Reason and faith

By Asghar Ali Engineer
Friday, 29 Jan, 2010

ARE reason and faith antagonistic or complimentary? It depends from what perspective you look at them. The 19th century was a century of reason and faith came to be challenged by rationalists. Even today rationalists reject faith as mere superstition.

The Quran, however, treads the middle path and emphasises the importance of both — faith as well as reason. Today, this truth is dawning upon us that neither faith alone nor reason by itself can suffice. Both are needed for a successful and meaningful life.

Reason alone can make us sceptical and faith alone can make many superstitious. Since rationalists were severely persecuted by organised religion, they adopted the extreme position of denouncing faith altogether and stressing the sufficiency of reason. The Quran invites human beings to have faith as well as to reflect and think.

While reason gives us light, faith gives us deeper conviction and, it should be noted, no action is possible without deeper conviction (imaan). The synthesis of reason and faith (aql and imaan) can be called ‘rational faith’. As escapticism (reason without faith) can paralyse action, blind faith (faith without reason) can reduce us to the level of unthinking zealots. And both trends can be harmful to society.

Islam arose amongst Makkah’s Arabs to begin with, who were quite a practicable people. The creamy layer in Makkah was indulging in trade and commerce and hence they tended to be practical in outlook, unlike the agriculturists who tended to be more superstitious as their life depended primarily on natural forces. Thus Makkah’s Arabs believed in practical rationality.

They did not have much time for reflection and the finer values of life and otherworldly matters. For them everything was here and now — profit, accumulation of wealth and the comforts of life. Achieving these objectives was the main purpose of life for them. They were least bothered that their way of life was causing misery to the lower classes that were immersed in superstition.

The Quran stressed on values like equality, human dignity, compassion and caring for the poor and downtrodden, something neglected and ridiculed by this creamy layer of Arabs. Thus Quranic teachings meant a revolution for them. It gave them light of reason as well as of faith to give their lives a new meaning and direction.

However, when Islam spread to other countries like Iraq, Iran and Egypt, it came face to face with more complex cultures and weltanschauung. Also, unlike the Umayyads, the Abbasids depended more on the newly emerging Iranian middle class for administrative support and hence the Mutazillites acquired primacy during their rule. And translation of Greek tomes of philosophy deeply influenced Muslim intellectuals, as Darul Hikmah in Baghdad became the storehouse of wisdom.

Thus reason began to acquire primacy in the Islamic world and philosophers like Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and others, mostly of Iranian origin, rose to great prominence and prestige; so much so that their books became valuable sources of study in European universities also. This caused unrest among a section of Muslim ulema and orthodox scholars.

Many prominent ulema refused to accept the Mutazila doctrines which the Abbasids rulers tried to enforce with the might of the government. The bitter controversy about the createdness of the Quran (the belief that the Quran was created and not co-eternal with Allah) divided the Muslim scholars at the time. The Sufis were also not comfortable with emphasis placed on reason as against spirituality.

Also, there was an interesting controversy that while the Mutazillites maintained that something is good because reason says so and hence it becomes good in the Sharia law, the orthodox ulema maintained that something is good because the Sharia says it is good. Thus, the Sharia is absolute and God-given, according to the latter.

The Sufis in general, and Ghazali in particular, were quite uncomfortable with the widespread influence of reason in the Islamic world at the cost of spirituality and orthodoxy. An interesting debate took place between Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Ghazali. Ghazali wrote the book Tahafut al-Falasifa (bewilderment of philosophers) to which Averroes replied by writing Tahafut-Tahafut al-Falasifa (bewilderment of the bewilderment of philosophers).

This debate between reason and faith is a milestone in the intellectual history of Islam. The masses went with Ghazali, not with Averroes. Averroes is known only to a few intellectuals and philosophers whereas Ghazali, like other Sufis, has a great following among Muslim masses. Ghazali maintains that reason leads only to doubt and uncertainty whereas faith leads to a deeper conviction.

Well, philosophers may be comfortable with uncertainty and consider this a price worth paying for a better understanding. But, many others, with a spiritual bent of mind, opt for a deeper conviction which faith alone can provide. The Quran emphasises both, for one without the other leaves us either intellectually blind or unable to act.

The writer is an Islamic scholar who heads the Centre for Study of Society& Secularism, Mumbai.

