| The MEaningfulness
Of Life
By: Kassim Ahmad (e-mail: kassim@pc.jaring.my)
It is a daunting subject that we have undertaken
to discuss. Most writers today would consider it an irrelevant
topic. But it is a fact that mankind has asked this question
of the meaning of life since the beginnig of his historical
existence on earth. The existence of religions, arts and philosophies
testify to man¡¯s quest for meaning. Yet are we
any nearer to solving the mystery than our first theologians,
artists and philosophers in the Middle East, Greece, India,
Persia or China? It does not seem so. On the contrary, going
by the present state of chaos in the world, we are as far
away from getting an anwer to life¡¯s mystery as
we can be. We, therefore, have to try and try again until
we come nearer to its understanding.
Alija Ali Izetbegovic, now president of Bosnia-Herzergovina,
in his profound book 1 has reminded us that Islam is the middle
way between ascetism, or religion in the narrow sense of the
term, and materialism. Islam is a harmonious blending of spirit
and matter. It does not reject the world, as mysticism does;
nor does it reject the spirit, as the materialist does. He
says:
There are three integral views of the world:
the religious, the materialistic, and the Islamic. They reflect
three elemental possibilities -- conscience, nature and man,
each of them manifesting itself as Christianity, Materialism
and Islam. All variety of ideologies, philosophies and teachings
from the oldest time up to now can be reduced to one of these
three basic world views. The first takes as its starting point
the existence of the spirit, the second the existence of matter,
and the third the simultaneous existence of spirit and matter.
If only matter exists, materialism would be the only consequent
philosophy. On the contrary, if the spirit exists, then man
also exists, and man¡¯s life would be senseless
without a kind of religion and morality. Islam is the name
for the unity of spirit and matter, the highest form of which
is man himself. The human life is complete only if it includes
both the physical and the spiritual desires of the human being.
All man¡¯s failures are either because of the religious
denial of man¡¯s biological needs or the materialistic
denial of man¡¯s spiritual desires. 2
The materialist concept, by rejecting the
spirit, denies an important aspect of life and hence distorts
it. Thus a social system based on the materialist philosophy,
as communism is, is bound to deny morality, creativity and
freedom, since these belong to the realm of the spirit. This
is its own death warrant and the death of the communist system
is now an accomplished fact. Capitalist liberalism is no less
materialist than communism. In fact, they are twins, born
of the same materialist philosophical parents. But since Western
liberalism has been tempered somewhat with social responsibility
of the state, a legacy it derived from the American Revolution,
it was able to prolong its life. In spite of this, unfettered
individualism, which is the essence of liberalism, will sooner
or later, sooner rather than later, lead it to its destruction.
The present period in world history seems to us to be a period
of the death throes of liberalism -- a desperate spurt to
stay alive of a living entity already doomed to death. 3
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1 Islam Between East and West, American Trust
Publication, Indianapolis, U.S.A. 1984.
2 Ibid., p.1.
3 The liberal truimphalism announced by Francis
Fukuyama after the collapse of communism in 1989 is obviously
illusory. The system is being kept alive largely through usury
and the moral apathy of Western societies. See his book, The
End of History and the Last Man, Penguin Books, New York,
1992.
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The collapse of Marxism and liberalism, however,
is not due to any cycle of life and death of any society or
civilization, as propounded by Ibn Khaldun 4 and Arnold Toynbee.
5 Both of them postulated and described cycles of birth, development
dan degeneration of societies and civilizations. The birth
and development are due to the creative spirit embedded in
that society; the degeneration and death to the loss of that
creative spirit. Liberalism and Marxism are two universal
materialist philosophies of the modern era and their collapse
is complete and final, due to their inherent error. It is
not due to mismanagement or fatigue. Therefore, there is no
such thing as a revival of liberalism or communism, except
in the sense of a temporary backward step in history in the
absence of a better alternative. When the Quran states a term
for every nation, 6 it is referring to the first phenomenon
of historical cycles. The second phenomenon refers to an error
of philosophical conception.
What is life, then? What is the purpose of
our being here? Denying the spirit, the materialist does not
believe in any purpose. One modern materialist philosopher,
Bertrand Russell, describes this meaninglessness poignantly
and almost poetically:
Such, in outline, but even more purposeless,
more void of meaning, is the world in which science presents
for our belief. Amid such a world, if anywhere, our ideals
henceforward must find a home. That Man is the product of
causes which had no prevision of the need they were achieving;
that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves
and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations
of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of the labours
of the ages, all the devotion, all the aspiration, all the
noonday brightness of human genius are destined to extinction
in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole
temple of Man¡¯s achievement must inevitably be
buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins -- all these
things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearluy certain,
that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only
within the scaffolding of those truths, only on the firm foundation
of unyielding despair, can the soul¡¯s habitation
henceforth be built 7
On the other hand, Islam teaches the purposefulness
of life. In one of its clearest statements, the Quran declares:
We did not create the heavens and the earth
and everything between them just to play. If We needed entertainment,
We could have initiated it without any of these, if that is
what We wanted to do. Instead, it is Our plan to support the
truth against falsehood in order to defeat it. 8
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4 The Muqaddimah, 3 vol., 1958 (trans. by
F. Rosenthal).
5 A Study of History, 10 vol., 1934, 1939
& 1954. Abridged edition made by D.C. Somervell, 1960.
6
¡°For each community, there is
a predetermined life span. Once their interim comes to an
end, they cannot delay it by one hour, nor advance it.¡±
(Quran, Al-A¡¯raf: 34)
This occurs when a community, after going
through the stages of growth and prosperity, forgets the moral
law and abondans itself to decadence, as often happens.
7 Bertrand Russell, Mysticism and Logic,
Allen and Unwin, London, 1910; p. 41.
8 Al-Anbiya: 16-18.
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Thus, the whole universe has been created
by God in accordance with the laws of truth in such a way
that all falsehoods that temporarily pervade life will be
ultimately exposed and defeated. Man, therefore, has a moral
duty to fight against evil and falsehood in order to establish
good and the truth 9 in accordance with the divine plan to
establish the truth. Studying the entire history of mankind,
we can see the evolution of human society, definitely progressing,
if at most times all too slowly, sometimes regressing, yet
definitely moving forward from stage to stage: from pimitive
society to civilized society, localized in the beginning and
leading to the formation of an international scientific-technologically-based
society in the 20th century. The philosophies guiding these
stages are the same: materialist, ascetic and Islamic. When
the Islamic philosophical element is predominant or strong,
the evolution is fast; otherwise it is slow and society may
even regress. 10
It is often complained by non-believers and
sceptics that a suffering human being or child did not ask
to be born: why then did God create him and put him into this
suffering? To answer this question, one has first to define
the concept of suffering. Two types of suffering have first
to be identified, that is physical and spiritual suffering.
