Part 2 of at least a 4 part VI Lecture…
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Islam is an Affirming Faith
When the Romans first encountered the Christian Rites, they looked on the transubstantiation of the bread and wine of the sacrament into the body and blood of Christ literally. The enlightened Romans were appalled at the cannibalism the practice seemed to suggest, found the practice immoral and sought to expunge the radical sect in numerous ways. The morality of the polytheists of Rum were challenged by the literal vulgarity of the practice, which represented a remembrance of the ever present nature of God’s power to Christians. The same mistake of literal interpretation can be seen in Western scholars when considering Fundamentalist Islam.
What becomes apparent upon full consideration of the faith is that a “literalist reading” of the Koran yields a “mystical reverence” for the Supremacy of the Divine Nature and Universal Truth of cause and effect.
This is no apology; this is merely a clarification.
When Western Experts on Sharia Law and Counterterrorism consider the nature of Fundamentalism in Islam, the concept of “literal” interpretation looms large. The natural impulse, then, is to begin quoting the Koran and Muhammad. But the fact is, this is not the proper mode for examining a literalist reading of the Islamic texts. The truth of the matter is the literal nature of revelation.
For instance, elementally speaking, the first revelation of the Koran to Muhammad by Gabriel is found in Sura 96. There is no chronological Koran, so, when looking for a literal interpretation, or considering abrogation, it is easy for Western scholars to read the 50 or so different references to violent Jihad in the Islamic holy text to prove their case that Islam is inherently violent. However, this path leads to a false narrative of what “literal” means in Islam.
Sura 96 states:
Read in the name of thy Lord Who creates –
Creates man from a clot,
Read and thy Lord is most Generous,
Who taught by the pen,
Taught man what he knew not.
The word Koran in Arabic means “to recite” or “to read” or “to warn,” depending on the context of the usage. But more importantly, al Quran, is considered the Mother Book, which exists eternally with Allah, written by the Pen of Allah. In this, the Koran is similar to the Christian concept of Logos – in the beginning was the Word. The “literalist” interpretation of Islamic Fundamentalism, then, has less to do with the actual text of the Koran than with the miraculous nature of the revelation, which was presented to Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel. The illiterate Muhammad, was presented with passages of Allah’s Mother Book during his trance state and he was given the Divine gift of transmission. He was ordered by Gabriel “To Read” from the Mother Book. Muhammad rebuked the angel, saying that he was unable to read; however, when looking upon the words written in the Pen of Allah, he began to recite what he saw. The Prophet transmitted what he was “reading” and his scribes wrote down the Word of Allah.
The Koran, in the Islamic frame, then, is the literal Word of Allah, as written by the Pen of Allah in the Mother Book, and each transmission was a mystical event, whose spiritual nature was so profound as to be beyond man’s capacity to fully understand. Moreover, if one were to look beyond the importance of the “oneness” of Allah, the Koranic dispensation’s primary theme focuses heavily on the Final Hour of Judgment in which Allah would determine whether or not each individual’s life was good or evil…and this judgment would be wrought from the scales of justice.
When considering Sharia Law’s application and the advancement of the Caliphate through Jihad, then, what must be reckoned with by Western Scholars in the study of the Koran is the literal nature of the Scales in the prophetic tradition and the ramifications of this literalist perspective on the mystical in the continuity of human civilization.
In the Western tradition, the scales of justice are a symbolic representation of the rule of law. However, in the Islamic tradition, the Scales are real, the rule of law is the Koran, and the account of a human life’s thought and deed is literally written by the Pen of Allah. That is, in terms of Justice, Muslims see the Scales as a concrete reality in Allah’s Final Hour of Judgment, while the Western legal tradition finds the scales to be a symbol of man’s relation to the rules of men and governments.
In the Islamic tradition of the Final Hour, the sum total of good deeds and good thoughts, bad deeds and bad thoughts in a human life become physical realities on the Day of Judgment. The sums hold intrinsic value and actual weight on Allah’s scales – Justice, then, is based on the affirmation of thoughts and acts. It is not a mistake that the Shahada is called the Affirmation of Faith. Right and wrong are not measured in the courts of men – ultimately, in Islam, Justice is the literal measure of Faith. In this, man is not the judge, only Allah knows the Truth, for all thought and deed are recorded by the same Pen that wrote the Mother Book.
