered from incredulity, impiety, shiftlessness, and dissimulation. The important point to note, however, is that these people were never treated as a separate group; rather they were included among the Muslims and the address starting with the expressions "O Believers!" also covered them. This point has far reaching implications. Legally, even the hypocrites are to be treated as Muslims in an Islamic society as they profess the Oneness of Allah (SWT) and prophethood of Muhammad (SAW). That is why in the whole of the Qur´an we do not read even once the words "O Hypocrites!" even though a complete Surah entitled "Al-Munafiqun" (the Hypocrites) deals with the wiles, plots, and false pretexts of the dissemblers, whom the Holy Book likens to propped-up timbers. At other places the hypocrites, faint-hearted, and weak-willed Muslims are described as a menace to military discipline, quislings under pressure and vacillators always guessing at their shifting fortunes. All those who profess to have Iman, the Qur´an says, are not necessarily trule believers; many have diseases of feebleness or hypocrisy in their hearts:
And there are some men who say: We believe in God and the Last Day; but they are not really believers ...in their hearts is disease…. (Al-Baqarah 2:8-10)
The Bedouins say, We believe. Say: You do not (truly) believe, rather say, "We have (outwardly) surrendered" — for faith has not yet entered your hearts. (Al-Hujurat 49:14)
O Messenger, let those who vie with one another in (the way of) kufr not grieve you, from among those who say with their mouths "We believe" while their hearts believe not…. (Al-Ma´ida 5:41)
So, here in this world, true and staunch believers as well as weaklings and hypocrites are all mixed together. However, Almighty Allah (SWT) will make a clear division between them on the Day of Judgment, when everybody will be rewarded on the basis of his belief and deeds (see Al-Hadeed 57:13). In other words, in this world a man´s being Muslim (i.e., his verbal attestation of the basic beliefs of Islam and outward actions) is all that matters; but in the Hereafter only true and sincere belief — Iman — and deeds performed with the sole intention of pleasing Allah (SWT) will save one from the torments of hell-fire.
Turning now to the meanings of the ayaat, one notes that they address all who claim themselves to be believers, and the first demand that is made is: "O Believers! heed Allah as much as He should be really heeded." This means that people who profess faith are being commanded to be true believers and to have fear and awe of Allah (SWT) to the utmost degree. The Arabic word Taqwa is very meagerly transliterated in the English word "fear." Fear is obviously of many kinds:
* the abject fear of the coward;
* the fear of a child or an inexperienced person in the face of an unknown danger, more properly called dread;
* the fear of a reasonable man who wishes to avoid harm to himself or to people whom he wishes to protect;
* the reverence which is akin to love, for it fears to do anything which is not pleasing to the object of love.
The first is unworthy of man; the second is necessary for one spiritually immature; the third is a manly precaution against evil so long as it is unconquered; and the fourth is the seed-bed of righteousness and piety. Those mature in faith cultivate the fourth; at earlier stages, the third or the second may be necessary. But even here it is both fear and reverential awe of Allah (SWT). The first, on the other hand, is a feeling of which anyone should be ashamed. To respond to the call of Allah (SWT) and His Messenger (SAW) even after one has been smitten by injuries indicates that one fears God. Taqwa is indeed God-consciousness that makes a person righteous and pious. Steadfastness and perseverance in obedience and loyalty to Almighty Allah (SWT) necessarily characterize the pious (i.e., a muttaqi). According to the Qur´an, Taqwa is an all-embracing moral-cum-spiritual quality of the highest order — the inner driving force that keeps a Muslim on the right track.
Let us try to understand Taqwa a little further. Taqwa does not merely imply any particular form, appearance or life-style. Rather, it is a state of mind and heart which no doubt does reflect in every aspect of life. It permeates the whole being of a true believer; it is not a mere veneer or outward show. Essentially, it can be termed God-consciousness: a human being´s awe of God, consciousness of one´s duty towards Him, and an awareness of one´s accountability to Him; to be conscious of the fact that the world is a phase of trial where Allah (SWT) has sent us for a specified period of time; that Allah´s decisions on the Day of Judgment on an individual´s future in the Hereafter will depend on how he makes use of his energies and capabilities in the period of time at his disposal in this world. A conscience which is fired by consciousness of Allah (SWT) becomes alive. Man´s sensitivity becomes sharp under this influence and he avoids everything that is against Allah´s will. He starts examining his own thoughts and feelings to see what tendencies are being nurtured within him. He begins to scrutinize his life to find out in what activities he is spending his time and energy.
Once the second Caliph Umar (RAA) asked Ubai Ibn Ka´b (RAA) as to how he would define Taqwa and what its essence is. Ubai Ibn Ka´b (RAA), acclaimed by the Holy Prophet (SAW) as a great scholar and reciter of the Qur´an, explained it in such a convincing and vivid manner that everyone of the Companions sitting in that meeting appreciated it. The explanation given by him may be paraphrased like this: If a man has to cross a jungle with thorny bushes on both sides of a narrow track, he will take extreme care and tuck up his garments in order to avoid any harm to his clothes or to himself. This attitude of caution and care is to be called Taqwa.
Keeping this connotation of Taqwa in view, let us first understand what Iman or Islamic religions belief is. Iman signifies that a person has acknowledged the unity of God and believed in Him as the Creator and the Sustainer of the universe, one has testified to the Day of Judgment, and, finally, believed the messengership of Muhammad (SAW). This tripartite belief entails crucially important practical imperatives, which are, in the words of the Qur´an, as follows:
So, obey Allah and obey His Messenger; but if you turn back, the duty of our Messenger is but to proclaim the Message clearly and openly. (Al-Taghabun 64:12)
So take and put in practice what the Messenger assigns to you and deny yourselves that which he withholds from you.... (Al-Hashr 59:7).
Then guard yourselves against the Day when one soul shall not avail another, nor shall compensation be accepted from her, nor shall intercession profit her, nor shall anyone be helped. (Al-Baqarah 2:123)
In a nutshell, the first and foremost demand of Iman on a Muslim is that he should have Taqwa. Not only does a person with Taqwa scrupulously avoid things which are explicitly prohibited, he also hesitates from getting involved in affairs which are in any way dubious or worthless. His sense of duty makes him fulfill Allah´s commands in a spirit of total submission. His fear of God causes a feeling of deep anxiety and agony whenever there is a possibility that he may be in danger of exceeding limits prescribed by Almighty Allah (SWT). Ensuring the discharge of his obligations towards God and towards his fellow-beings becomes his way of life; he shudders at the very thought of doing anything unjust and against the Islamic Shari´ah. He keeps a vigil on whatever his bodily limbs (arms, legs, eyes, ears, sexual organs) perform. He thinks himself accountable for all voluntary acts performed through them. Since, according to the Qur´an an angel always records whatever a man speaks out, a God-fearing man is vigilant about what he utters. This vigilance, control, concern, and caution are the hallmarks of the Taqwa-based attitude in life.
Again, the words which accompany and qualify the commandment for Taqwa are immensely noteworthy: "...as He should be heeded." While reciting this ayah we generally take a cursory and cavalier view of these words. How radically different was the attitude and response of the Companions of the Prophet (SAW) when they came to know of this challenging demand! They became extremely perturbed and thought that it was impossible for one to fear Almighty Allah (SWT) to the highest degree due Him. They, therefore, inquired from the Prophet about this and got consolation only when the following words of Allah, Most Merciful and Most Compassionate, were revealed: "So heed God as much as you can..." (Al-Taghabun 64:15). On hearing this, they were relieved of a terrible anxiety. Allah´s Taqwa combined with "as much as you can" obviously means: "lead lives of self-restraint and righteousness to the highest possible degree." And the Companions of the Holy Prophet (SAW) amply acted upon this Divine injunction. However, on our part we should not absolve ourselves of our obligation by underestimating our own capacities and capabilities. One should not deliberately forego the struggle for restraint and piety on the false (and self-deceiving!) pretext that he lacks the required mental and physical strength. The All-Knowing Allah (SWT) knows well how much strength and capability He has given to each person and everyone will be judged according to that measure.