Being materially poor, one may suffer from material deprivation
like hunger or lack of other material goods. Yet spiritual
deprivation, a feeling of loneliness, aimlessness, hopelessness
and despair is surely more painful. A spiritually strong person
not only will not suffer spiritually; he also may not suffer
materially, because being spiritually strong, he is resourceful
enough to earn his living. A spiritually strong society will
also be able to look after its deficient children, like the
poor and the physically-handicapped. So the question of suffering
really does not arise.
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9
¡°The human being is utterly lost,
except those who lead a righteous life, exhort one another
to uphold the truth, and exhort one another to be steadfast.¡±
(Al-`Asr: 2-3)
10
¡°The One Who created death and
life for the purpose of distinguishing those among you who
would do better.¡± (Quran, Al-Mulk: 2)
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As to man¡¯s consent to come into
this world, no man refuses to benefit from the joys of this
world, like wealth, position, power, love, friendship, reading,
food, conversation, music, literature, family life and so
on. Although some extremely spiritual men, like Buddha and
Jesus Christ, may forgo some of these pleasures, most of them
do not; neither is it normal for human beings to do so. Therefore,
we can conclude that symbolically man agrees to be born into
this world and is pleased to be in it, although under certain
conditions some of his kind would commit suicide.
This brings us face to face with the question
of man¡¯s mortality or immortality. If a man¡¯s
life ends with his death, then life is meaningless. On the
one hand, man propagates himself physically, intellectually,
morally and spiritually. His children and grand-children not
only continue his physical life but also intellectual, moral
and spiritual live. There is continuity throughout. On the
other hand, death only takes away the physical man; his spirit
does not die with him, because spirits belong to the realm
of the divine. 11 According to the Quran, this spirit will
get resurrected in another world on the Day of Judgement.
This spirit will get a new body and continue the man¡¯s
journey of life. 12 This will continue until God¡¯s
plan of sepearating the truth from falsehood and making the
truth prevail is fully realized.
Since man dies on this earth and will be
resurrected on this earth 13 and since Heaven is as wide as
the universe 14, it can be postulated that in the coming decades,
three more decades at most, man will live on other planets
and in outer space. As changes on earth was made with man¡¯s
participation, so we can expect that future changes, including
the Final Judgement, will be made with man¡¯s participation.
15
Thus, it seems clear that we cannot take
life to mean our brief earthly life. This earthly life, important
as it is, is simply a stage in a man¡¯s long journey
to ascend to od, his Maker, and to share in His perfection
and freedom. The earthly life is an important prepatory period
for the coming stages of his almost immortal life. 16
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11 Man¡¯s distinction from the
other orders of created beings is his possession of the divine
spark of creative reason within him. For this reason he is
superior to all other beings, including the angels.
¡°Your Lord said to the angels,
`I am creating a human being from aged mud, like the potter¡¯s
clay. Once I perfect him and blow into him from My spirit,
you shall prostrate before him.¡± (Quran, Al-Hijr:
28-29)
Of all created beings, only man has this
divine spirit in him. Thus he is God¡¯s vicegerent,
and the whole of creation, including the angels, are commanded
by God to serve him.
12
¡°On that day, We shall fold
the heavens like the folding of a book. Just as We initiated
the first creation, We shall repeat it. This is Our promise;
We shall certainly carry it out.¡± (Quran, Al-Anbiya:
104)
13
¡°He said, `On it you will live,
on it you will die, and from it you will be brought out.¡¯
¡± (Quran, Al-A¡¯raf: 25)
14
¡°You should eagerly race towards
forgiveness from your Lord, and a Paradise whose width encompases
the heavens and the earth; it awaits the righteous.¡±
(Quran, Ali-Imran: 133)
15 Man¡¯s participation in the
divine creative work of perfecting the world can be deduced
from the Quranic concept of man¡¯s vicegerency
on earth as well its concept of the divine subjection of universal
forces to man¡¯s purpose. (See notes 11 and 19.)
Man¡¯s self-judgement on Resurrection Day is indicated
in such verses as this:
¡°We have recorded the fate of
every human being; it is tied to his neck. On the Day of Resurrection,
We shall hand him a record that is accesible. Read your own
record. Today you suffice as your own reckoner.¡±
(Bani Israil: 13-14)
16
¡°O man! You are toiling towards
your Lord, and you will meet Him.¡± (Quran, Al-Inshiqaq:
6)
This verse, coupled with other verses speaking
of man¡¯s journey of life, indicates his evolution.
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At this point, it is pertinent to raise the
question of time and space. Civilization, as far as we know,
is about five thousand years old, and man about a million
years. Is this flow of time fixed? Could it have happened
faster? If it could, what are the determining factors? Since
Einstein and Heisenberg, physics has answered for us that
both time and space are not fixed or static; they are relative
and elastic. 17 The Quran has also revealed to us this fact
a long time ago. 18 So, mankind could have progressed in an
all-round way in a much shorter time and with much less pain
and suffering than it has taken. The conditions are that man
must exert himself , first morally and spiritually and, of
course, also mentally and physically to make the world save
and better for himself. The whole universe has been created
for him. 19 The earth and the whole universe is both a test
of his fidelity to God as well a battle-ground for the realization
of his fullest potential as God¡¯s vicegerent.
20
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17 ¡°The principle if indeterminacy
seems to introduce a new kind of incalculability into nature.
The uncertainties hitherto decribed might possibly be due
to ignorance, and might pass into determinism again as knowledge
increase. It is dangerous to build on them a philosophy of
free-will. But ... the work of Schrodinger and Bohr indicates
that there is an uncertainty in the nature of things. The
alternative uncertainties that, if we try to calculate the
position of an electron, its velocity become incalculable,
and if we wish to determine its velocity its position becomes
indeterminate, have been thought by some to indicate that,
in the ultimate analysis, the scientific argument for determinism
breaks down. But others hold that this indeterminacy merely
expresses the inadequacy of our system of measurements to
deal with problems outside the realm of physics.¡±
(W.C. Dampier, A History of Science, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 1968; pp. 480-81)
18 The following verses show the relativity
of time and space.