Prayer, then, is the primary Pillar of Islam, for each prayer affirms the covenant between Man and Allah, which holds that Man’s sole purpose for being is to worship Allah. For as Sheikh Ibn Taymiya reiterates from the Koran Sura 51 Ayat 56 in Public Duties in Islam, Allah, the Exalted, said “I created jinn and men solely to worship Me.”
The recognition that man’s sole purpose on Earth is to serve Allah is the acknowledgement and submission to the universality of cause and effect. The Affirmation “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet,” is the first step towards submitting to the Truth that mankind is a manifestation of Allah’s Will.
Just as Allah’s Will holds is the cause of an effect such as Man, so too does each Human prayer hold a cause and effect reality. Each prayer, in Islamic thought, holds a manifest reality. By acknowledging Allah’s Law of cause and effect, and surrendering to its ultimate power, each act of faith is manifest with literal “weight” in Allah’s Accounting at the Final Hour.
Following a reference to Sura 51 (The Scatterers of Truth) as a reference to the universality of cause and effect in Islam, Taymiya references Sura 21, quoting Allah as ordaining “We sent no Messenger before you without inspiring him: ‘There is No god but I, therefore worship Me!’”
And while this reference to Ayat 25 is worthwhile to consider, Ayat 47 and 94 in Sura 21 reveal the literal nature of the Scale and the Pen.
Ayat 47 states:
And We will set up a just balance on the day of Resurrection, so no soul will be wronged in the least. And if there be the weight of a grain of mustard seed, We will bring it. And sufficient are We to take account.
Ayat 94 states:
So, whoever does good deeds and is a believer, there is no rejection of his effort, and We surely write (it) down for him.
In this framework, good deeds and good thoughts, prayers to Allah, are written down with the same Pen that wrote the Mother Book. This, literally, means that actions on Earth are manifested in the ink of Allah’s script. That is, they hold weight in the ledgers of Allah, which will be transubstantiated onto the Scales of Judgment in the Final Hour. In this, a prayer has spiritual value on Earth and holds both physical form and divine value on Judgment Day.
So, from a literalist perspective of mysticism and belief, Islam is an Affirming Faith – thought, deed and prayer are made firm upon the accounting tables throughout a human life and again given weight upon the scales of judgment in the Final Hour.
Only from this measured perspective can Ibn Taymiya’s Institution of the Hisba find a ready audience.
From Taymiya’s teaching on the Hisba, the first essential to understand is “…that the aim of all authority in Islam is to ensure that all religion shall be Allah’s, and that the Word of Allah shall be all-high. For Allah – be He glorified and exalted! – created His creation for this purpose alone.” To worship Allah is to obey Him and His Messenger, this is goodness and piety. For as Allah said, “Fight them till there is an end to sedition and all religion is Allah’s.”
This lesson, drawn from Sura 8 Ayat 39 by Taymiya, focuses on the concept of Fitna, which can be translated as “sedition” as “oppression” as “disorder” as well as a number of other slants. This lesson is confirmed with the Hadith traditions by Ibn Taymiya, when he quotes Muhammad as saying “Whoever fights that the Word of Allah shall be supreme, he is in Allah’s Cause.”
Taymiya continues, tying the Word of Allah to the Scales.
“Allah made known: `We sent Our messengers with clear proofs and revealed with them the Book and the Scales that men might practice equity – We also revealed Iron, which is a great power and usefulness for men – and that Allah might know who would assist Him and His messengers, though unseen. Allah is Strong. Mighty.’” (Sura 57 Ayat 25)
Again, in geometric fashion, Taymiya follows the reference to the Koran with two examples from Hadith literature, noting that in the Sunan of Abu Dawud, on the authority of Abu Said (Hurayra), Muhammad said “When three men go on a journey let them put one of their number in command.”