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The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength,not lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."
Albert Einstein

The principle of modesty

By Dr Riffat Hassan
Friday, 05 Feb, 2010

The Quran asks both men and women to ‘lower their gaze’ and be ‘mindful of their chastity’.

IN the context of proper attire and conduct, the Quran lays down one basic principle, namely, modesty which is stated in Surah 24: 30-31: Tell the believing men to lower their gaze (avoiding its concentration on a person’s body, or a certain part of it) and to be mindful of their chastity; in this they will be more considerate for their own well-being and purity, and surely God is fully aware of all that they do.
And tell the believing women to lower their gaze (avoiding its concentration on a person’s body, or a certain part of it) and to be mindful of their chastity, and not to display the charms of their bodies (in public) beyond what may (decently) be apparent thereof; hence, let them draw their head-coverings over their bosoms.

And let them not display (more of) their charms to any but their husbands, or their fathers, or their husbands’ fathers, or their sons, or their husbands’ sons, or their brothers, or their brothers’ sons, or their sisters’ sons, or their womenfolk, or those whom they rightfully possess, or such male attendants as are beyond all sexual desire, or children that are as yet unaware of (the physical attractions of) women’s nakedness; and let them not swing their legs (or other actions in their walking) that may aim to draw attention to their hidden charms.

The injunctions in the cited passages are discussed briefly below:

Lowering of gaze: The Quranic injunction enjoining the believers to lower their gaze and behave modestly applies to both Muslim men and women. There are no Quranic statements which justify the extremely rigid restrictions regarding segregation and hijab which have been imposed on Muslim women by some societies or groups like the Taliban. If the Quran intended for women to be completely secluded and covered from head to foot, why would it command the men to “lower their gaze”?

Dress code for both men and women: Dr Fathi Osman has pointed out that “modesty is required in the outdoor dress of both Muslim women and men”. In his view, “All the points of special attraction in the male body have to be covered, and displaying the muscles or most of the body merely for attraction is against a man’s mindfulness of chastity and decency and extends the temptation for evil-doing.” What may ‘decently’ be apparent in the case of women: Elaborating on this point, Muhammad Asad states: “My interpolation of the word ‘decently’ reflects the interpretation of the phrase illa ma zahara minha by several of the earliest Islamic scholars, and particularly by Al-Qiffal (quoted by Razi), as ‘that which a human being may openly show in accordance with prevailing custom (al-adah al-jariyah)’.

The pivotal clause in the above injunction is the demand addressed in identical terms to men as well as to women, to ‘lower their gaze and be mindful of their chastity’: and this determines the extent of what, at any given time, may legitimately, i.e. in consonance with the Quranic principle of social morality, be considered ‘decent’ or ‘indecent’ in a person’s outward appearance.” Expressing a similar view, Dr Fathi Osman states: “The prominent commentators reflected … flexibility in their commentary on the verses 24:30-31. Al-Fakhr al-Razi stated that what should be covered is left to the prevailing custom, while al-Zamakshari left it to the custom and nature. Al-Wahidi and Ibn Atiyya allowed half of the arm to be uncovered, while al-Nisaburi allowed the uncovering of the arm to the elbow. Ibn Hayyan, in addition to considering custom and nature in what may be uncovered, considered the needs of poor women.” Drawing khimar over the bosom: Muslim women are enjoined to draw their khimar over their bosoms.

Explicating what khimar denotes, Muhammad Asad states: “The noun khimar (of which khumar is the plural) denotes the head-covering customarily used by Arabian women before and after the advent of Islam. According to most of the classical commentators, it was worn in pre-Islamic times more or less like an ornament and was let down loosely over the wearer’s back; and since, in accordance with the fashion prevalent at the time, the upper part of a woman’s tunic had a wide opening in the front, her breasts were left bare. Hence, the injunction to cover the bosom by means of a khimar (a term so familiar to the contemporaries of the Holy Prophet [PBUH]) does not necessarily relate to the use of a khimar as such but is, rather, meant to make it clear that a woman’s breasts are not included in the concept of ‘what may decently be apparent’ of her body and should not, therefore, be displayed.” Provocative gait: In keeping with the general law of modesty, Muslim women are instructed not to walk in such a way as to attract unnecessary attention. Muhammad Asad has pointed out that the expression “yadribna bi-arjulihinna … alludes to a deliberately provocative gait.”