¡°They
challenge you to bring retribution, and God neever breaks
His promise. A day of your Lord is like a thousand of your
years.¡± (Al-Hajj: 47)
¡°The angels and the inspiration
ascend to Him in a day that equals fifty thousand years.¡±
(Al-Ma¡¯rij: 4) ¡
°Our commands are done within the blink
of an eye.¡± (Al-Rahman: 50)
19
¡°Do you not see that God has
committed in your service everything in the heavens and the
earth, and has showered you with His blessings, obvious and
hidden? Yet, some people argue about God without knowledge,
guidance and an enlightening scripture.¡± (Luqman:
20)
20
¡°We have decreed death for you.
Nothing can stop Us from changing your attributes and transforming
you into something you do not know.¡± (Al-Waqi`ah:
60-61)
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Let us have a brief practical look at time
and space. We know of the slow development of transportation
from intiquity to very recent times. First, we moved on our
bare legs and carried things on poles; then we harnessed the
domasticated animals, like horses, camels and dogs, and used
slide cars and sleighs; we also invented the raft; then came
a big invention: the wheel and the use of roads; we also harnessed
the wind and invented sailing ships. All these took us from
the beginning up to recent times, that is, about two hundred
years ago. Then from stemships, to engines, to locomotives
and to nuclear-powered ocean-liners and rocket-ships, it is
pretty quick development, only around 150 years. The next
50 to 100 years will bring yet more astonishing developments.
Man has not only conquerd the earth; he has already begun
to conquer space! All these are taking place, of course, in
the Quranic phrase, ¡°with God¡¯s leave¡±,
that is, in accordance with His will or His law. 21
From the earliest times, man has puzzled
over the question of freedom and determination. How free and
determined are we in our actions? Coupled with this question
is the question of Evil. If God is all-powerful, why does
evil exist? How can an all-compassionate God allow the genocide
in Bosnia, for example? Of course, we cannot entertain the
wrong thought of atheists and disbelievers who think that
that is a conclusive argument for the non-existence of God.
But we certainly have to give some satisfactory explanations
for these puzzles.
That man, to some extent, has freedom of
action is proved by his ability to act freely in certain circumstances.
For instance, he can choose his place of residence, his work
or profession, his food and clothes, his life-partner and
many other things. But to a great extent, a man, especially
an ordinary man, without influence and power, cannot prevent
wars and diseases and cannot determine the type of government
or politico-economic system that he wants for his country,
however important these matters are to him personally. However,
these thoughts suggest to us two creative forces that are
avilable to him to render him free to decide these things.
They are the combined power of men acting together and the
power of science and technology.
The first creative force that man as an individual
has at his disposal we already know, that is, his mind or
intelligence. Using his mind to combine with other individuals
to attain a like purpose through united actions, or through
the fruits of scientific research, he can attain far greater
freedom than if he were to act individually or by brute force.
For instance, the people of the Thirteen Colonies, acting
together, launched the great American Revolution against the
British Empire and created the first modern republic. Through
the use of his mind and scientific research, man conquered
the air and is now able to fly far better than the birds.
Thus, his mind, and through the rational use of his mind to
discover the knowledge of laws of the universe, i.e science
-- his mind and science -- these are the sources of his almost
unlimited power that gives him his freedom. Freedom is, therefore,
not static and not given a priori to man. He has to struggle
to achieve freedom step by step. But, speaking absolutely,
man is free.
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21
¡°Who can intercede with Him,
except in accordance with His will?¡± (Al-Baqarah:
255)
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This does not mean that there is no determination.
Freedom and determination must not be conceived as opposites.
All created things exist in pairs, as the Quran tells us.
22 For man you have woman; for matter you have spirit; for
good you have evil; for tall you have short; for white you
have black. This law applies to all things. The same goes
for freedom and determination. God created the world according
to law; therefore, He knows everything, including the falling
of a leaf. 23 Yet, this law includes everything, including
a man¡¯s free action. Take the case of one¡¯s
action tomorrow. We cannot have exact knowledge of what we
shall do tomorrow, however much we plan, for we may decide
on doing them as we go to sleep, or early in the morning as
we get up, or even cancel or modify some of them in the early
part of the day, depending on circumstances. But God knows
exactly what we are going to do. Therefore, looking from God¡¯s
point of view, everything has been decided for us (His decision
includes allowing us to do certain things we want to do and
not allowing us to do certain other things, all in His infinite
wisdom); but looking from our point of view, some of our daily
actions are completely free.
Such understanding of this question would
exclude and reject fatalism, a bane, it is to be noted, among
Muslims after the collapse the rationalist philosophy of Mu¡¯tazilism
in the third Muslim century 24 and the emergence of a compromised
freedom-and-unfreedom doctrine of the Asha`arites. Again this
freedom must not be conceived as chaos. It is lawful freedom,
or freedom within the divine laws of justice, truth and mercy.
25
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22
¡°Glory be to the One Who created
pairs of everything from the earth and from themselves as
well as other things they do not even know.¡±
(Ya Sin: 36)
23
¡°With Him are the keys to all
secrets; none knows them except He. He knows everything on
land and in the sea. Not a leaf falls without His knowledge.
Nor is there a grain in the depth of the soil, be it wet or
dry, that is not recorded in a clear book.¡±
(Al-An`am: 59)
¡°There is nothing in the heavens
and the earth that is absent. Everything is in a profound
record.¡± (Al-Naml: 75)
¡°Everything We created is precisely
measured.¡± (Al-Qamar: 49)
24 The Mu¡¯tazilites, the rationalists
of early Islam, upheld man¡¯s freedom of action,
and hence his responsibilty, and rejected fatalism of the
later Asha`arites. Due the peculiar circumstances of that
time, they lost their case to the so-called orthodox party,
the Asha`arites, in the fourth and fifth centuries of Islam.
However, the rationalist trend continued, through philosophers,
thinkers and reformers in all Muslim countries, like Ibn Khaldun,
Shah Waliullah, Muhamad Abduh, Muhammad Iqbal, Malek Bennabi,
Ali Shari`ati, just to mention a few, up to the present time.
(See Kassim Ahmad, Teori Sosial Moden Islam, Penerbit Fajar
Bakti, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, 1984; pp. 85-88.)
25 Justice, truth and mercy as the bases
of God¡¯s laws are stated in many Quranic verses.
We give some here.
¡°Say,
`My Lord advocates justice, and to stand devoted to Him at
every place of worship. You shall devote your worship absolutely
to Him alone. Just as He initiated you, you will ultimately
go back to Him.¡± (Al-A¡¯raf: 29)
¡°It was God¡¯s will
to establish the truth with His words and to punish the disbelievers
so as to make the truth prevail and falsehood vanish, despite
the disbelievers.¡± Al-Anfal: 7-8)
¡°He has ordained mercy on Himself.¡±
(Al-An`am: 12)
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That evil, with a small `e¡¯,
exists is only obvious. But to believe in Evil (with a capital
`E¡¯) as an equal power rivalling God, as the Manichans
have believed, is an error. God tells us in the Quran that
He did not create men and jins, except to worship Him. 26
Thus the devil, standing for evil in the world, is to serve
the purposes of God., however paradoxical this may sound.