Authority is then further related by Muhammad through Imam Ahmad’s Hadith tradition which quotes the Prophet saying “The creature most beloved of Allah is a just leader. The creature most hateful to Him is a despotic leader.” For Allah said, “Of the believing men and women some are in charge of others, ordaining what is proper and forbidding the improper.” (Sura 9 Ayat 71) Another translation of Sura 9 Ayat 71 by Maulana Muhammad Ali reads:
“And the believers, men and women, are friends one of another. They enjoin good and forbid evil and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, and obey Allah and His Messenger. As for these, Allah will have mercy on them. Surely, Allah is Mighty, Wise.”
Taymiya continues, “This is a duty incumbent on every able Muslim. The responsibility is collective, but becomes individual for the able person…. For the measure of obligation is ability, and every man is responsible to the extent of his ability.”
Further, those in authority are required “to seek the aid of people honest and impartial. Failing this he must use the best he can find…. One’s duty is to do what lies within one’s power.”
In this, according to Umar ibn al Khattab, Muhammad said “To confer on a man a turban (of office) when one could find another more worthy of the turban is to betray Allah, betray His Messenger and betray the Believers.”
Positions of Authority, in this frame, hold a unique obligation in Islam.
The leading authority in the Sacred Law of the religious office of the Hisba, the Muhtasib, is in charge of enjoining good and forbidding evil “…in the spheres not reserved to the governors, the judges, the administrative officers…. The duties of the Muhtasib include: ordering the common people to perform the five prayers at the proper times and punishing with flogging or imprisonment those who do not pray; supervising the prayer leaders and those who give the call to prayer, seeing to it that the former do not neglect the duties of their office and that the latter keep within the legally prescribed form. Should he be unable to enforce his orders he may call upon the military, the magistrate or anyone commanding obedience to help him.” The unique obligation, as we will discuss shortly, is a matter of Capacity.
From this vantage, it becomes obvious why the Hazera, the Shia, who pray only twice a day, are declared heretics and apostates in Takfiri disdain by the Sunni Hisba authorities for the sect’s failure to properly perform the prayer in accordance with the accepted Ulema traditions.
Ultimately, Prayer is the primary pillar of Islam the Muhtasib is positioned to enforce.
For Allah decreed on the night of Ascension the command for Muslims to Pray as a direct command to Muhammad rather than sending the message through Gabriel. In this, Taymiya is unequivocal: “No action is more fitting than the Prayer. It is the pillar of Islam and the most important of its laws, being coupled with the two professions of the faith.”
The Ascension fixed the times and number of prayers enjoined upon Muslims. And according to Taymiya, “[Prayer’s] importance is greater than the mind can grasp, and so must be the paramount concern of those in authority, taking precedence over their concern with all other acts.”
The difference between Islamic philosophy and Islamic theology are not easy to filter for Western scholars and theologians, who are unaware of the institution of the Hisba, particularly in concerning the manifestation of Allah’s divine will and the manifestation of human Prayer. The difference can be derived from the night of Ascension in Islamic faith.
By far the most mystical event in the entirety of the Islamic faith, following the initial revelations of the Koran by the angel Gabriel, the night of Ascension established the value of prayer for the Muslim mind. Mystically, Muhammad dealt with the Angel Gabriel, a mystical creature known as Al Buraq, and rose into the highest heavenly realm to commune directly with Allah. In this, he arose as the final prophet, the seal of the prophets.
After all, miraculously, the language of the eternal Mother Book, in which Allah’s Pen writes, is “plain Arabic”. This belief shapes the identity of Arabs and Muslims; for supremacy’s seed is found in language as a birth right for Arabs and an earned dispensation for Muslims, who speak in the tongue of the Almighty.
This seed, in fact, sets the stage for the belief that all previous prophets and wayward civilizations were led astray due to failures of translation and interpretations of Allah’s warnings and scriptures. It is why translating the Koran into languages other than Arabic is considered Haram, forbidden.
While mankind itself is a manifestation of the divine Will, Prayer is a manifestation of human submission to the Divine Will made concrete in the Accounting of the Final Hour. To the faithful of Islam, the Ascension was the ultimate conjoining of the manifestations, which detailed the dogmatic Truth of Allah’s Will. In this, the “Wailing Wall” of Jerusalem was renamed “al Buraq” due to Muhammad’s tying of the mystical animal’s reins to the gates; the direction of prayer was realigned toward Mecca; the number of daily prayers was negotiated, the methodology of prayer was perfected; and the cleansing of Allah’s heart became literal as a manifestation of Divine Will through an earthly vessel in Heaven.