¦ The writer is professor emerita at the University of Louisville, US, and a scholar of Islam and Iqbal. rshass01@gwise.louisville.edu

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The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength,not lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."
Albert Einstein

Muslim women and change

By Asghar Ali Engineer
Friday, 12 Feb, 2010

MANY non-Muslims think that Muslim women are oppressed, forced to wear the veil and confined within the four walls of their houses. This is because we read everyday in the newspapers that the Taliban burn down girls’ schools and force women into wearing the veil, in fact have their women wrapped completely from head to foot.

This image of Muslim women has been further reinforced by the burka controversy which erupted in France. It would be justified if all Muslim women followed the strict code propounded by Muslim theologians which was evolved in the medieval ages and which they keep on justifying even today. But there is a big difference in what is theologically projected and the ground reality.

It may not be wrong if I venture to say that Muslim women have been defying the so-called theological code for more than a century now, and have gone even further in their public achievements. It is true that even today some Muslim theologians debate whether women are naqisul aql (have defective reasoning power) or not, but many Muslim women have superseded even Muslim men in several fields.

In Saudi Arabia where women are not even permitted to drive cars, a woman became a licensed pilot and has been flying aircraft. Now we get news from Malaysia that Farah al-Habshi, an engineer by profession, has been appointed as deputy of weapons and electrical officer onboard a spanking new Malaysian warship K.D. Perak. She has donned the white and blue Royal Malaysian Navy uniform. What is interesting is that she also wears the hijab to cover her head though not her face. She feels her hijab in no way comes in the way of performing her duties.

Malaysia is a Muslim country where orthodox ulema exercise a great deal of control over people’s lives. Recently even the government of Malaysia chickened out when the ulema took the stand that Christians in Malaysia could not use the word ‘Allah’ in their religious literature or in a newspaper. Muslim women face several problems in that country at the hands of conservative ulema in respect of family laws.

It is in the same country that a woman has been appointed naval officer for combat duty. Even in India women have not won the right to be on combat duty in the navy. Nor are they permitted to fly fighter planes or take up combat arms. They are also not allowed seafaring in warships. On the contrary, the Pakistan Army has women officers; the air force also has women fighter pilots on duty alongside their male counterparts.

Likewise, Ms Farah al-Habshi has recently participated in a naval exercise in Milan along with some other women. She was very articulate while answering questions by journalists. She is only one example out of many. Muslim women have excelled even in theological fields and quite independently of the traditional theologians. They have shown courage to challenge the orthodox ulema. Here I can give the example of Amina Wudud of the US who teaches Islamic Studies in Washington.

She believes that women can lead mixed prayer congregations, and led around 100 men and women in a Friday prayer a few years ago and delivered the sermon; this is quite unthinkable in the traditional Muslim world. It raised a storm of controversy, and Yusuf Qardawi, a traditional theologian from Qatar, wrote an article opposing a woman’s leading a mixed prayer congregation.

Some Kuwaiti women, who were elected to the Kuwaiti parliament after a great deal of struggle, fought for their right to go to parliament without the headgear. They fought their case in the supreme court of Kuwait and won. Many more examples can be cited of Muslim women daring the authorities, in pursuit of their rights.

But the vernacular media, which is interested in sensationalising issues, refuses to highlight Muslim women’s achievements and continues to portray them as submissive to traditional authorities and meekly accepting of their situation. This image of Muslim women has to change and the reality, which is much more complex, has to be understood.

This is not to deny that in many countries Muslim women are facing difficult problems and their liberation is not a foregone conclusion. However, it is also true that many of them are fighting and refusing to submit meekly. What gives us hope is their continued struggle and defiance of traditional authority.

It should also be mentioned here that many ulema and jurists have realised that medieval formulations on women cannot be easily enforced any more. Some of them, like Muhammad Abduh of Egypt, Maulvi Mumtaz Ali Khan of India and Maulana Umar Ahmed Usmani of Pakistan have expressed serious reservations about traditional theological formulations on women. The determined struggle on the part of Muslim women will force many more theologians to revise their positions and take the Quran, and not medieval theology, more seriously on women’s issues.

The writer is an Islamic scholar who heads the Centre for Study of Secularism & Society, Mumbai.