It should be remembered that we said in the beginning that
the divine purpose of the whole creation is to expose falsehood
and establish the truth. How is man to know the truth and
the good unless there exist falsehood and evil to oppose the
truth and the good? Thus are evil and falsehood exposed and
defeated.
In the beginning, the whole universe submitted
to God, its Creator and Ruler, but among God¡¯s
creations, out of the moral freedom granted to man, a principle
of rebellion arose. Rebellion against God means evil, symbolized
in the person of the rebel or the devil. This is the source
of evil. By negative example, the devil, by his opposition
to the moral man, exposes the immoral man and thus renders
the immoral man impotent. This is the meaning of the Quranic
statement that even the jins serve God.
Therefore, God is not to blame for the existence,
at times even widespread, of evil in the world. Man is to
blame. Wanting freedom of action, he yet does not use his
freedom to fight against evil, even as he complains when evil
touches him. The widespread evil that we are seeing too obviously
in the post-Cold War world (the horrendous Anglo-American-led
aggression against Iraq and its consequent murderous U.N.
embargo against that country, the British-sponsored Serbian
genocide against Bosnia, to mention just two) is due to man¡¯s
current state of spiritual blindness and moral apathy. Even
then, in the face of such extremes of cruelty, the moral man
can be said to have stood up and defeated the foe, both in
Iraq and Bosnia. This is proof of ever-recurrent divine protection
for the moral law with which He has constructed the universe.
27 This gives us the optimism to look ahead and to work towards
the future good of mankind. If we remember well, we should
know that God has given us this assurance when He related
us the story of creation.28
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26
¡°I did not create the jins and
the humans except to worship Me alone.¡± (Al-Dariyah:
56)
27
¡°Imploring
Him is everyone in the heavens and the earth. Everyday He
is in full control.¡± (Al-Rahman: 29)
¡°His dominian
encompasses the heavens and the earth, and ruling them never
burdens Him.¡± (Al-Baqarah: 255).
So the pessimists¡¯ complaint
that God is absent from the world should be turned against
the passivity of men who expect good to come to them without
their exertion to attain it.
28 28. In Al-Baqarah, verses 30-33 inform
us of the great future in store for men, in spite of their
weaknesses.
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Although we said at the beginning that Izetbegovic¡¯s
book is profound, it is also frightening in several parts.
One concerns the question of modern pessimism. The author,
in spite of being a committed Muslim, seems a hopeless pessimist
(which, however, is not borne by his courageous and unflinching
struggle for Bosnia). At the end of the book, one finds this
astonishing passage:
Therefore, to properly understand our position
in the world means to submit to God, to find peace, not to
start making a more positive effort to encompass and to overcome
everything, but rather a negative effort to accept the place
and the time of our birth , the place and the time that are
our destiny and God¡¯s will. Submission to God
is the only human and dignified way out of the unsolvable
senselessness of life, a way out without revolt, despair,
nihilism or suicide. It is a heroic feeling not of a hero,
but of an ordinary man who has done his duty and accepted
his destiny.
Islam does not get its name from its laws,
orders, or prohibitions, nor from the efforts of the body
and soul it claims, but from something that encompasses and
surmounts all that: from a moment of cognition, from the strength
of the soul to face the times, from the readiness to endure
everything that an existence can offer, from the truth of
submission to God. 29
Ironically, the author seems to equate civilization
with man¡¯s increasing feeling of hopelessness.
He states:
Comfort is the outward, and absurdity is
the inward, image of life in civilization. Dialectically expressed:
the more comfort and abundance, the more the feeling of emptiness
and despair. On the contrary, primitive societies can be poor
and affected by sharp social differences, but all that we
know about them indicate a life coloured by strong and rich
feelings. Folklore -- the ¡°literature of primitive
society¡± -- can show, in its specific way, the
extraordinary living vigour of primitive man. The feelings
of disaffection and hopelessness are alien to that poor society.
30
This is surely a wrong reading of civilization.
The great studies of human societies and civilizations by
Ibn Khaldun and A.J. Toynbee and others following in their
footsteps refer to historical cycles of birth, development
and decay. The birth and development is due to a great explosion
of creativity on the part of the society or civilization and
the decay due to that creativity¡¯s death. Is there
continuity and development? Recent studies, especially by
the American historical philosopher Sorokin, point to what
he calls multilinear, not unilinear, development.31 That means
that human society and civilization develop, but not along
a straight line; it develops along a line of concentric circles.
History repeats itself, but with a difference -- with a movement
upwards.
That is the right way of looking at society
and civilization. All societies and civilizations contain
both good and bad ideas and practices. When the good predominate
over the bad, that society and civilization grow. Once the
bad predominate, and no action is taken by its members to
reverse the trend, that society and civilization is destroyed,
and new societies and civilizations are born to take over
from where the old left off. 32 Thus, we see the old civilizations
of Mesopotamia and Egypt giving birth to Greek, then to Roman;
then the Arabs under Islamic inspiration took over, inheriting
from all the then civilizations, including those of Persia,
India and China. Then modern Europe took over from the Arabs
around the 15th century and carried forward the flag of civilization
to all parts of the world through trade and colonization.
In the 20th century that civilization is facing doom again
for having regressed morally and spiritually, with two world
wars already past, and a new world war looming.
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29 Izetbegovic, Op.cit., p. 226.
30 Ibid., pp. 59-60.
31 See P.A. Sorokin, Modern Historical and
Social Philosophies, pp. 291-92.
32 This historical
law of the carrying forward of good ideas and practices in
human society in stated in the Quran thus:
¡°He sends down water from the
sky, causing the valleys to overflow. The rapids produce abundant
foam. Similarly, when they use fire to refine metals for their
jewellery or equipment, foam is produced. God thus cites analogies
for truth and falsehood. As for the foam, it goes to waste,
while that which benefits the people stays close to the ground.¡±
(Al-Ra`ad: 17)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Will the world be destroyed, along with what
we call modern civilization, as Bertrand Russell, has forecast?
33 Under the present conditions of widespread pessimism and
despair, it is easy to agree with Russell. The good Alija
Izetbegovic had come under the spell of that post-war pessimism
before he fought the good fight for Bosnia-Herzergovina and,
let it be said, for all humanity, as the brave Iraqis and
others who have stood up against the technological might of
the modern-day Goliath. No! Morality and right reason cannot
agree to this forecast of despair. History is our evidence.
