Islam’s true spirit
By S.G. Jilanee
YES, it is time, indeed high time, to rediscover Islam. There is need for it because what is going round under the rubric of Islam is not only a poor imitation, but sometimes even a disfigured copy of the original. Islam is already under wild attack from various quarters and it is time we respond, arguing our case logically, persuasively and convincingly and demolish the charges.
Besides, some genuine questions that agitate minds of the believers need to be answered satisfactorily. “Put up or shut up,” won’t do. It is time we ourselves raise questions and seek their answers. The slogan that the Quran is a “complete code of human life” has become too worn out a cliche. People ask for evidence.
For example, an ordinary reader is baffled when he comes across the Divine assertion “Prayer restrains from shameful and unjust deeds.” (29:45). Looking round he observes that many of those who indulge in unjust and wicked deeds are also the ones who offer prayers regularly five times a day and in congregation, too. Again, it is said “Allah has revealed the most beautiful Message in the form of a Book ...repeating its teaching in various aspects. The skin of those who fear their Lord tremble there at ...and their hearts do soften.” (39:23). But do we experience any such feeling?
The question should be, “why?” Where does the fault lie? What has gone wrong where and whether the situation can be salvaged and how? The answer to the first question is quite simple. Divine assertion cannot be wrong or frivolous. Only if the seven verses of the first sura, al Fatiha, are properly understood and their spirit imbibed, it would prove the veracity of the statement.
Indeed, the opening verse, “Praise to Allah the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds,” should revolutionize one’s thinking. The very first attribute with which Allah introduces Himself is Rabb. The word is so comprehensive that translating it as “cherisher and sustainer” fails to capture its true sense. It includes the function of creation, protection, and the entire process of evolution from conception to birth and from cradle to grave.
This realization should principally instil a feeling of self-assurance in the “creature,” that it is Allah alone who gives him food, protects him from dangers and misfortunes, cures him from ailments and cares for him so he feels a frisson of freedom from all factors that tend to intrude between him and his Creator. At the same time it should promote love and kindness for all of His creatures and negate the concept of gong aggressiveness such as going about sword in hand asking every non-Muslim to “say kalima or pay jizya or fight,” or to kill every “infidel.”
Here are two concrete examples, both culled from the New York Times, of how Islam can change people’s lives. One is of Dierdre Small. It was the daily expression of Islam and its emphasis on the “oneness of God,” the five daily prayers, the way sentences are capped with words like inshallah, “God willing.” That is what turned her to Islam, and since the age of 12 she has been wearing hijab.
The second is of Khalid Hakim, 57, a merchant mariner born as Charles Karolik in Milwaukee. By the early 1970s, he started reading the Quran. On his first reading, he found the Quran “boring,” he said. But after another try, he said, “I knew that this was filling the empty space that I had inside, ‘the spiritual longing.’”
If only one recites “Show us the straight path, — the way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace, those whose (portion) is not wrath and who go not astray,” (1:6-7) with sincerity, it would prevent him from going astray.
The Quran is a book of precepts, injunctions, admonitions, commands, warnings and advice. It is not to provide shade to a bride leaving her home after her wedding. It is like a book of prescriptions. But the prescriptions will do no good if they are worn like a charm and not applied.
As a Book of Etiquette, it starts from the injunction to “speak fair to the people, (2:83) to conduct and manners, deportment and demeanour, relations with spouse and family, parents, friends and other people both Muslims and non-Muslims, treatment of the poor and the indigent, orphans, widows and slaves, commercial transactions, lending and borrowing, even the tone and tenor of speech, — the catalogue is practically limitless, as it does cover the whole gamut of human life.
The last named injunction is illustrated beautifully as, “Lower thy voice (while speaking) for the harshest of sounds is the braying of the ass.” (31:19) and as for the gait; “Walk not on the earth with insolence: for thou canst not rend the earth asunder nor reach the mountain in height” (17:37; 31. 18). These are only random samplings.
But, of vital importance are the exhortations to reflect and ponder. For example, in the creation of night and day, of land with gardens of vines and fields sown with corn and palm trees, mountains, rivers, and fruit of every kind — date palm, olives, grapes, are signs for those who “listen, give thought, understand.” (10:67, 12:3-4, 16:11). Even the Night and the Day have been made subject to mankind, and the sun and the moon and the stars are in subjection by His Command, in which are signs “for those who are wise.” (16:12). And these injunctions are repeated a number of times in the Book.
But do we ponder? Do we think how to put our “subjects” to use? The West is already acting on these admonitions though the “Code of Life” is with us. They have harnessed solar energy, for instance. If we gave the issue any serious thought the answer would be as plain as day, namely, that we have to have knowledge so as to harness the elements and the spheres.
The importance of knowledge can be gauged from the fact that this was the basic factor that raised a “handful of Clay” to a station above Fire and even Light. (jinns and angels). For direct evidence reference to the glorious feats of Muslim scientists in the past — Al Kindi, Abu Sina, Ibn-i- Rushd, Farabi, Al-Khwarazmi, et al — would suffice. They literally searched for knowledge from everywhere, including Greek and Sanskrit.
When Muslims gave up practical Islam, and turned it into a set of rituals, body without soul, decadence and degeneracy became their destiny. This is why prayer seems unable to prevent us from “unjust and wicked deeds.”