In full, the dogmatic importance of prayer and adherence to the Sacred Law, while serving as the Ulema’s religious implementation of the Ascension’s literal injunctions, form the totalitarian socio-economic relations in Islam for the Umma. However, the Divine Will made manifest in Islamic dogma is only half of the mystic puzzle; the remaining half is the manifestation of individual human submission to Allah by those who “enjoin good and forbid evil.” In this, Capacity is both a gift and a burden.
The difference between Islamic Theology, found in the dogma of the Ulema, and Islamic Philosophy, found in the multiple interpretations and schools of Islamic thought, is that Theology deals with the manifestation of Allah’s Will on Earth, while Islamic Philosophy (or schools of interpretation) chiefly deals with the manner in which human action is made manifest in terms of Allah’s Justice. Both are wrought from the new knowledge found in the Koran.
Muhammad’s prophecy that 73 schools (sects/divisions) would form within Islam, but only one school would achieve Right Guidance is intelligible in the framework of theology versus philosophy.
According to Hadith literature, the school that would rise to the Right Path would be that of Muhammad and his followers. It is this Hadith which gives rise to Takfirism – the charge of apostasy between one sect of Islam and another. It is this Hadith tradition which gives birth to revivalism teachings and fundamentalist Islamic movements such as Salafism. Indeed, this fertile field begs the rise of charismatic firebrands, who are willing to dictate Good and Evil; moreover, as a matter of capacity, the Islamic culture breeds enmity as an absolute virtue and an expectation for which, as we might recall from Sura 57, Allah “revealed Iron” in order to know who assists Him and His messengers.
The manifestation of Good and Evil, in Islam, then, is a two way street of Cause and Effect.
Islamic Supremacy is, in this framework, a matter of Affirmation from the Creation of mankind through the Final Hour – a Totality in which Knowledge and Justice are bound by Divine Truth.
Human reason, then, must submit to the Will of Allah, for Allah’s Pen teaches man the Truth he knows not.
Good and Evil in the Hisba
From this discourse, the literalist perspective of works and deeds in terms of the Final Hour, the primacy of Prayer, the official duties of authority embodied in the Hisba and the office of the Muhtasib are put forth simply and without ceremony; however, what may yet remain unclear in the ethical value system of Islam is precisely what makes an act or a thought “Good” in the righteous Muslim. For this, there is no better teacher than Taymiya himself:
“Since there are two ingredients essential to all good things: that they should be intended for Allah’s sake, and that they should conform to the Sacred Law, this must apply equally to speech and action, to good words and good works, to mattes of knowledge and worship…. One who studies the knowledge sent by Allah through His Messengers, and teaches it for the sake of Allah is Trustworthy; one who fights so that the word of Allah may be supreme, and is killed, is a Martyr; and one who gives alms for the sake of Allah is Righteous.”
As to what is “Evil” in Islam, I find it is instructive to turn back to Sura 57 (Iron) Ayat 20, which holds the manner in which Truth is established as follows:
“Know that this world’s life is only sport and play and gaiety and boasting among yourselves and a vying for multiplication of wealth and children. It is as rain, whose causing the vegetation to grow pleases kuffar (the husbandmen), then it withers away so that thou seest it turn yellow then it becomes chaff…”
In this, all earthly pleasures are but vanity in comparison with satisfying the supreme pleasure of Allah. However, life is fleeting and to focus on its brief enjoyment instead of the everlasting Truth of Allah’s judgment is folly. In this, the kuffar (plural of kafir) is derived from Kafara, which literally means “to cover” or “to conceal”. Farmers, or husbandmen, cover over the seed in the field. Similarly the kafir, which is a derogatory term for an unbeliever (an infidel), covers over the truth of Allah’s new knowledge, and though the nations of Kuffar might flourish for a time, their evil vanities will guarantee their eventual fall. While infidels are not guided by Allah, the true evil, in this “Iron” verse, is to conceal the benefit and favor of Allah’s new knowledge, which was brought as a blessing and a mercy.