If mankind had no other destiny but to be destroyed, then
it should have been destroyed a long time ago. 34 How many
times in history has the fate of man hung in the balance between
continuity and total destruction? The fact that man has survived
the many occurances of major floods and earthquakes, big storms
and fires, widespread epidemics and diseases in antiquity
and medieval times, when modern science and technology was
not yet at his disposal is evidence enough of the existence
of a grand divine scheme in which his great destiny is placed.
Now that man has greater grasp of natural and historical laws
than ever before, it is less likely that he is targeted for
total annihilation.
For that matter, life on earth itself is
a miracle, as science has shown. The possibility of its occurance
is so minimal that explanation of its non-existence is easier
than that of its emergence. 35 Therefore, it is inevitable
for us to conclude that mankind has a destiny beyond and far
greater than any human being or even any human generation
can know. It is thus important that man should understand
this and put himself at the service of this destiny, in other
words, at the service of God. 36
---------------------------------------------------------------------
33 See note 7.
34
¡°If God were to punish the people
for their transgressions, He would have annihilated every
creature on earth. But He respites them for a specific predetermined
time. Once their interim ends, they cannot delay it by a single
moment, nor can they hasten it.¡± (Al-Nahl: 61)
35 Many modern biologists who have devoted
years of studies to the phenomenon of life have concluded
that life is a miracle. Man cannot create life. (See A.A.
Izetbegovic, Ibid., pp. 22-31.) The Quran informed us that
only God can create life a long time ago:
¡°O people, here is a parable
that you must consider carefully: the idols you call upon
besides God can never create a fly, even if they banded together
to do so. Furthermore, if the fly steals anything from them,
they cannot recover it; weak is the pursuer and the pursued.¡±
(Al-Hajj: 73)
36 The whole complete life of man is to be
devoted to God alone is succintly summed up in this verse:
¡°Say, ¡®My prayers,
my worship, my life and my death all belong to God, Lord of
the universe. He has no partner. This is what I am commanded
to believe and I am the first to submit.¡¯ ¡±
(Al-An`am: 162-63)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Actually, we must understand that there exists
two plans for the world: God¡¯s Grand Design and
the devil¡¯s evil design. God¡¯s design
is to put man in His Paradise, whereas the devil¡¯s
design is to put him in Hell. These plans weave and intertwine
the historical fabric of man¡¯s life in this world.
In so far as he puts himself in the service of God and carrying
out God¡¯s design, he succeeds; in so far as he
fails and puts himself at the service of the devil, he suffers.
Man¡¯s successes accumulate; his sufferings are
temporary, although often repetitive. Ultimately, God¡¯s
Grand Design will prevail, since the moral nature of the universe
and of man is the fundamental basis of existence, as we have
seen. The role of man, using his freedom, is to realize God¡¯s
Grand Design with as little pain and suffering and in as little
time as possible. In a morally-bound universe, God gives man
moral freedom and lets him decide his own fate.
This fundamental truth is graphically illustrated
in the story of Joseph and his brothers, where his brothers
planned some evil for Joseph, while God had planned good for
him. The first part of the story finds Joseph thrown into
dire circumstances, culminating in his being accused of molesting
the beautiful wife of the Egyptian governor, in whose house
he was a trusted servant, and being wrongfully imprisoned
for it. The latter part of the story finds Joseph freed from
imprisonment and honoured in Egypt and reunited with his old
father, Jacob, and his erstwhile jealous but now-repentant
brothers. 37
Here we naturally come to the question of
the occurance of miracles and of divine revelation. How do
we scientifically explain miracles, miracles being defined
as `supernatural¡¯ events? How do we explain the
Quran and other divine books? Is the Quran Muhammad¡¯s
composition, as some Westsern orientalists assert? If not,
was Muhammad simply a passive recepient of the message? Does
God intervene in natural processes? If He does, does this
not make a mockery of His own law? What is law? And, finally,
what is God?
All the above questions are no doubt related.
We cannot try to answer some, while ignoring others that seem
to us intractable. But we cannot assert the principles of
rationality and science unless we try to answer them. It seems
to us that we must attempt to answer them to the best of our
ability. Let us take the questions of miracles and divine
revelation first.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
37 Quran, Yusuf: 4-102.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
What we call `natural¡¯ as opposed
to `supernatural¡¯ is simply what our cognizance
(both sensory and rational) tell us is the order of things,
or what we call the natural order. But our natural order belongs
to a specific category of created beings, i.e. this material
world, with its spatio-temporal dimension. Time and space
exist for us, but it does not exist for God. Even for us,
during sleep or during loss of cosnciousness, we are not aware
of time and space. Time and space, therefore, are not absolute
realities. They only exist under certain circumstances but
do not under certain other circumstances. Once we grasp this
truth, we remove the iron-clad separation between the two
catogories of the `natural¡¯ and the `supernatural¡¯.
Thus, when Moses¡¯s stick turned into a serpent,
it was a case of the encapsulation of time: the matter, stick
(standing for the vegetable world), turned into the matter,
serpent (standing for the animal world which comes into being
immediately after that), without the normal intervening time.
Now, if a stick can turn into a serpent,
what is there to stop just anything from happening? Can your
enemy destroy you by just wishing evil for you? Can you obtain
good by just wishing? In other words, is the world capricious,
or is it lawful? This is a basic question. Man has had to
answer this question right from the start. For to live, and
go on living, the first human beings, as do all human beings,
must believe that living is worthwhile. This belief, in a
way, is not based on reason. It is based on an instinctive
feeling, the feeling that the world is good, and behind the
good world is a good and loving Creator. This basic feeling
in a human being is natural to him. 38 This is the basis of
the right religion of man, as this verse states:
Therefore, you shall devote yourselves to
the religion of strict monotheism. Such is the natural instinct
placed in the people by God. Such creation of God will never
change. This is the perfect religion, but most people do not
know. 39
Thus, although there is no absolute barrier
between the natural and the supernatural, the universe is
not capricious, but lawful, created and ruled by a lawful,
rational, good and compassionate God. Therefore, the existence
of evil in the world is both contingent and temporary. It
is contingent upon man¡¯s rebellion against God,
and temporary upon man¡¯s struggle against evil.
Once man stops rebelling against God and fights against evil,
man¡¯s victory over evil is assured and complete.
When this condition is achieved, the Hereafter comes into
being with its Paradise (God¡¯s Kingdom) and its
Hell (the state of exile from God¡¯s Kingdom).