__________________
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength,not lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."
Albert Einstein

The concept of honour

By Dr Riffat Hassan
Friday, 19 Feb, 2010

VIOLENCE seen against women in Muslim cultures is rooted in the concepts of ‘honour’ and ‘shame’. In his essay on Honour and shame among the Bedouins of Egypt, A.A. Zeid states: “Of all the value concepts employed by the Bedouins of the western desert of Egypt, those of ‘honour’ and ‘shame’ are the most vague, most complicated and most difficult to grasp and to analyse.”

He points out that Egyptian Bedouins have a separate word for ‘honour’ that is used in the context of women: “This exclusive term, ‘ird’, is rather difficult to translate, for it is used only in connection with female chastity, prudence and continence.”

B. Fares, in his comprehensive study of family honour among pre-Islamic Arabs, describes ird as follows: “Ird from its etymology seems to be a partition which separates its possessor from the rest of mankind. This partition is certainly fragile since it was easily destroyed ... (In the jahiliyya period) ird was intense and of momentous importance; besides, it was the guiding motive in the acts and deeds of all the Arabs except those of Yemen ... on account of its sacred nature, it was entitled to take the place of religion; the Arabs put it in the highest place and defended it arms in hand.”

The writer asserts, “Among the modern Bedouins we still find ird with all its pre-Islamic force ... the use of the term ‘ird’, in its traditional sense, though less rich in meaning, has continued, keeping its sacred character and its relation with insult. In the present day, the meaning of the word has become restricted, in Transjordania it is associated with the virtue of a woman or even with her beauty. In Egypt, the ird of a man depends on his wife’s reputation and that of all his female relatives.”

The pre-Islamic Arabs, living in a state of constant warfare with their inhospitable environment and each other, were insecure in many ways. They were particularly fearful of a girl or woman from their tribe or group being captured and molested. This would bring shame to them, affecting their ird, and they would become duty bound to avenge the wrong done. In the opinion of A.A. Zeid, “ird once lost cannot be regained” but according to Peter C. Dodd, “ird does not have this all-or-none quality and though it may take generations to restore, yet ird may be regained”.

Whatever be the case it is clear that a very strong connection existed in the Bedouin mind between male honour and female chastity. To quote A.A. Zeid once again: “In a paternalistic society like the Bedouins’ where the male occupies a dominant social position in all aspects and activities of life, it is only natural that the honour of the group is determined primarily by the behaviour and achievements of the men rather than the women. Nevertheless, the woman can, and indeed does, play a conspicuous part in determining the honour of her family and lineage in a unique and decisive way that cannot be ignored or minimised … The woman’s own conduct in daily life bears heavily on the honour of her people … this is the clearest with regard to her sexual activities and especially her chastity.

“The Bedouins do not impose sexual segregation but they do respect severe rules for the behaviour of one sex towards the other. Deviation from these rules results in the murder of the offender. Thus a girl with a bad reputation may disappear suddenly from the camp. Everyone guesses what has happened to her, but no one speaks about it, let alone approaches the authorities. Rape on the other hand is considered a more humiliating offence than homicide.

“The offender himself is usually killed in retaliation ... Yet this is not regarded as sufficient to wipe out the shame. The girl herself is therefore killed, especially if it is thought that intercourse took place with her consent and her disgraced kinsmen usually desert traditional homeland and migrate in a voluntary exile in a region where no one knows about their ird.”

It is important to note that the term ‘ird’ does not appear in the Quran. Nevertheless, just as in the case of the Bedouins, many Muslim men’s concept of ‘honour’ revolves largely around the orbit of female chastity, and they do not react differently from the Bedouins to instances of ‘dishonour’.

Though a linkage is seldom made between female infanticide in pre-Islamic Arabia and honour killings in present-day Muslim societies, a deeper analysis of both suggests that they are similar in some ways. Both are examples of domestic violence though this term is relatively new and was not in usage in pre-Islamic Arabia.

One of the main reasons why some pre-Islamic Arabs killed their daughters at birth was their apprehension that these offspring were a potential threat to their honour. Fear of shame and loss of honour also play a pivotal role in the commission of many honour-related crimes. According to Amnesty International, “The number of honour killings is on the rise as the perception of what constitute honour … widens”.