Taymiya lays down the definitions of sin and wrong in Islam for Western scholars to consider. In terms of the public duties and obligations of the institution of the Hisba, Taymiya states “…neglect of duty is a sin.” In sin, for Taymiya, “Wrong is of two kinds: neglect of right, and transgressing the limit. The former is a failure to perform what is due another, such as failure to settle debts, or to discharge other trusts and financial obligations. The second is aggressive conduct, like murder and seizing property.”
In this, Taymiya’s understanding of Justice in the Hisba is simplified in the self-evident explanation that “…all good deeds are included in justice and all bad deeds are included in injustice.” So, when considering the Hisba, the concept of Fitna is amplified in its complexity; hence the Arabic word’s multifaceted translatability as oppression, sedition, persecution, disorder, or…injustice.
In full, Muhammad said “The best speech is the Speech of Allah. The best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad. The worst things are innovations.” From this, the Western mind can comprehend Islam’s dogmatic rejection of “innovations” as pertaining to those things, thoughts, and actions which promote Fitna. Indeed, fitna, in this frame, are the disordering obstacles and tests of faith in the straight path, the “temptations” of penitent Muslims.
In fact, the institution of the Hisba elevates Jihad as a process of trial in which fitna is the primary element that needs be overcome to achieve the guidance of Allah.
For an example, Taymiya discusses the case of al-Jadd ibn Qays, who was instructed to prepare for battle against the Byzantines by the Prophet Muhammad, to which al-Jadd rejected participation in the coming Jihad, saying “Messenger of Allah, I am a man who is addicted to women. I am afraid of being tempted by the pale-skinned women, so grant me leave and do not tempt me.”
In reference to this type of men and women who seek self-restraint toward the obligation of Jihad, Allah, Himself, said: “Is it not into temptation that they have fallen?” To this, Taymiya charged al-Jadd with shirk, “That is to say, he has fallen into grave temptation by his very rejection and shirking of the duty of Jihad, by his weakness of faith and the sickness of heart which made him like the idea of giving up Jihad.” Indeed, Taymiya, then quotes Sura 8 Ayat 39 again with, “Fight them till there is no more temptation, and religion is all Allah’s.”
Pragmatically speaking, in the case of al-Jadd ibn Qays, Westerners are witness to a man who had a natural inclination to rape and act with libertine deceit towards women, whose lust for sex was an addiction that would possibly run rampant should he be in a forward operating area marked with exotic flesh. Recognizing his own rapine weakness and penchant, al-Jadd begs Muhammad to stay behind from a Jihad that he might restrain himself from lust, to which Muhammad and Allah both find fault, since this carnal temptation is a lesser sin than the greater spiritual temptation of shirking the “public duty” of Jihad.
From this simple discourse, Taymiya entreats Muslims to reckon with gradations of sin, for in matters of public duty where elements of good and evil vie for the heart of the Hisba, “…if it is more meritorious to do what is commanded than to avoid what is forbidden, one should not hold back out of fear of the lesser evil.”
Only from this vantage can Western scholars understand why “Fitna”, the short film by Geert Wilders, was so heavily attacked when it was released. Fitna is the source of temptation, the source of sin, the source of disorder, the source of infidelity, the source of doubt, the source of injustice, the source of evil in fundamentalist Islam. The film exposed the term’s connections to Islamic radicalism…through a focus on literal phrases in the Koran.
However, to consider the term in literal translations of the Koranic Suras is to miss the context of the word in terms of the Hisba. This demonstrable lack of an ethical perspective in the discussion of political Islamism is the ultimate reason Westerners are considered “arrogant” and “xenophobic” and “alarmists” for their “Islamophobic assumptions” that do not recognize the dogmatic “presumptions” of justice and knowledge in Islamic theology’s quest for Truth.
Taymiya sums up the concept of sin’s gradations in terms of doubt:
“Therefore one who gives up the fight enjoined upon him by Allah so that there should be no temptation, has fallen into temptation through the doubt in his heart and the sickness within him, and through ignoring the Jihad enjoined upon him by Allah.
Reflect upon this, for this is a very serious matter.”