Now let us discuss the second injunction contained in the ayah: "and see that you do not die except in the state of Islam." What does Islam literally mean? It means submission and surrender to Allah (SWT). Islam implies belief in the unity of God and the prophethood of Muhammad (SAW). Anyone who testifies to this belief fulfills the legal requirement for entry into the fold of Islam. This belief has very significant practical ramifications. The edifice of a complete Islamic life can only be built on a belief in God´s unity (Tauheed) that permeates a person´s entire personal and social life, and which is so strong that he considers himself and all that he possesses as really belonging to Almighty Allah (SWT); he accepts Him as the sole rightful Owner, Object of worship, Receiver of obedience, and Law-giver for himself as well as for the rest of the world; he considers Him the fountain-head of guidance, and is fully aware that disobedience to Allah (SWT) or indifference to the divinely revealed law constitutes deviation from the right path of Islam. Indeed, controlling the baser prompting and desires of the self and always striving to act according to the dictates of the Qur´an and Sunnah of the Prophet is what Islam essentially means.
Moreover, the command given in a most emphatic style — "and see that you do not die save in the state of Islam" — is very significant and subtle. As a matter of fact, nobody knows as to how long he is going to live and where and in what conditions his death will take place. We often hear that a person travels in the morning to a certain place on a business or pleasure trip. His family members fondly expect him back after a few days, but instead in the evening of the very same day he left his house, his wife and children receive his dead body. Thus, if a person firmly decides that death does not take him except in the state of submission and total surrender to Allah (SWT), he will have to be extremely and ceaselessly alert so that not even a single moment of his life is spent in sinful activity. Nobody has any guarantee whatsoever that he is not to die at the time of indulging in sin and thus transgressing the limits set by the Qur´an and the Sunnah.
Many Qur´anic ayaat and ahadith emphasize that an un-Islamic act cannot co-exist with Iman, indeed to the extent that, at least while man is committing a sin, his Iman leaves him. Let me here quote a very authentic hadith.
Hadrat Abu Hurayra (RAA) says that Allah´s Messenger (SAW) said: While one is committing fornication, he is not a believer; while one is stealing, he is not a believer; while one is taking liquor, he is not a believer; while one is plundering, as people look on, he is not a believer; while one is committing fraud, he is not a believer; so beware, beware! (Bukhari and Muslim)
Leaving aside for a moment the arguments of the jurists and theologians about Iman and its relation to a´maal (actions), one must try to understand the matter in the light of the Qur´an. It is crystal clear from the Qur´an that the inner conviction of faith and the practice of Islam are essentially interdependent. Allah (SWT) almost invariably mentions faith and righteous conduct together. Verbal profession of Islamic beliefs, though important in its own right, is not sufficient for supporting the edifice of an Islamic morality and way of life and for winning him salvation in the Hereafter. Just imagine the utter misfortune of a person whose soul is overtaken by death while he is committing a grievous sin and no time is left for him to repent and make amends. This situation can only be avoided by a Muslim who makes Islam the ultimate, paramount and all-time concern in his life.
First things first. This, then, is the foremost and base-line practical step or action which a true Muslim has to undertake most earnestly. Without accomplishing this, he cannot fruitfully move on to the two higher steps of the action-agenda. Allah (SWT) castigates the religious divines of the Jews with severest reproach on this account thus:
Do you enjoin right conduct on the people, and forget (to practise it) yourselves, and yet you study the Scripture? Will you not understand? (Al-Baqarah 2:44)
This attitude (of double standards) is also conspicuously visible in our own present day Muslim society. Many a preacher deliver moving and passionate sermons to others on religion and moral rectitude. A large group of spiritual mentors is seen engaged in Islamic da´wah activity across the Muslim world. High-quality and first-rate academic papers are being written and published by a host of scholars in the Muslim lands. Yet, on closer examination, one regrettably finds that most of these scholars, writers, and mentors do not practise Islam themselves. Their own lives and conduct, far from being based on Taqwa and Iman, exhibit many deviations from Islamic principles. Unfortunately, they forget that the first thing that Islam demands from them is to lead their own lives as much as possible according to the dictates of the Qur´an and the Sunnah of the Prophet (SAW).
The demand of the Qur´an as explained in the above lines is that we are required to worship and love Allah (SWT) with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our strength. In Islam, the religious concern is ultimate, it excludes all other concerns from ultimate significance. The concern for Islam is to be unconditional: independent of any condition of character, desire, or circumstance. The unconditional concern is total: no part of ourselves or of our world is excluded from it, there is no place to flee from it. The total concern is infinite: no moment of relaxation and rest is possible in the face of a religious concern which is ultimate, unconditional, total and infinite. The Qur´anic ayah: "O Believers! Enter wholly in Islam..." (Al-Baqarah 2:208) means exactly this. Allah (SWT) demands that man should submit, without reservation, the whole of his being and life to His will. Man´s outlook, intellectual pursuits, behavior, interaction with other people and modes of behavior should all be completely subordinate to Islam. Allah (SWT) does not accept the splitting up of human life into separate compartments, some governed by the teachings of Islam and others exempt from them. Whether seen from the point of view of Islam or Taqwa (i.e., God-fearing attitude and God-consciousness), the Qur´an instructs us to believe wholeheartedly and to bow in submission and obedience to God totally and completely. It allows no fragmentation of life. Taqwa is an all-embracing moral quality of the highest order. It manifests itself in an individual´s whole way of thinking and acting. The Qur´an emphasizes that the guidance given by Allah (SWT) cannot be split into parts — the peripheral, less important ones to be followed, the fundamental, more important ones to be put in cold storage. We can see with our own eyes in the lives of those who often enjoy great fame for their Taqwa that they are so particular about the minute details of the Shari´ah that deviation from the secondary injunctions of their own juristic persuasions is to them tantamount to heresy and threatened with hell-fire. But their neglect of the fundamentals of Islam — e.g., prohibition of interest in business and concern for economic exploitation and social injustice in society — reaches such heights that compromise and expediency seem to dominate lives.
Taqwa or God-consciousness must assert itself both in public life and in the inner denizens of private life. In case it is shallow and fake, it will manifest only in the external veneer of living and conduct. Once the Holy Prophet (SAW) pointed to his breast thrice and said that Taqwa resides in here. If the heart of a man is enlivened by Taqwa, it will permeate his entire being and dye his total personality with the "color of Allah." A Muslim has been commanded by Allah (SWT) not only to pray and fast, but also to put in practice His injunctions with respect to the social, political, and economic aspects of life. Islam does not allow in the least the modern secular approach in which religion is confined to one´s private life and modes of worship. On no pretext whatsoever — economic stringency, difficulties in interest-free monetary transactions, extravagant customary practices on weddings and other social occasions — can a true and committed Muslim justify himself in indulging in un-Islamic behavior. This is the basic and foremost lesson that comes out so clearly and emphatically from this ayah of Surah Aal-e-Imran for anyone who aspires to live as a Muslim and die as a Muslim.