The writer is professor emerita at the University of Louisville, US, and a scholar of Islam and Iqbal. rshass01@gwise.louisville.edu

__________________
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength,not lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."
Albert Einstein

Mohammad the liberator

By Asghar Ali Engineer
Friday, 26 Feb, 2010

MUSLIMS everywhere celebrate the birthday of Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) with great devotion and reverence. But often it is seen that the devotees do not always reflect on the message of the person whom they so venerate. Eid-i-Milad has just become a tradition rather than an occasion for deep reflection.

Muslims also refer to Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) as Muhsin-e-Insaniyyat, the benefactor of all humanity, but do we care to know in what respect he became the benefactor? In this limited space I have I will try to shed some light on the revolutionary aspects of Mohammad’s (pbuh) teachings and how Muslims should benefit from these. The Prophet of Islam was an ummi, that is he did not know how to read and write and yet he ushered in a great social and economic revolution that is as useful today as it was all those centuries ago.

We can call him a liberator of all humanity if we follow his teachings, not so much from the tangled web of Hadith but from the Quran that he brought us. The Quran indeed was his real miracle. Firstly, he emphasised the importance of knowledge. This word occurs in the Quran more than 800 times along with its various derivatives (the word jihad, so controversial today, occurs only 41 times).

Knowledge was so important to him that he required Muslims to seek knowledge even if they had to go to China, then a very distant land from Arabia. Following this teaching, Arabs who were quite averse to knowledge — especially in the written form (there were only 17 people in Makkah during the Prophet’s lifetime who could read and write) — became great precursors of various sciences and even the West immensely benefited from their findings. The West discovered the treasures of Greek knowledge through the Arabs.

Secondly, the Prophet liberated women from bondage and gave them rights, recognising their individuality and rights. Women got equal rights in marriage and marriage was declared a contract between two equals. He made it obligatory for women too to seek knowledge. “Seeking knowledge is obligatory for Muslim men and Muslim women”, he said. The cause of women’s bondage to men was mainly due to women’s ignorance, and when acquiring knowledge became their right and an obligation, women too became empowered. It is knowledge that is the true liberator.

Thirdly, Mohammad (pbuh) was greatly concerned with justice. Justice is so fundamental to Islam that Allah derives one of his names from justice (Adil). Justice for weaker sections of society was of utmost importance to the Prophet. Allah, according to the Quran, is on the side of the weak. And it is the weak (mustazifin) who shall inherit the earth and who shall be its leaders. The powerful and arrogant (mustakbirun) shall be doomed, promises the message brought by Mohammad (pbuh).

Fourthly, the Prophet made the individual responsible for all actions, not the collective tribe or community, as was the case in pre-Islam Arabia. The Quran also declared that each individual must carry his own burden and no one else should be held responsible for the deeds of others. It was a very revolutionary declaration at the time, when an entire tribe or community acted as one and an individual accounted for nothing. The Quran made reward or punishment individual-centred as opposed to tribe-centred. This freed individuals, men and women, from the burden of tribal customs and superstitions. Collective action, said the message, may be important, but not at the cost of the choices an individual must make.

Fifthly, Mohammad (pbuh) also gave the individual rights and dignity along with responsibility. Human dignity was not circumscribed by any religion, tribe or ethnicity but included all children of Adam (karramna bani Adam). It was indeed a revolutionary declaration of which preceded the UN Charter of Human rights by more than 1,400 years. Also, the Prophet said that all creation is the family of Allah.

Sixthly, he gave the concept of Bait al-maal, a treasury to which all Muslims would contribute according to their income. In modern terms, this can be described as a move towards a welfare state in modern terms. Zakat was no longer a tax imposed on the people to cater to the luxurious lifestyle of rulers, as was the norm in pre-Islam days. It was meant strictly for the welfare of the weaker segments, orphans, widows, the poor, travellers and for the liberation of prisoners and slaves. Such usage of public tax money was unprecedented.

The Prophet even declared that land was only for its tillers, thus bringing down the oppressive and exploitative feudal system. Unfortunately, within a few decades of his death Muslim rulers established a great empire based on the same exploitative system. All this may sound unbelievable to many non-Muslims. Why? This is because Muslims often pay verbal tributes to the Prophet (pbuh) instead of acting on his charter.