The phemomena of revelation cannot be explained
except in the context of a rational and moral universe. Neither
can the prophet-messengers, among whom number the greats among
them -- Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad -- be conceived
as passive recepients of the revelations. Because God is Compassionate,
He continuously sends messages to human communities from the
earliest times to guide them. 40 Obviously, He must choose
His message-bearers from among the morally-commited individuals
of each community. Muhammad, whose life-history we know, is
a good example of a morally-committed individual chosen to
carry His final message to mankind. Thus, Muhammad¡¯s
moral and intellectual qualities rendered him suitable to
receive the great message.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
38
¡°Recall that your Lord summoned
all the descendents of Adam and had them bear witnees for
themselves: `Am I not your Lord?¡¯ They all said,
`Yes. We bear witness.¡¯ Thus, you cannot say on
the Day of Resurrection, `We were not aware of this.¡¯
Nor can you say, `It was our parents who practised idolatory,
and we simply followed in their footsteps. Will you punish
us for the sins of innovators?¡¯ We thus explain
the revelations to enable them to return.¡± (Al-A¡¯raf:
172-74)
39 Al-Rum: 30
40
¡° To every community, a messenger.
Once their messenger comes, they are judged equitably without
the least injustice.¡± (Yunus: 47)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
That does not mean, however, that with Muhammad,
God stopped communicating with human beings. Such a belief
would severely restrict God¡¯s overwhelming attribute
of mercy. 41 The Quran tells us in no uncertain terms that
Muhammad was the last propohet. 42 That simply means that
the era of prophethood, beginning with Adam, representing
the earliest human communities, came to an end with Muhammad,
as mankind enters the international stage and the true Age
of Science, when prophets are no longer required. 43 This
does not mean that at that point God stops communicating with
man. 44 We are told that God is ever active and all the time
intervening in the affairs of the world. 45 Only now man,
having reached the stage of spiritual adulthood, has to rely
more on his mind and science to continue his journey. However,
he has God¡¯s final scripture, the Grand Quran,
with him to guide him on his onward journey. 46
There has been a notion that man, using his
mind alone, can arrive at a correct understanding of universal
laws, implying that God¡¯s guidance is not necessary.
47 The facts, however, have not borne this out. It is now
generally agreed that the 18th century so-called Age of Reason
has been a failure. It had not realized the high hopes that
it engendered. Rather it culminated in colonialism, wars of
colonialism and peaked in the 20th century¡¯s two
terrible world wars of imperialism. The closing decades of
the 20th century, in fact, witnessed a renewed interest in
religion, precisely because of the spiritual and moral failures
of modern Western civilization.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
41
¡°He said, `My retribution is
incurred by whomever I wish, but My mercy encompasses all
things.¡¯ ¡± (Al-A¡¯raf:
156)
42
¡°Muhammad
was not the father of any man among you. He was a messenger
of God and the final prophet.¡± (Al-Ahzab: 40)
43 ¡°...
the Prophet of Islam seems to stand between the ancient and
the modern world. In so far as the source of his revelation
is concerned, he belongs to the ancient world; in so far as
the spirit of his revelation is concerned, he belongs to the
modern world. In him life discovers other sources of knowledge
suitable to its new direction. The birth of Islam ... is the
birth of the inductive intellect. In Islam prophecy reaches
its perfection in descovering the need of its own abolition
...¡± (The Reconstruction of Religious Thought
in Islam, p. 126)
44
¡°Possessor of high ranks, the
Ruler of the whole dominion, He sends inspiration, bearing
His commands, to whomever he chooses from among His servants,
to warn of the Day of Gathering.¡± (Gahfir: 15)
45 See note 27.
46 In the understanding of the Quran, of
course, man needs God¡¯s guidance. Although, the
Quran is the same Quran as that used by the Prophet and his
Companians, its understanding in the modern context must necessarily
differ. This is what is referred to in the Quran as hikmah
or wisdom, i.e. a rational interpretation of its message.
Although classical tafsir has assigned the role of interpretation
to the Prophet, this is not an accurate meaning of the Quranic
texts. An overall understanding would assign God as the ultimate
teacher of the Quran. (See Quran, Al-Rahman: 1-2; Al-Mudathir:
19 & Al-Ra`ad: 2) Read with other relevant verses, these
would mean that God will expalin the meanings of His message
through people whom He selects from every generation.
47 We refer to the philosophical romance
by the Muslim philosopher Ibn Tufail (1109-1185) where the
main character, Hayy ibn Yaqzan, marooned in an uninhabited
island, discovered God through the sheer use of his reasoning.
See The Journey of the Soul: The Story of Hai bin Yaqzan (trans.
Riad Kocache), The Octagon Press, London, 1982.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Reason is actually a double-edged weapon.
Is it the reason of the mind, or the reason of the body? The
philosophers of the so-called European Enlightenment, notably
Adam Smith, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Thomas Malthus understood
and analysed it as the reason of the body. Others, like Descartes,
Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant and Hegel concieved it as the reason
of the mind. However, the former interpretation carried the
day and landed Europe, and the world with it, in the clutches
of its own evil works.
At this jucture, we should perhaps examine
the phenomenon of what is called divine punishment. Punishment
must, of course, be paired with reward. One cannot exist without
the other. Since this world is part of a rational, lawful
and moral universe, we can be certain that good works will
be rewarded and evil works punished fully in this life as
well as in the Hereafter (which stand for our infinite future
life). We know that human laws are not always just and that
criminals are not always apprehended and adequately punished
in this world. Conversely, in this world, good works are not
always, nor adequately, rewarded. Therefore, it only stands
to reason to expect that both the rewards and punishments
will be fully executed in the Hereafter. 48
This far is clear. But what about the so-called
¡°natural disasters¡±, like earthquakes,
storms, floods, fires, epidemics and diseases, which, in total,
have claimed many thousands, even millions, of human lives,
including those of the innocent? What about the wars, especially
the two world wars? Even as we pose the question, the answer
seems to emerge. The answer is: human failure to act morally
and to act in obedience to God. 49
Take the case of the recent Gulf War, with
its attendent results of starvation for the whole Iraqi population.
Is Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi government alone to blame
for the so-called aggression against Kuwait, when we now know
that the war could have been avioded had the Anglo-American
neo-imperialists not had their way? Why did the United Nations
Security Council go along with these two powerful members?
Why was the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) unable
to play its proper role to find a peaceful solution acceptable
to both sides? Why did Russia and China, both veto-bearing
members of the Security Council, not stop the war when they
actually had the power to? Why did Saudi Arabia lend its territory
for the conduct of Anglo-American aggression against Iraq?