And hold fast, all together, to the Rope of Allah (which He stretched out for you), and be not divided among yourselves; and remember with gratitude Allah´s favor on you, for you were once enemies and then He joined your hearts in love, so that by His Grace you became brethren; and you were on the brink of the pit of fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah make His Signs clear to you, that you may be guided to the right way.
The next ayah (ayah 103) of Surah Aal-e-Imran explains the second practical step that the Muslim Ummah is urged to undertake. All those who have accomplished to the maximum possible degree the requirement of the preceding ayah and attained the driving force of Taqwa (i.e., God-consciousness) in their lives — are called upon to unite and join together for the cause of Islam. Until and unless they join hands together and become like a solid steel-ribbed structure, they cannot achieve the supremacy and ascendancy of Islam at the global level. It is a well-established truth that any influential and wide-ranging mission, be it a moral or an immoral one, requires the concerted efforts of a group of people.
The noblest and loftiest end — to make humanity surrender to one God — that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) achieved in his life time was only achieved with the selfless, dedicated, and cooperative efforts of his Companions (RAA). But the Prophet (SAW) himself could achieve this within the boundaries of Arabian Peninsula and the task of disseminating Islam and making it dominant in the entire world was put on the shoulders of Muslim Ummah. This gigantic duty obviously calls for a united and organized struggle.
Now, just as a strong and solid wall requires strong blocks or bricks, the individual members of the Islamic Jihad movement should also be men of deep inner conviction and noblest character, who strive together to bring all power and all powers under God. If the individual Muslim suffers from lack of commitment to the Islamic cause and is not a dedicated worker, the Islamic Ummah cannot accomplish its Divinely ordained mission. In other words, each Muslim must first himself become a sincere, wholehearted, and authentic believer in order to play his role in the discharge of Ummatic obligations. The consolidation and invigoration of Iman or Taqwa in the individual person is the subject which has been dealt with most fully yet succinctly in the preceding ayah of the Holy Qur´an. Now, we move on to the second step.
We have seen that it is of utmost urgency for Muslims to join hands together for the realization of Ummah´s destiny as the standard-bearer of truth, the establishment of Divine Order of social justice and equity on earth; in other words, bringing God´s earth under God´s rule. The most important question that arises here is: What is that bond or cementing material which would bind the Muslims into a strongly united group or collectivity? The Qur´anic ayah under discussion provides answer to this very question: "And hold fast, all together, the cord of Allah (that he stretched out for you), and be not divided among yourselves...."
The simile used here is that of people struggling in deep water, to whom a benevolent Providence stretches out a strong and unbreakable cord or rope of rescue. If all hold fast to it together, their mutual support adds to the chance of their safety. One may wonder here as to what habl Allah — the cord of Allah (SWT) — really means. Mention of a few methodological points with regard to the commentary on, and understanding of, the Holy Qur´an will be in the fitness of things!
The first principle to be kept in mind in the interpretation and understanding of the Qur´an is that its one ayah or portion is sometimes explained and elaborated by another ayah or portion of the Qur´an. In case one does not find such explanation within the Qur´an, then the second recognized principle is to explore the backgrounds of the Qur´anic revelations called the "occasions of revelation." They were recorded by the Companions of the Prophet (SAW) as a necessary aid for fixing the correct meaning of the Word of God. And linked with this is the belief with regard to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) vis-Ã -vis the Qur´an, for he clarified and elaborated the Qur´an, supplementing its broad general principles by giving them precise and detailed forms, and incorporating them into practical life, his own as well as those of his followers. Thus the Qur´an affirms this role of the Prophet in these words:
And we sent down the Book to you for the express purpose that you should make clear to them those things in which they differ, and that it should be a guide and a mercy to those who believe. (An-Nahl 16:64)
In the light of these principles, for an understanding of the expression "cord of Allah," we should turn to the traditions of the Holy Prophet (SAW). In the presence of authentic historical traditions of the Prophet (SAW) about a particular issue or point, it is wrong to resort to free-play of reason or fancy. Indeed such interpretation of arbitrary opinion (tafseer bil-ra´ay) has never found favor with orthodox Muslims. Many Urdu translators and exegesists of the Qur´an have not bothered to study the more than one available authentic (i.e., sound in terms of chain of transmission) statements of the Prophet (SAW) himself which elucidate the expression. For one renowned scholar, the expression generally refers to the "religion of God." I see no reason why one should deal with it so cavalierly and ignore a genuine, trustworthy and marfu´ hadith (in which the saying of the Prophet itself is reported). As a matter of principle, knowledge of Arabic language, grammar, lexicography, Arabic literature, and familiarity with Arabic idiom of the times of the Prophet (SAW) are all important as instruments for writing commentary on Qur´an. But recourse to semantic and linguistic analysis or personal opinion should not in any way overrule the primary importance of the Prophet´s sayings and explications. Following this paramount principle of Qur´anic exegesis, I shall mention here very briefly three ahadith of the Prophet (SAW) which explicate without an iota of doubt the real import and meaning of habl Allah.
1. A rather lengthy historical tradition on the Qur´an has been narrated by the fourth Caliph Ali (RAA), in which the Prophet (SAW) is reported to have said about the Qur´an: "It is this very Qur´an that is the cord of Allah." (Tirmidhi & Darimi)
2. In another hadith, reported on the authority of Abdullab Ibn Mas´ud (RAA), the Prophet (SAW) said: "This Qur´an is the cord of Allah which He has stretched from the heavens to the earth."
3. The third hadith has been reported by Jubair Ibn Mut´im (RAA) and included in Tibrani Kabir. This hadith so vividly gives the details of an episode in the lifetime of the Prophet (SAW) that the reader begins to feel for a few moments as if he himself is sitting in the company of the Prophet. Once the Holy Prophet (SAW) came out of his hujrah and saw a few of the Companions (RAA) studying and discussing the Qur´an in a corner of the mosque. The Prophet (SAW), very much pleased with this, approached them and asked them a strange question. This question we should also put to ourselves and see if we can sincerely give the same affirmative answer that was given by the Companions. The Prophet (SAW) asked them, "Do you not attest to the truths that there is no god but Allah who alone should be worshipped, that He is one and without partner, that I am His Messenger, and that this Qur´an has come from Him?" All the Companions firmly replied in the affirmative. (May Allah enable us also to attest sincerely and with heart-felt certitude the fundamental metaphysical beliefs of Islam. Although we all verbally attest these beliefs, what is required is inner conviction and faith of the heart). On this the Prophet (SAW) said, "Rejoice at what you have got with yourselves because one end of the Qur´an is in Allah´s hand and the other end is with you. So hold it fast. If you do that, you will never perish or go astray."
Despite these three authentic traditions of the Prophet (SAW), if someone maintains that habl Allah means something other than the Qur´an, his opinion cannot be taken seriously. Indeed he has no justification whatsoever for that. Allama Iqbal has expressed this very truth in the following Persian couplets thus:
That is to say, the collective life and Ummatic existence of the Muslims is due to the Qur´an that provides them with a common legal framework and code of life. The multitudes of Muslims have no significance; all significance rests with the Qur´an that functions like a throbbing heart in the socio political body of the Muslims. Iqbal, therefore, advises the Muslims to hold fast to the Qur´an as it is the cord of Allah (SWT).
The second imperative that is laid down by ayah 103 is, therefore, that all Muslims are commanded by Allah (SWT) to hold fast to the Divine cord, the Qur´an. The Arabic verb i´tesam used in this ayah is also very significant. The root of the verb — ismat — means security and protection; and the meaning of the verb i´tesam is to hold fast to something or somebody for security and safety in the face of danger or threat. Its real sense comes out clearly when we see a child who, in all his innocence, clings to his mother, thinking that she can protect him form all sorts of dangers and odds. Clinging or holding fast to somebody for security is i´tesam. So Almighty Allah (SWT) enjoins upon the Muslims to hold fast to the Divine cord — the Holy Qur´an.