Now let’s look around and ask ourselves: What is the condition of women in Muslim countries? Are Muslim states welfare states? Do their rulers live a simple life like the Prophet did? Do they respect individual rights and human dignity? Do they practise justice? Do they respect human life as the sacred trust of Allah? The answers may not be in the affirmative. Muslims have to reflect seriously on their failures and recommit themselves to the Quranic value system, brought to them by Mohammad (pbuh).

The writer is an Islamic scholar who heads the Centre for Study of Secularism & Society, Mumbai.

__________________
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength,not lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."
Albert Einstein

Islam’s sources of knowledge

By Dr Riffat Hassan
Friday, 05 Mar, 2010

SURAH 96, verses 1-5, the first revelation received by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), links divine bounty to the human ability to read, write and to know.

The passage states, “Read in the name of your Sustainer, who has created — created man out of a germ-cell. Read — for your Sustainer is the Most Bountiful One, Who has taught (man) the use of the pen; taught man what he did not know.”

Thus, knowledge has been at the centre of the Islamic worldview from the outset. The Quran recognises multiple sources of knowledge amongst which the following are particularly important: revelation, sense perception, history, reasoning and intuition.

Revelation is God-given knowledge which Muslims believe is enshrined in the Quran, the highest source of knowledge and authority in Islam. Sense perception is knowledge gained through one’s senses. Referring to the Quran’s empirical attitude reflected in its emphasis on the observable aspects of reality, Iqbal stated that nature, described by the Quran as a sign of God, stands in the same relation to God as character does to the human self. In his view, “Scientific observation of nature keeps us in close contact with the behaviour of reality, and thus sharpens our inner perception for a deeper vision of it.... The scientific observer of nature is a kind of mystic seeker in the act of prayer.”

Classical Greek knowledge, which constitutes a significant part of the western civilisation’s intellectual foundation, was contemptuous of sense perception. However, as Iqbal stated, the Quran “sees in the humble bee a recipient of Divine inspiration and constantly calls upon the reader to observe perpetual change of the winds, the alteration of day and night, the clouds, the starry heavens and the planets swimming through infinite space.”

History, to which the Quran refers as ‘the Days of God’, is the third source of knowledge. As Iqbal pointed out, “It is one of the most essential teachings of the Quran that nations are collectively judged and suffer for their misdeeds here and now. In order to establish this proposition, the Quran constantly cites historical instances, and urges the readers to reflect on the past and present experience of mankind.”

For instance, the following two verses refer to the lessons that can be learnt from history: “Of old did We send Moses with Our signs, and said to him: ‘Bring forth your people from the darkness into light, and remind them of the Days ofGod’. Verily, in this are signs for every patient, grateful person.” (14:5); And then: “Already before your time, have precedentsbeen made. Traverse the earth then and see what has been the end of those who falsify the signs of God.” (3:137)

Reasoning generally refers to the discursive faculty or logical understanding by means of which theoretical (deductive) and empirical (inductive) knowledge is acquired. The Greeks had regarded reasoning as that which differentiated humankind from animals. But according to the Quranic narrative (2:31-34), “Adam is accorded superiority even over celestial creatures because he has the ability to name things which they do not have”.

Citing the above-mentioned verses, Iqbal observed: “The point of these verses is that man is endowed with the faculty of naming things, that is to say, forming concepts of them, and forming concepts of them is capturing them. Thus the character of man’s knowledge is conceptual and it is with the weapon of this conceptual knowledge that man approaches the observable aspect of reality.”

Intuitionis a mode of knowledge in which a direct revelation is made to the mind similar to a direct revelation made to the eye when it sees a physical object. In Quranic terms, intuition is called fuad or qalb, andmystics often refer to it as the ‘heart’.

The noted scholar R.A. Nicholson pointed out that though qalb is connected to the physical heart in some mysterious way, it is not a thing of flesh and blood but “is rather intellectual than emotional … whereas the intellect cannot gain real knowledge of God, the qalb is capable of knowing the essences of all things, and when illuminated by faith and knowledge, it reflects the whole content of the divine mind, hence the Prophet said, ‘My earth and my heaven contain me not, but the heart of my faithful servant contains me’.”

Iqbal believed that God was known through an intuitive or mystic experience, and said: “The heart is a kind of inner intuition or insight which, in the beautiful words of Rumi, feeds on the rays of the sun and brings us into contact with aspects of reality other than those open to sense perception. It is, according to the Quran, something which ‘sees’ and its reports, if properly interpreted, are never false. We must not, however, regard it as a mysterious special faculty; it is rather a mode of dealing with reality in which sensation in the physiological sense of the word does not play any part. Yet the vista of experience thus opened to us is as real and concrete as any other experience.”