Why did Iran, Egypt, Syria and Turkey, important regional
powers, not acted together to stop the war? These questions
suggest the answer: current international community¡¯s
failure to act morally on the basis of principles.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
48
¡° That is the day when they will
be completely exposed; none of them will hide anything from
God. To whom belongs all kingship on that day? To God, the
One, the Supreme. On that day, every soul will be paid for
whatever it earned. There will be no injustice on that day.
God is most efficient in reckoning.¡± (Quran,
Ghafir: 16-17)
49
¡°Anything good that happens to
you is from God, and anything bad that happens to you is from
you.¡± (Quran, Al-Nisa¡¯: 79)
This verse should not be understood as meaning
that there exist things outside of God¡¯s creation.
Evil is a consequence of man¡¯s rebellion against
God, in accordance with His laws. This verse alone throws
abundant light on the occurance of the so-called natural disasters.
Further, consider these:
¡°Say, `Who can protect you from
the calamities of the land and the sea?¡¯ You implore
Him loudly as well as secretly: `If only He saves us this
time, we shall indeed be grateful.¡¯ Say, `God
saves you this time, and other times as well, then you still
set up idols besides Him.¡¯ Say, `He is able to
pour upon you retribution from above you, or from beneath
your feet, or He can divide you into factions and have you
taste each other¡¯s tyranny and persecution.¡¯
Note how We explain the revelations that they may understand.¡±
(Al-An`am: 63-65)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Similarly, we must understand the so-called
natural disasters. God relates to us in the Quran the stories
of disbeliving peoples of intiquity, the people of Noah, the
people of Hud , the people of Pharaoh¡¯s Egypt
among them, who were destroyed by these ¡°natural
disasters¡±. They were no more or no less natural
than God¡¯s punishments to them for their transgressions
against His commands. If, as we are told in the Quran, that
everything in heaven and earth submits to God, sings His praises
and obeys His commands, 50 we must inevitably conclude that
these destructive natural forces are behaving exactly as God
wills them to do, when they occur. In short, they are punishments
from God for our errant ways to make us remember Him and return
to obeying Him. 51
The question that arises is why the victims
should include the innocent, especially children and old people.
To answer this puzzle, one must consider several matters.
Firstly, altough a person¡¯s life is declared sacred
by God, that life is to be served and sacrificed for the purposes
of establishing truth and justice. Thus, truth and justice
are higher than individual lives so that the principle of
sacrificing lives for these noble ends is right and of paramount
importance. In fact, it is this sacrifice that will guarantee
the continuance of life. 52 It is also this that gives rise
to the concept of martyrdom. Secondly, both good and evil
are divine instruments to test man¡¯s fidelity
to God. Thus, they are to be seen in this relative, and not
absolute, context. Thirdly, man is not only an individual;
he is also a collective. While he must bear the responsibilty
of his own actions, he is also responsible for the actions
of the collective. For instance, a good socio-economic order
will benefit his children and descendents, just as a bad one
will harm them. In this perspective, several human generations
are, in terms of responsibilty, linked together. What the
older generation does or fails to do will be reaped by the
younger generation.
Looked at from this perspective, the human
family is one. They must either do good together, or they
will suffer together. No individual is free from the collective
and no individual is completely blameless. This would explain
the necessary sacrifice that the relatively innocent members
of the human family must make for the sins of the other members
in the process of attaining felicity for itself. This understanding
would encourage man to realize the extreme importance of his
fidelity to God and of leading a moral existence.
Man must, thus, first commit himself to the
belief that the universe is lawful before his mind can be
harnessed to explain that conception. In other words, man
must have faith in God and this faith is concurrent with his
higher reason. It is for this reason that religion, a supra-rational
conception, has existed from the beginning of time. This is
because every society consists of individuals. The collective,
at one end, and the individual, at the other, exist side by
side, each working on and influencing the other.
In order to create the good society, the
individuals must first be good. As God is the source of of
all good, the individual must imbue himself with the attributes
of goodness. This is the true aim and function of the Muslim
rituals of prayer, fasting, obligatory charity and the pilgrimage
to Mecca: to cleanse oneself of impurities and to be close
to God. 53 As individuals can become corrupt through imbibing
corrupt attributes, so can society. Corrupt societies must
therefore be reformed or changed by reformed or changed individuals.
This is a truth that we sometimes forget, thinking that in
order to change society, we must change the system, forgetting
that the system itself came into being through our own creative
actions.54 Thus, the sovereign individual creative activity
is of signal importance in changing society.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
50
¡°Glorifying
Him are the seven universes, the earth and everyone in them.
There is nothing that does not glorify Him, but you do not
comprehend their glorification. He is Clement and Forgiver.¡±
(Bani Israel: 44)
¡°His dominion
encompasses the heavens and the earth, and ruling them never
burdens Him.He is the Most High, the Great.¡±
(Al-Baqara: 255)
Everyone in the heavens and earth glorifying
God includes those parts of man that he, mercifully, has no
control of, like the workings of his body, especially the
brain and the liver.
51
¡°We tested them with prosperity
and hardship that they may return.¡± (Al-A¡¯raf
: 168)
52 The Quran often makes this point. Consider
this:
¡°O you who believe, you shall
respond to God, and to the messenger when he invites you to
that which grants you life.¡± (Al-Anfal: 24)
This chapter deals with the Battle of Badr,
the first battle that Muhammad and his small band of followers
had to fight. But, in terms of Muhammad¡¯s mission,
it was a very important and decisive battle, where a small,
ill-trained and ill-equipped force of 313 people beat a bigger
and militarily superior force of 1,000. The battle proved
the superiority of moral power over material power. Hence,
the battle is also referred to in the Quran as the Day of
Discrimination. (Verse 41) Thus, the verse we have quoted
means that fighting and dying in the cause of God, i.e. in
the cause of justice and truth, is fighting to uphold the
dignity of human lives. However, the clearest expression of
this principle is given in this verse:
¡°God has bought from the believers
their lives and their money in exchange for Paradise. Thus,
they fight in the cause of God, willing to kill and get killed.
Such is His truthful pledge in the Torah, the Gospel and the
Quran, and who fulfils His pledge better than God? You shall
rejoice in making such an exchange. This is the greatest triumph.
(Al-Taubah: 111)
53
¡°Surely, the salat prayers keep
one away from evil works and vice, and the rememberance of
God is the greatest thing.¡± (Al-`Ankabut: 45)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Amidst his busy daily schedule, Prophet Muhammad
was told to praise God and to pray to Him; he was further
told to perform the superrerogatory midnight prayer of tahajjud.