The Arabic expression Jamee´an used in the ayah can be interpreted in two ways, and I think both meanings are to be taken here. First, it may mean that all Muslims should jointly hold fast and cling to the Qur´an. Secondly, it may also signify that the whole, and not a few parts, of the Qur´an is to be taken as guide for life. If only some fragmentary injunctions of the Divine writ are put into practice and others are simply ignored, this will be like the attitude of the Israelites who were reproached very strongly by Allah (SWT) in these words:
Do you believe in a part of the Scripture and reject the other? What else, then, could be the retribution of those among you who do this than they should live in degradation in the present life, and that on the Day of Resurrection they should be sent to the severest chastisement? (Al-Baqarah 2 : 85)
Belief in the Qur´an remains imperfect until the code of life it lays down is accepted in its entirety. It is ironic to see that the majority of Westernized and secularized Muslims take a partial view of Islamic life and do not at all see the need to extend, strengthen, and complete its Qur´anic foundations, with the result that the door to the highest stages of Taqwa and Ihsan are supposed to be open for a judge of court who may give judgments in violation of the Qur´an, for a lawyer who may argue on the basis of laws contrary to the Shari´ah, for the administrator who may manage the affairs of life in accordance with a system based on kufr, for the political leader and his followers who may work for founding and building of life on the social and political principles of the disbelievers __ in short, for everyone, provided he fashions his outward style of life after a certain pattern and observes a few rituals and ceremonies of worship.
The reason for the use of the word habl (cord) is that the Qur´an both establishes a bond between man and God and joins all believers together in the religious fraternity. To take a firm hold on this cord means that the believers should attach utmost importance to their religion: this should always be the center of their concerns; they should continually strive to establish it; and the common desire to serve it should make them cooperate with each other. As soon as Muslims turn their attention away from the fundamental teachings of their faith and lose sight of establishing its ascendancy in life they begin to concern themselves with matters of secondary importance. And, just as they rent the communities of the former prophets, enticing people away from their true objective in life, so schism and dissension are bound to plague their lives. If Muslims do this they are bound to suffer indignity and disgrace both in this world and the Next as happened with the followers of the previous prophets. So a true Muslim is only one whose whole being is permeated with Islam; it is not a mere veneer or outward show.
After this, an historical evidence from the period in which the Qur´an was being revealed was presented and the believers were addressed thus : "And remember with gratitude Allah´s favor on you, for you were enemies and He joined your hearts in love, so that by His grace you became brethren."
Yathrib, and indeed the whole of Arabia, was torn with civil and tribal feuds and contentions before the Prophet of Islam set his sacred feet on its soil. After that, it became the city of the Prophet (SAW), an unmatched brotherhood, and the pivot of Islam. Before the advent of Islam, there were animosities among the tribes which regularly broke out into fighting and devastation; every now and then there was much bloodshed. Things had reached a point where the entire Arabian nation seemed to be on the verge of destroying itself. It was due to the blessings of Islam alone that it was saved from being consumed by the fire to which this ayah alludes. The people of Yathrib (which later came to be known as Medinah) had embraced Islam some three or four years before this ayah was revealed. They had witnessed the blessing of Islam as it unified into one brotherhood the Aws and the Khazraj, two tribes which had long been sworn enemies. Moreover, both tribes treated the migrants from Makkah in a spirit of sacrifice and love seldom seen even among members of the same family. The ayah under consideration ends with the words: "Thus Allah makes His signs clear to you that you may be guided to the right way." That is to say, if people had eyes to see they could conclude for themselves whether their salvation lay in adhering firmly to the teachings of the Qur´an or in abandoning them and reverting to their former state. They could decide very easily whether their true well-wishers were Allah (SWT) and His Messenger (SAW) or those Jews, Polytheists, and hypocrites who strove to plunge them back into their former despicable state.
Before we proceed further, it is quite appropriate to see if the historical evidence alluded to in this ayah has any special bearing on the current political scenario of Pakistan. As Muslims, we believe that the teachings of the Qur´an have eternal and everlasting validity and that, as a source of guidance, the Qur´anic principles have applicability for all places and for all times to come. Seen in this perspective, we can better appreciate the gravity of the conditions prevailing today in Pakistan, and, at the same time, see a ray of hope offered to all believers in the Qur´anic ayah under discussion. Just as Allah (SWT) welded the warring Arab factions into a strong brotherhood fourteen centuries ago He can now turn the disarrayed and conflicting provinces of Pakistan into a strong unity, provided the people of Pakistan earnestly act upon the three-point action strategy explained in these three ayaat.
It is an undeniable historical fact that the Indian subcontinent was partitioned on the basis of Two-Nation theory, and that Pakistan was established on the foundation of Muslim Nationhood and in the name of Islam. Muslims living in the widely separated areas of India were united by the bond of Islamic faith, and demanded a separate homeland with the objective that Muslims of India, by removing all the taints of decadent and monarchical Islam, get an opportunity to re-establish the pristine Islamic system of political, economic, and social justice which is the most important manifestation of the Holy Prophet´s (SAW) universal mercy and blessing. We regret to say, however, that in spite of the fact that forty seven years have passed since Pakistan was established, no real progress has as yet been made towards achieving the envisaged goal. The political and economic system inherited from the British Raj has throughout been kept intact; not only in the overall system, but in matters of social and communal values also we are strictly maintaining the status quo. Both in practice and thought we exhibit the same old slavish mentality.
The system to which we are sticking in the political governance of our homeland has the following important features:
1.Territorial Nationalism, i.e., the concept of nationalism that was born of Western secularism and on whose absolute negation Pakistan movement was launched.
2.Parliamentary Democracy, the initial training of which was imparted to us by our English rulers.
3.The names and boundaries of the provinces demarcated by the British for their administrative expediency and which we consider not only permanent and everlasting but even sacrosanct.
4.The banking system — on which all our industry and trade, in fact our entire economy, is based — is contaminated to this day by the filth of interest. As a result, the entire nation and the country is, in the words of the Qur´an, at war with Allah (SWT) and His Messenger (SAW).
5.Accursed evils of gambling, speculation and lottery —declared by the Qur´an as "an abomination of Satan´s handiwork" (Al-Mai´da 5:90) — are rampant.
6.The system of feudalism and absentee landlordism, the worst and most abominable form of oppression and usurpation, has basically not changed at all in spite of the so-called land reforms introduced twice.
7.Mixed (non-segregated) social living that debased the West as far as modesty and chastity are concerned. It destroyed the domestic peace and confounded the family structure. And this evil is such that it did not take roots in our society even during the British rule to the extent it is now in vogue, and is increasing by leaps and bounds every day.
8.The distinction between the "tribal" and "settled" areas in the N.W.F.P. is still continuing.
The current scenario of Pakistan calls for a total change in the entire body politic and socio-economic system of the homeland. Unity among the people of Pakistan and the establishment of Islamic Social Justice is the need of the day. This, in fact, was the real purpose of establishing Pakistan, and only this can ensure her continued existence, stability and progress. It is on account of deviation from this very cause that the Muslim nation of Pakistan got divided into different regional, ethnic and linguistic nationalities. This breaking of our vow with Allah (SWT) and disloyalty to His Deen has led to tremendous plunder and bloodshed among the people of various regions. Divine punishment whipped us in 1971 and even now if we do not make headway towards the real objective of Pakistan, Divine punishment could whip us again any time and would whip us more severely. Indeed, Pakistan has to prepare herself to face all the threats posed by the New World Order. If, on the contrary, Pakistanis do not come out of their deep slumber and do not give up their materialistic pursuits, the anti-Islamic designs of the so-called "supreme world power" will subjugate it to the point of virtual nonexistence. An ostrich-like attitude will not save us from perilous dangers, and it is imperative that we, at the earliest and in right earnest, read the writing on the wall.
