Friday Nasiha

Living The Quran

Sources of Knowledge
Al Isra (The Night Journey) - Chapter 17: Verse 36

"And do not follow that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart - about all those [one] will be questioned."

Islam decrees that people should be guided by knowledge rather than by conjecture and baseless assertions. The sources or means of knowledge are three:

1. true reports
2. reason, and
3. five senses

A believer must accept the true report but can study its meaning and draw certain conclusions from it, if he or she has the authority to do so. The data perceived by reason and the five senses may be either true or false and require further investigation.

Islam states that belief should be based on, or at least corroborated by, knowledge and that it is in no way incompatible with knowledge. Therefore, accepting the existence of God and beings such as angels and jinn is not dogmatism, but rather a scientific attitude. There are scientific criteria that support the acceptance of their existence.

First of all, even if our five senses cannot perceive these truths, God has actually given humankind other senses with which to be able to perceive them. More than 100,000 Prophets, who were able to use those senses, who never lied during their lives, and who were followed by innumerable people, as well as millions of saints, have informed us of their existence; in addition to these, millions of other people have had similar experiences.

Secondly, denial of the Divine Revelation as a source of knowledge means accusing all the Prophets and saints, whose truthfulness has been witnessed and accepted, of being the meanest liars in human history, and designating their billions of followers as fools who blindly follow liars. Moreover, to cite just one example of truthfulness out of the countless ones, both in the Quran and the sayings of God's Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, there are many predictions, most of which have proven true. The remaining ones are waiting for their due time to be proven true. There are indeed so many scientific facts which have been discovered or are being discovered in parallel with developments in science that these alone are sufficient to establish the truth of the Divine Revelation.

Compiled From:
"The Quran: Annotated Interpretation in Modern English" - Ali Unal, pp. 578, 579

From Issue: 641 [Read original issue]

Understanding The Prophet's Life

Promoting Higher Good

After three major battles and a few smaller skirmishes with his Meccan adversaries, Muhammad (peace be upon him) established something close to a military parity between his adopted city of Medina and his hostile hometown of Mecca. At this point, he boldly led a sizeable group of Muslim companions to Mecca, where they intended to make the minor pilgrimage (umrah) and worship God at the Abrahamic shrine of the Kaba. Before they reached the city, they were stopped at a place called Hudaybiah by representatives of the Meccans, who wanted to prevent Muhammad and his companions from entering the city. Much to the concern of many of his companions, Muhammad agreed to postpone the pilgrimage for a year as part of a peace treaty he negotiated with a Meccan representative there on the spot. The treaty included a non-aggression pact for ten years, as well as Muhammad's promise to send back any young Meccan who came to him as a convert without the explicit permission of his Meccan father or guardian. On the other side, any Muslim or resident of Medina wanting to seek asylum in Mecca would not be sent back.

For this and other reasons, many of his companions voiced very strong objections to the Prophet's decision, but he went ahead anyway, commanding the Muslims to abide by every bit of it. What they did not know was that Islam would spread considerably while the treaty was in effect and that, once the treaty was violated and dissolved a few years later, it gave justification for the Muslims to march on Mecca to take the city without bloodshed.

This telling episode demonstrated to Muhammad's companions and to all future Muslim leaders that the Prophet, as leader, was not to be accountable to their wishes, no matter how strongly felt or voiced. Instead, he was bound by a higher accountability, which included the higher goods of peace, security, and the eventual winning of Mecca without violence. This admittedly difficult element of Muslim leadership has challenged Muslim leaders of every place and time. In what ways are religious leaders challenged to go against the wishes of their communities in order to promote a higher good? Is being sensitive and responsive to our communities the same as being obedient to their wishes and demands? If so, then who is leading whom? In what ways does our accountability to God cause us to clash with the wishes of those we are supposed to lead? These and other questions naturally arise from the Prophet's decisive turn from military action to negotiation and beyond.

Compiled From:
"In the Light of a Blessed Tree" - Timothy J. Gianotti, pp. 109, 110

From Issue: 666 [Read original issue]

Blindspot!

AIDS

AIDS is seen as a disease almost exlusively resulting from inadequate and/or deviant sexual behaviour (which is not true). Women, men, and children have been infected through mere blood transfusions, dirty hypodermic needles, or born with it because the mother herself was infected.

Reminding society and people at high risk about moral principles and their spiritual outcomes is necessary and helpful in terms of prevention, but it cannot resolve everyday situations. Once the disease has been diagnosed and one considers the actual day-to-day behaviour of women and men - leaving aside questions of guilt or blame - appropriate social, economic, and ethical measures must be taken to fight the disease. Above all, HIV-infected patients should not be the objects of accusations and made to feel guilty, so that they are compelled to become invisible, to constantly lie, to hide from their families, their society, and their community (or be rejected by them). Society must go further and dare to tackle the position of AIDS patients in contemporary societies: we cannot accept the employment, housing, and societal discriminations that stigmatize the sick and marginalize them all the more.

Compiled From:
"Radical Reform: Islamic Ethics and Liberation" - Tariq Ramadan, pp. 179, 180

From Issue: 748 [Read original issue]