Why? Because man is apt to be sucked into his worldly affairs,
leaving him little time for reflection and contemplation of
the larger aims of life. In this way, he would forget the
Hereafter, which is truely the more important world for him.
The Muslim five daily prayers are indeed
a beauty of form and spirit combined. First, its times are
strategic, combining discipline, vigour and regularity. Rising
early at dawn, the first thing you do is to perform your first
prayer of the day. Then you are off to work. Then breaking
for lunch at one o¡¯ clock, you perform your second
prayer, and then you continue your work. The third prayer
is performed in the evening before you go for games or some
other excercise. Then the fourth prayer before your dinner.
Before you retire to bed for the day, you perform your last
prayer. The timing is the very perfection of discipline and
regularity. So are the movements: washed and clean-clad, you
stand reverently facing the Ka`abah, the earthly House of
God, in Mecca, and you bow down and prostrate to the Only
One deserving of prostration. Again the content of your prayer,
the Fatihah 55 is beauty itself. The prayer is the individual¡¯s
perpetual return to God.
You can pray alone in the privacy of your
house, or you can join the congregation in a nearby mosque,
with the exception of the weekly Friday Prayer. This prayer
which is a congregational prayer is performed on Fridays at
the time of , and replacing, the noon prayer. It is not only
a prayer; it is a prayer combined with a social gathering,
with the sermon taking the place of a discussion and a debate
on social issues. Thus, the Muslim prayers afford the people
not only access to their Lord and Creator, but also to themselves.
Thus, the personal and the social elements are nicely combined.
As in prayers, so in the other religious
devotions of fasting, charity and the pilgrimage. The aim
is both personal cleansing and social intercourse necessary
for the fostering of the good society. For example, today
the Muslim pilgrimage to the House of God in Mecca, rebuild
by Abraham and Ismail, in commemoration of Abraham¡¯s
and Ismail¡¯s sacrifice, attracts a yearly attendance
of around two million people from all over the world. It is
a vast concourse of human beings and affords a golden opportunity
for developing, spreading and deepening the spirit of internationalism,
humanism and cooperation among nations.
Unfortunately, it must seriously be recorded
here, that the beautiful teachings of monotheism of the great
teachers of the true religion -- Moses, Jesus and Muhammad
among them -- have been invariably distorted by their later
followers. The Jews rejected the prophethood of Jesus and
Muhammad and considered themselves exclusively as the Chosen
People of God, and thereby opted for the world-view of racism.
The Christians rejected the prophethood of Muhammad and deified
Jesus, resulting in the same exclusive world-view. Following
closely in their footsteps, the Muslims idolized Muhammad,
turning him into the favourite of God and greatest prophet
and putting him next to God, 56 ending with the same resultant
world-view of exclusivism. Thus, one originally monotheistic
universalist teaching 57 became three, each claiming to possess
the truth to the exclusion of the others, and all antagonistic
towards one another.
For more than forty years the world has witnessed
a deviating Western Christian community allying itself with
a deviating Jewish community in a colonial-settler state of
Israel, set up by the United Nations, to suppress a deviating
Muslim Arab community. What a triangle of entanglements! All
originating from the same teaching of monotheism! Surely,
such chaos cannot be the finishing point of history, as the
ideologue of capitalist liberalism, Francis Fukuyama, would
have us believe.
Our essay which postulates the meaningfulness
of life cannot conclude at the point of perhaps the greatest
chaos in human history, the post-Cold War period. As man gropes
for light during the waning years of the Twentieh Century,
he cannot but expect to be severely punished for yet another
transgression after his severe beating in the past two world
wars. Can man doubt that his saviour is God, the Most Merciful?
This third beating will definitely bring him back to God and
to a more just and peaceful world, seeing that he has thoroughly
experimented with the world-views of materialism and ascetism
and failed. The way is now open for the world-view of Islam,
not the Islam of the theologians, but the Islam of the prophets
58, whose teachings are completed and perfected in the Grand
Quran. How much pain and suffering man would have saved himself
from had he heeded the call of God to follow the Quran earlier
on his journey through the world!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
54 This historical law is stated in the Quran
thus:
¡°God does not remove a blessing
He has bestowed upon any people unless they themselves decide
to change.¡± (Al-Anfal: 53)
¡°God does
not change the condition of any people unless they themselves
make the decision to change.¡± (Al-Ra¡¯ad:
11)
55 The first chapter of the Quran, called
Al-Fatihah, translated as ¡°The Opening¡±
or ¡°The Key¡± is a whole prayer, consisting
of seven short verses and containing two parts: a hymn to
God and a supplication for His help, guidance and blessings.
56 Most Muslims will vehemently deny that
they have idolized Muhammad, because they have done so without
realizing it. Not only the so-called hadith extol him as the
the favourite of God and the greatest prophet, in clear violation
of Quranic injuctions not to discriminate between God¡¯s
prophets, but several Quranic verses have been misused and
misinterpreted to achieve this effect. Verse 56 of Surah 33,
which calls upon Muslims to support and respect the Prophet
(the Arabic word is salla, usually translated as `to bless¡¯)
is the main vehicle for this idolization. Taken in its proper
context, the verse simply means that a leader fighting in
God¡¯s cause has the support and blessings of God
and His angels and that it is the duty of his followers to
support and respect him. To gain this understanding, one should
read this verse along with verse 43 of the same surah (where
God and His angels bless and support the Muslims) and verse
103 of Surah 9 (where the Prophet was told to support and
bless his followers).
57 Most Muslims labour under the wrong impression
that Muhammad is the prophet of Islam. Actually all prophets,
from Adam, through Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus, ending
in Muhammad, teach the same true religion of Islam (whose
basic teaching is: `There is no god but Allah; worship Him
alone.¡¯). The laws and rituals differ, according
to time and place, but the basic teaching is the same. ¡°We
did not send any messenger before you except with the inspiration:
`There is no god except Me; you shall worship
Me alone.¡¯ ¡± (Al-Anbia: 25)
Regarding multiplicity of laws and rituals:
¡°For each of you We have decreed
laws and methodologies. Had God willed, He could have made
you one congregation. But He does puts you to the test through
His revelations to you. Therefore, you shall race towards
righteousness.¡± (Al-Ma¡¯idah: 48)
58 The majority of the Muslims, about three
hundred years after the death of Prophet Muhammad, deviated
from the teachings of the Quran to follow the teachings of
their religious scholars, precisely like the Jews and the
Christians. This is the main reason for their downfall. Now
they must return to the Quran to follow the Islam of the prophets,
if they desire to regain their honour and their proper place
in the world.
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