If a true Muslim reflects on the conditions of Pakistan diligently and thoughtfully, he will realize that the situation of Pakistanis totally resembles that of the Arabs before the advent of Islam depicted in the words of the Qur´an — "you stood on the brink of a pit of fire." And the only way out of this pit of fire is the one delineated by these ayaat of Surah Aal-e-Imran. As the Qur´an is the eternal Divine message for all humanity, its teachings too have abiding efficacy and applicability. No matter how degenerate our conditions and circumstances may be, the Qur´an offers a sure panacea for all our ills.
In the Khatm Al-Qur´an prayer we most humbly pray to Almighty Allah (SWT) that Qur´an may be made our leader, guide and beacon of light. But, surely, we cannot get it all merely for the asking. We have to struggle hard to achieve our solicited desires. Holding fast together to the cord of Allah — the Holy Qur´an — is, therefore, the second practical point of the strategy laid down by the Divine Book.
To summarize the action-agenda so far covered in these pages: the first practical step of the three-point Qur´anic strategy is with regard to Taqwa and Islam. That is to say, a true Muslim should remain steadfast in his obedience and loyalty to God. He should avoid everything which is not pleasing to Him and live his entire life in total submission to His commandments. As a corollary, acting on the injunctions of the Holy Prophet (SAW) is also included in it, as the commandments of the Prophet (SAW) are in fact the commandments of Allah (see Al-Nisa 4:80). The second practical step is with regard to the Qur´an: i´tesam bil-Qur´an — holding fast and attaching oneself firmly to the Qur´an. And this obligation is to be discharged in a unified manner. Division and dissension among Muslims is thoroughly disapproved by Allah (SWT).
Now the question is : What does "holding fast together the cord of Allah" mean and imply in practical terms. In the booklet The Obligations Muslims Owe To the Qur´an, I have made an impassioned call to the Muslims to return to the Qur´an, to rededicate themselves to its study, and make it the sole guide for their lives. Instead of making purely academic attempts at describing the unique merits and magnificence of Qur´an, the most pertinent thing for us to do is that we should clearly understand our responsibilities towards the Qur´an and then assess for ourselves whether or not we are conscientiously fulfilling them. Paying lip service or pompous tributes to the Qur´an will not be enough and these cannot substitute for actually discharging our obligations towards the Holy Book. Now what are these obligations? Or, in other words, what does the Qur´an demand from us? An objective study of the Book makes it amply clear that it makes five demands from every Muslim. Put in a simple language, these demands or obligations are as follows:
1.A Muslim is required to truly believe in the Qur´an.
2.He is required to read it properly.
3.He is required to understand it.
4.He is required to act upon its teachings in his private life to struggle for the implementation of Shari´ah and the establishment of Social Justice at the state level.
5.He is required to disseminate its teachings to others and operationalize Islam at the global level. He must spend most of his energies and monetary sources for this cause.
As a matter of fact, if Muslims rejuvenate their relationship with the Qur´an on these lines, it will weld them into one Ummah with utmost mental and emotional unity as well as unique singularity of purpose and objective. All sorts of dissension, strife and antagonism among them will automatically vanish, and they will become united like a solid cemented structure (in Qur´anic expression, bunyan marsus). And this will indeed be a concrete exemplification of the Holy Prophet´s saying according to which Almighty Allah (SWT) will bestow dignity and honor on those people who hold fast to the Qur´an and will degrade and disgrace those who turn a deaf ear to it and do not discharge their obligations towards it. Allama Iqbal has expressed these very ideas in beautiful Persian verses thus:
To sum up: there are the two practical steps through which a man personally becomes a true believer and the collectivity of believers takes the form of a strong ideological fraternity. Now the question that crops up is: what methodology is to be pursued by this ideological group for its global struggle? This indeed is the subject matter of the next Qur´anic ayah to be explained in the sequel. It is a happy coincidence that this methodology too consists of three points and we will dwell upon them at some length.
Let us now concentrate our attention on the third ayah (ayah 104 of Surah Aal-e-Imran) the English translation of which reads:
And from among you there must be a party (a group or band of committed Muslims) who invite people to all that is good, and enjoin the doing of all that is right and forbid the doing of all that is wrong. It is they who will attain true success.
An objective and detailed study of the preceding two ayaat of the Surah leaves no ambiguity or doubt in the mind of the reader that both of them call for a collectivity of believers, and that a serious and sincere action on their dictates necessarily demands the formation of a group or party. Now the question arises: what is the objective or goal this group should keep in view and work for? As a matter of fact, all creations and artifacts are made for serving some purpose. Even a small and modest association of people is constituted and organized for achieving certain goals defined in the memorandum of aims and objectives. So the question that quite naturally arises is: what is the purpose or goal of that group which results from collectively clinging to the Qur´an? This exactly is what is explained in the ayah under review.
This ayah has been translated in two different ways by the translators. For some, the preposition min of minkum in the ayah is general and descriptive, while for some others it is of particularizing nature. Leaving aside the technicalities of the two types of min just mentioned, let us see what difference, if any, is made in the meaning of the ayah by either use of it. According to the former the ayah would be translated as: "And you should together form a group that invites people to all that is good...," whereas according to the latter sense of min the translation would be: "And from among you there must be a group or party that invites people to all that is good .…" Now in my view both these translations of the ayah are entirely correct, and the logical import of the meaning of the ayah in hardly changed by the minor linguistic difference of the two translations. If all the Muslims of the world unite and together constitute an ideological fraternity (i.e., the Muslim Ummah) that performs the duties of inviting people to all that is good, enjoin the doing of all right actions and forbid the doing of all that is wrong — this would be the import of the ayah according to the descriptive or indicative use of min. But since this descriptive function of the whole of Muslim Ummah is repeated a little further on in ayah 110 of this very Surah, a large majority of Qur´anic scholars take min in the particularizing sense and interpret the ayah by maintaining that it demands the formation of a group comprising of committed and motivated Muslims from among the vast Muslim fraternity of less motivated believers. That is to say, this ayah provides answer to the question: what should be done when, by and large, the Ummah neglects its religious obligations and thus pays no heed to its Divinely ordained duties.
Let us frankly acknowledge the hard facts and conditions of present-day Muslims, however unpleasant they may appear to us. Theoretically, the words "Muslim Ummah" cover in their fold all the Muslims of the world and as such it is a universalistic concept. But, as a matter of fact, one global Muslim Ummah is at the moment a non-entity. Instead, there are many Muslim nations in the world. Even Allama Muhammad Iqbal, a great advocate of the unity of Muslim Ummah, had to be realistic about the actual condition of Muslims in the world. Accordingly, in his lectures, entitled Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, he wrote that there is no one united Muslim Ummah in the world; rather there are many Muslim nations living in different states. However, perhaps this too was true more than half a century ago when Allama Iqbal delivered the Lectures. The present situation of most Muslim nations is worse still and most Muslim nations are split into numerous regional, ethnic, or linguistic groups.