The writer is professor emerita at the University of Louisville, US, and a scholar of Islam and Iqbal. rshass01@gwise.louisville.edu

__________________
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength,not lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."
Albert Einstein

Justice central to Sharia law

By Asghar Ali Engineer
Friday, 12 Mar, 2010

MOST of our ulema insist that Sharia law is divine and hence there is no question of any flexibility in its application. It is supposed to be immutable. This does not bear scrutiny though.

Imam al-Shatibi, a Spanish imam of great eminence in the 13th century, discusses in his writings on the Sharia in Al-Maqasid al-Sharia as well as Al-Masalih al-Sharia the purposes and welfare of Sharia laws. The law is obviously devised to serve certain purposes and is meant for the welfare of the people. If it becomes rigid it can neither serve the purpose nor can it aim at the welfare of the people. Even Imam Ghazali who tends to be orthodox in his views, always discusses the purpose behind every Sharia provision.

The Quran says in verse 5:48 that we have appointed a law and a way for everyone, which means that the Sharia is supposed to serve the purpose of every community and it has to keep the welfare of various communities in mind. There is unanimity among the ulema that customary law (adaat) also becomes an integral part of Sharia law. That is why Arab customary law (Arab aadat) became an integral part of the Islamic Sharia. If Arab customary law had not become part of the Sharia it would not have been acceptable to Arabs.

When Islam spread to different parts of the world the local customary laws also became part of Islam in their respective cultures. In Indonesia a great controversy erupted among the ulema whether Indonesian customary law should be part of Islam, and a majority of the ulema accepted Indonesian customary law as part of Islam as practised in that country.

It was for this reason that in early Islam a provision was made for ijtihad (creative interpretation through utmost intellectual exertion). Allama Iqbal called ijtihad the dynamic spirit of Islam. However, our ulema closed the doors on ijtihad in the 13th century. And Sharia law has become stagnant ever since, because this law was based on ijtihad up to that point in time. The argument given by the ulema for not undertaking ijtihad was that no one was qualified to do so anymore. However, the fact is that the real reason for abandoning ijtihad is the stagnation of society that has prevailed since then.

As time passes new challenges arise, and it is only the spirit of ijtihad which can keep the Sharia dynamic and enable it to meet new challenges. A stagnant law becomes a burden for the people rather than resulting in their welfare. That is why reform movements became necessary from time to time. In the 19-20th centuries radically new situations arose and many eminent Islamic thinkers launched reform movements. Jamaluddin Afghani, Mohammed Abduh, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and Mohammed Iqbal were among them.What is most important in the Sharia is the principles and values given by the Quran. If we keep that in mind and protect these principles and values the real spirit of Sharia would not be injured even if certain necessary changes were made to applicable laws. However, we have often ignored these principles and values and made mediaeval formulation more central and rigid in their application. It was like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Among the Quranic principles and values justice is most important. Justice is the very basis of Sharia law. If we protect the mediaeval formulations rather than the Quranic value of justice, it will result in more injustice, thus defeating the very purpose of Sharia law. One of the examples is polygamy. The Quran permitted polygamy subject to the rigorous condition of doing equal justice to all four wives; and the Quran also made it clear in verse 4:129 that even if one wanted to, one could not do justice.

Despite such a rigorous condition of justice, somehow the number of four wives became more important than the value of justice. It is only in modern times that some Muslim intellectuals are emphasising justice rather than the number of wives that can be taken at a time. But even today conservative ulema think that marrying up to four wives is a man’s privilege even if it seriously injures the value of doing justice to all four, which the Quran says is not humanly possible.

Some even go to the extent of saying that it will promote prostitution if a man is not allowed to marry up to four wives. Many more examples can be given wherein orthodox formulations have become more important than the value of justice in the Quran. Justice should be restored to its central position in the application of Sharia law. This is only possible when the Sharia is not treated as a stagnant law and Muslim intellectuals come forward to attempt comprehensive ijtihad.n

The writer is an Islamic scholar who heads the Centre for Study of Society & Secularism, Mumbai.

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The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength,not lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."
Albert Einstein