The readers of these lines can very well appreciate this fact if they consider the case of Pakistan. At the time of its appearance in 1947 as a separate homeland for the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent, Pakistanis were considered as one Muslim nation by all. Both wings of Pakistan were united and considered Islam the basis of their unity. Soon afterwards, however, regional sentiments and concern for regional languages came up on the surface and eventually paved the way for the ceding of East Pakistan. Consequently, it became Bangladesh in 1971 and asserted her Bengali identity more than the former Muslim character. Every one of us laments how savagely and brutally non-Bengali Muslims were tortured and murdered by the Bengali nationalists of East Pakistan. And in the truncated Pakistan, too, there is no ideological unity in the people. The Pakistani nation stands divided and fragmented on the bases of ethnicity, culture, and language, and different groups are constantly at loggers head with each other. Since not a single province of Pakistan has only one ethnic community, we often hear news of gruesome violence and brutalities among various communities living in one province and even in one city. For example, in Baluchistan there are at least three large ethnic groups, and to a lesser degree this is also true of other provinces of Pakistan. In Sindh the Mohajirs (migrants from India) have formally assumed the status of a politico-cultural entity. Indeed, from the very beginning, distinction was made almost every where in the country but particularly in the province of Sindh between the locals and the migrants, and this discrimination eventually led to the formation of MQM in urban Sindh. Again the Arab world, where all speak and write Arabic, is divided in a number of nation-states and people there identify themselves with reference to distinct nationalities.
So the hard fact that we must accept is that today a united world Muslim Ummah is non-existent. The de facto position is frankly none other than this. The Ummah only exists as an ideal concept in the minds of Muslims who consider theoretically all believers of Islam and the Prophet (SAW) as members of one global religious fraternity. According to this belief, each confessor of Muhammad´s (SAW) Prophethood is regarded a member of the universal Muslim brotherhood. This belief in itself is perfectly correct, but the question is whether Muslims all around the world do in fact behave as a well-knit ideological group? Is there any discipline among the Muslims? Is there a plenary leadership among Muslim nations and are the directives and recommendations of that leadership heeded by the member states? I regret to say that the answer to all these questions is in the negative. Was not a large part of Afghan army with the Russians when the latter were killing Afghan people mercilessly? Were not the most inhuman atrocities against Afghans committed by their own Islam-professing Afghan brethren? Again was not the long and devastating war between Iran and Iraq between two Muslim countries? Armed clashes between different factions of Muslims in Lebanon and brutal and murderous assaults on Palestinian refugee camps are known to anyone who is in touch with modern media. And the recent Gulf war has proved beyond any doubt that, as a matter of fact, one world-wide Muslim Ummah does not exist.
In the light of these facts the ayah under consideration with the particularizing sense of preposition in the expression minkum assumes special significance and its meanings become quite intelligible. In effect, what it means is that even when the vast multitudes of people in the Muslim Ummah are in a state of slumber, are divided among themselves and pursuing only secular ends, there must arise a group or party within the larger Ummah that performs the duties laid down by the Qur´an in this ayah, and also make the rest aware of them.
Some readers may wonder as to what an Ummah within the Ummah means. I am sure you must be familiar with the expressions of "a state within a state" and "a party within a party." For instance, those among you who have read about the freedom struggle of the Indian subcontinent know very well that the Indian National Congress was a big political party and there was a forward block of it within the Congress that consisted of rather more revolutionary members. The forward block stood for more radical strategy as compared with the ordinary political policies approved by the Congress. Despite their membership and loyalty to the Indian Congress, they constituted a separate group under the leadership of Subhash Chandra Bose.
Similarly, since in the contemporary context the universal Muslim Ummah has been reduced to the level of an abstract concept, its reification is needed in the form of a smaller group (from among the larger Ummah) consisting of such Muslims as have fulfilled, to the maximum possible degree, the requirements and demands made in ayah 102 of the Surah with respect to the individual behavior and practice of a true Muslim. They attain the driving force of Taqwa in their hearts and meticulously observe the commandments of the Holy Prophet (SAW). Moreover, in compliance, to a fair degree, with the imperatives of the next ayah, they hold fast to the Qur´an for guidance even in minor details of their lives, and unite and join together as comrades in order to make up an ideological group. Ayah 104 of Surah Aal-e-Imran enlightens us about the three aims and objectives this collectivity of God-conscious and motivated Muslims is to work for:
1.Calling and inviting people to all that is good and noble.
2.Enjoining and dictating the doing of all that is right and virtuous.
3.Forbidding the doing of all that is wrong and immoral.
First of all, let us discuss the first two objectives and goals of the real and hard-core Muslim Ummah´s struggle. The Islamic summons have, by and large, been understood by Muslims to be in general call to Iman and A´mal Saleh (righteous action) in conformity with the guidance of Revelation, summoning people to God and inviting them to follow His and His Messenger´s dictates. But the crucial question that must be asked here is: Do the Qur´anic injunctions "calling and inviting people to all that is good" and "enjoining the doing of all that is right" mean one and the same action? We, however, cannot think for a minute that Almighty Allah (SWT) has used synonymous expressions in the same ayah for pointless repetition. They certainly mean and imply different performances or levels and intensity of operations. da´wah ilal-khair and amr bil-ma´roof are obviously semantically distinct expressions and thus connote different types of activities. Most probably, da´wah ilal-khair means calling and inviting people to the Qur´an, as according to the Holy Qur´an the highest khair (i.e., good) is the Qur´an itself. To substantiate this the following ayaat of Surah Yunus can be cited:
O mankind! There has come unto you an Admonition (or an Exhortation) from your Lord, and a Healing for the diseases in your hearts, and for those who believe a Guidance and a Mercy. Say: In this bounty of Allah and in His Mercy, therein let them rejoice; it is better than all (the worldly wealth) that they may amass! (Yunus 10: 57, 58)
These two ayaat clearly tell us how majestically Qur´an describes its own magnificence. Those who do wrong have a disease in their hearts, which causes their spirits to suffocate. Allah (SWT) in His Mercy declares His Will (i.e., the Qur´an) to them which should direct their lives and provide a healing for their spiritual malaise. If they accept faith, the remedy acts; they find themselves in right guidance and receive Allah´s forgiveness and mercy. Surely this guidance — the Qur´an — is far better a gift than material gains, wealth, or possessions. Therefore, according to this ayah, the referent of khair is Qur´an itself, something far superior to what worldly people hoard. To be sure, worldly possessions and wealth have also been termed as khair by the Qur´an. For example, an ayah of Surah Al-Aadiyaat reads:
... for, verily, to the love of wealth (khair) is he most ardently devoted. (Al-Aadiyaat 100:8)
This, of course, refers to a natural inclination and disposition of man. Yet, we are told in very clear and categorical terms that the Divine gift bestowed upon us in the form of the Qur´an is in reality far better than material riches and belongings. So da´wah ilal-khair (that is to say, inviting and calling people to goodness) is, in fact, exhorting men to study and act upon the teachings of the Qur´an.
While the first objective or aim of the Ummah´s missionary work is specifically with respect to the Qur´an, the second one is quite general and broad. It includes advising, admonishing, preaching, and exhorting people to all that is morally right and virtuous. However, the literal meaning of the Arabic verb amr is definitely more, and stronger, than just advising or preaching sermons; it additionally implies commanding and implementing with force. Thus amr is quite a wide expression. Starting from moralizing it goes right up to the bringing about of a revolution in political leadership so that corrupt and ungodly people are forced to be righteous and follow Divine guidance.
Another difference between da´wah and amr is that the former (i.e., preaching and exhorting) is never undertaken in an authoritative manner. On the contrary, it is always performed in a warm and heart-moving manner. In da´wah one pleads and even requests people most humbly to uphold goodness and probity. The da´ee (i.e., one who performs the da´wah) is always on the look out for an appropriate moment when he can approach people in a receptive mood. He even requests them in the name of God to order their lives according to the dictates of Islam. His role is both of an evangelist (i.e., one who gives glad tidings on moral actions) and of a warner of the torments of hell-fire. He is always very polite and never harsh, aggressive, or authoritative. This indeed is the attitude which members of the Tableeghi Jama´at have adopted for the past several decades for their missionary activities.
In da´wah, one speaks from the depth of ones heart and strikes a cord in the interlocutor´s heart as the preacher is definitely taken as a well-wisher. This difference amply shows why calling people to goodness has been mentioned by the Qur´an as distinct and separate from "enjoining what is morally right." The mild and polite manner to be adopted in da´wah was required of Prophet Musa (AS) and Prophet Haroon (AS) when the two messengers were ordered by Allah (SWT) to go to the Pharaoh. We read in Surah Taha the following ayaat:
Go forth (then), you and your brother, with My messages, and never tire of remembering Me. Go forth, both of you, unto Pharaoh, for verily he has transgressed all bounds of equity! But speak unto him in a mild manner, so that he might bethink himself or (at least) be filled with apprehension (Taha 42:44).
Thus amr bil-ma´roof is a step higher than mere da´wah ilal-khair or preaching and, as such, it calls for a different methodology and approach. The word amr literally means to order, dictate, or enforce on the basis of authority. This necessitates, at the societal or state level, a change or revolutions in the whole power structure so that the morally good and right is implemented and enforced with the authority of governmental institutions. Supporting evidence for this is also provided by the fact that the expression amr bil-ma´roof was first used in Surah Al-Hajj when the Prophet (SAW) and his Companions (RAA) were obliquely given the glad tiding of political power. English translation of ayah 41 of this Surah reads:
(They are) those who, if we establish them in the land, organize regular prayer and give regular charity, enjoin the right and forbid wrong…(Al-Hajj 22:41).
Soon after the revelation of this Surah, the foundations of an Islamic state were laid in Medinah, and the Prophet (SAW) began to enforce the laws of Shari´ah and religious practices in the capacity of a political ruler. However, it may be noted that full and total authority in the Arabian peninsula was achieved only after the conquest of Makkah, some ten years latter.
A very important point must be clearly appreciated and understood by all of us at this juncture. Absence of Islamic political power at the state level does not imply that the Qur´anic injunction of amr bil-ma´roof has no scope or relevance for Muslims. Each individual Muslim who wields power over some persons in his home, factory, office, or business establishment, is under obligation to act upon this injunction. He or she must enforce religious and moral commandments upon his or her subordinates and dependents. If need be, even force or moderate punishment may be resorted to in this regard. No true Muslim can absolve himself of this obligation of amr bil-ma´roof (of course, within the sphere of his/her authority) on the pretext that this duty can be discharged only by the Muslim political leadership of the State. Complete and total observance of Islamic law and morality, no doubt, is possible only when a change or revolution in favor of the Qur´an and the Prophet´s (SAW) Sunnah is brought about by the Islamic revivalist movement in the country´s leadership. This all-important point was very clearly realized and forcefully presented by late Maulana Sayyid Abul A´la Maududi — one of the chief influential writers and leaders of the contemporary Islamic resurgence. I shall here quote a long relevant passage from his Tehreek-e-Islami ki Akhlaqi Bunyadain rendered into English by Khurram Murad. These lines will put into bold relief the difference between da´wah and amr bil-ma´roof:
The objective of the Islamic movement, in this world, is revolution in leadership. A leadership that has rebelled against God and His guidance and is responsible for the suffering of mankind has to be replaced by a leadership that is God-conscious, righteous and committed to following Divine guidance. Striving to achieve this noble purpose, we believe, will secure God´s favor in this world and in the next. It is regrettable that both Muslims and non-Muslims have tended to lose sight of the significance of this revolution. Muslims all too often consider it necessary only from the point of view of political expediency, and have no appreciation of its central place in their religion. Non-Muslims, partly from prejudice and partly from lack of information, do not understand that ungodly leadership is at the root of the evils afflicting humanity, and that it is essential for human well-being that the affairs of the world should be directed by moral and God-fearing people. Whenever corruption is let loose in the world, whenever injustice is done, whenever tyranny or oppression exists, whenever poison flows in the veins of human culture, economic life, and politics, whatever misuse of resources and human knowledge for destruction instead of welfare and enlightenment there may be, the reason is bad leadership. There is no lack of good and high-minded people in society; the problem is that power is concentrated in the hands of people immersed in materialism and ungodliness. To change this situation it is not enough to preach sermons, exhort people to obey and worship God or to invite them to adopt high moral standards. Rather it is necessary for morally-just people to search each other out and strive to achieve enough collective power to wrest control of society from the morally corrupt. What is needed to change the centre of power and authority is effort. The revolution requires a coming together of the righteous in a common cause. (The Islamic Movement — Dynamics of Values, Power and Change; Edited by Khurram Murad)
After having understood the first two objectives for which the Muslim Ummah should earnestly work for and the subtle but crucial difference between them, let us now move on to discuss at length the third one as delineated by the ayah — viz., nahee anil-munkar or forbidding people from all that is morally bad and evil. Unfortunately, a large majority of religiously devout and noble people remain unmoved at the sight of evil deeds and morally wrong actions. They just remain complacent or unconcerned while people are engaged in un-Islamic activities. They think that only inviting them to good and virtuous actions through advice and sermon is enough and something worth doing. The truth, on the other hand, is that I can at least cite nine such places from the Qur´an where inviting or calling people to good and forbidding and stopping them from evil have been mentioned jointly. They have been mentioned together so constantly that it seems as if the two are integral aspects of one single activity or two parts of one organic whole. Or else, one is, as it were, concomitant to the other. For example, in Surah Luqman, among the advice given by Luqman to his son, we read:
O my dear son! Be constant in prayer, and enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong, and bear in patience whatever (ill) may befall thee. (Luqman 31:17)
How much nahee anil-munkar is important and how much emphasis was put on it by the Prophet (SAW) can be seen in the light of two Ahadith from Sahih Muslim — one of the most authentic collections of Prophetic traditions. The first hadith goes like this:
Abu Said Al-Khudri (RAA) says that Allah´s Messenger (SAW) said: If any of you sees some wrong he should change it with his hand; if he is unable to do so, then with his tongue; if he cannot do even that, then with his heart; and that is the weakest Iman.
A close and thoughtful perusal of this Prophetic saying brings out the following noteworthy points:
1.In this hadith there is no mention of amr bil-ma´roof or enjoining the good. This means that nahee anil-munkar, i.e., changing or stopping the evil, is an independent and equally significant activity in the value-structure and obligations of our faith. A religiously wrong or evil action is in fact a transgression of the limits laid down by the Creator, and, as such, a true and faithful believer cannot remain passive or unconcerned on the violation of Divine commandments.
2.Changing or stopping evil with one´s hand obviously means that all available power and authority should be used in curbing wrong action and routing out evil from the society. If there is an Islamic government in the county, it is its duty and responsibility to use all its force to eliminate un-Islamic practices. But in case the government remains complacent in this regard, it is the duty of all true Muslims to force people to shun evil and loathsome actions within the sphere in which they can exercise authority. For example, a father or an employer should use a reasonable amount of force in correcting such subordinates who indulge in immoral and forbidden activities.
3.If neither the State authorities discharge their duties with regard to nahee anil-munkar nor an individual Muslim can muster the power to check all that is wrong, he must, as the second best alternative, verbally denounce it and ask or request the person concerned to give it up. In the present age this will also include writing and publishing in the print media articles condemning un-Islamic patterns of behavior so that public opinion is mobilized against the evil. Indeed, "changing or stopping the evil with tongue" involves all the variegated moves of protest and agitation permissible in a democratic set-up. Both individuals in their private capacity and Islamic groups collectively should use all their resources of speech and printed word for increasing people´s awareness and sensibility against satanic tendencies of thought and action. They should do this boldly, remaining undaunted by the criticism and harassment of the general public or government.
4.In case social and political conditions in a place are so repressive that a truly committed Muslim cannot even use his tongue or pen in denouncing the evil, then he should at least feel pain inwardly. He should feel disgusted and condemn evil with his heart. Far from showing apathy, he must feel disturbed and perturbed. This will itself be a pointer to the fact that the person has Iman or faith, even though minimal and of the lowest degree. The word ad´af used in the hadith is of the superlative degree and as such signifies the "weakest" or the "faintest." In another Prophetic saying instead of the expression "that is the lowest Iman," the following description has been used: "and after this, Iman is not present even in as meager a quantity as a small grain." That is to say, if one of the attitudes out of the above three is not adopted by a Muslim, it would mean that true faith and Iman is almost nonexistent in the core of his heart.
5.The three attitudes mentioned and the corresponding states of Iman are not to be measured and judged by any external observer. No objective formula can be used in determining the faith-state of a person. Each individual Muslim can be a judge in his or her own case and choose the best and the highest possible course of nahee anil-munkar. It all depends on the intensity and depth of one´s Iman and the degree of one´s commitment to the cause of Islam. Each individual Muslim himself can measure these for himself. Nobody else can do it for him or make a wholly correct judgment upon his assessment. Nevertheless, the inward state of one´s Iman is reflected by the external attitude and behavior. For example if a person keeps silent or remains passive when his father or mother is publicly disgraced, this attitude of his is a sure indication of his unconcern or apathy towards his parents. Or else it shows that he lacks courage or even that he is impudent or disrespectful. If a person is not shameless but somehow lacks the means to physically counteract or defend, at least his face will become red with rage, exhibiting utter disgust and displeasure.
The example given in the preceding paragraph also sheds light in a parallel way on the degree and depth of a Muslim´s commitment to Islam and Iman. If he is not in a position to check and physically stop anti-Islamic actions, he protests against them using all the means at his command. He is even ready to face the atrocities of State agencies like baton-charging and firing. Indeed, his greatest desire is to lay down his life for the cause of Islam. The last part of the hadith under consideration — "and that is the weakest Iman" — implicitly demands that Muslims as a collectivity should try their utmost to acquire strength and power so as to completely eradicate evil from the society.
Now let us study closely the text of the second hadith:
Abdullah Ibn Mas´ud (RAA) says that Allah´s Messenger (SAW) said: There was never a prophet sent before me by Allah (SWT) to his nation who had not among his people (his) disciples and companions, who followed his ways and obeyed his commands. Then there came after them their successors who said what they did not practise and did what they were not commanded to do. He who struggles against them with his hand (i.e., physically), he is the believer; and he who struggles against them with his tongue, he is the believer; and he who struggles against them with his heart, he is also the believer: but beyond that there is not even a grain of Iman.
In this long hadith the Holy Prophet (SAW) starts by mentioning the fact that whenever Allah (SWT) sent a messenger to a people, he would get from amongst them some disciples or companions who truly acted upon God´s commandments and followed the messenger´s example. This would continue for a few generations and then religious fervor would gradually start diminishing. Moral purity preached by the prophet and his companions gradually declines and gives place to degeneration and innovation. (And, as a matter of truth, each innovative addition to Islam replaces an action enunciated by the Qur´an and Sunnah.) The later generations of so-called believers have been very aptly described by the Prophet (SAW) thus: "…people who say what they do not practise and do what they have not been commanded to do." And this is all the more true about we Muslims living in the 15th century after Hijrah. Temporally, we are so far removed from the times of the Holy Prophet (SAW) and the Companions (RAA) that there is tremendous deviation from ideal Islam as projected by the teachings of the Qur´an and the Prophet (SAW). And the present hadith is a clarion call for changing and stopping all that is disliked and disapproved by the Creator of the universe.
This hadith too is a pointer to three levels of nahee anil-munkar, exactly in the same manner and order of priority as were delineated by the hadith discussed earlier. The three levels are:
1.Struggling against evil and un-Islamic actions with hand;
2.struggling against them with tongue; and
3.struggling against them with heart.
The first two have already been explained in the above paragraphs. Some additional points with respect to the third level should be noted here. Disliking the evil inwardly and struggling against it with one´s heart necessarily implies that a true and committed Muslim will not develop warm and close relationship with those indulging in un-Islamic practices. But if he does not do that, he will be generally taken to endorse or accept the un-Islamic practices and thus lose the whole point of his protest against them. Indeed, according to another hadith of the Prophet (SAW), such a complacent and "liberal" Muslim gradually ceases to have even passive inward disapprobation of evil practices, and himself starts indulging in them openly. Serious notice of this point should be taken by all of us. The criterion and the norm for all our likes and dislikes and for all our social relations and friendships should be Islam, and nothing else.
The last assertion of the Prophet (SAW) in the above mentioned hadith is particularly noteworthy. The words "...beyond that there is not even a grain of Iman" should provide an impetus to all God-fearing Muslims for deep thinking and soul-searching. They should assess their own Iman in the light of this hadith and should refrain from making a judgment about others. Earlier, in this essay, we have endeavored to state clearly the distinction between Islam and Iman and so we can, at this juncture, very well appreciate the point that the Iman that is being negated here is the true faith and Iman of the heart or inner self. A man failing in the said requirements or performatives would not cease to be a Muslim in the strict legal sense of the term. However, on the Day of Judgment only true inner conviction and Iman would be of significance in winning a man his salvation and felicity. It will be the real basis of final loss or gain as we read in Surah Al-Taghabun:
The Day that He assembles you (all) for a day of Assembly — that will be the day of mutual loss and gain (among you); and those who believe in God and work righteously, He will remove from them their sins and admit them to gardens beneath which rivers flow to dwell therein forever; that will be the supreme achievement
(Al-Taghabun 64:9).
The most significant point of the hadith should be kept very clearly in mind. The Holy Prophet (SAW) has enjoined upon all Muslims to struggle against evils, in particular those perpetrated and supported by the so-called Muslim rulers and heads of governments in Muslim countries. Since they control the print and electronic media and other influential agencies, they can very effectively promote un-Islamic ideas and practices in the society. In the hadith, the Prophet (SAW) has explicitly mentioned the gradual decline of religious and moral fervor particularly in persons at the helm of communal affairs, and has commanded the true believers to reform and correct them. Similarly, religious scholars and spiritual leaders are also covered by this category as they too influence the populace through their teachings and example. And if they go wrong, misconceptions and false notions may spread very widely. As already explained above, this hadith behoves all committed and true Muslims to mobilize their resources to the full and employ all the variegated forms of protest and non-violent agitation — rights of which are guaranteed to them by the democratic set-up — to struggle against the evil-mongers and anti-Islam agents. A recourse here to the technicalities of Khuruj (i.e., revolt or uprising against the established political authority) is simply besides the point and pure (and idle!) scholastic academicism that kills the dynamism and religious activism required for Islamic revival.
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