Friday Nasiha: Look-Back Issue

September 4, 2020 - Muharram 16, 1442
Friday Nasiha: Look-Back Issue
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Living The Quran

Devotion and Knowledge
Al-Zumar (The Crowds) Sura 39: Verse 9

"Is one who does devotions throughout the night, prostrating himself and standing, cautious about the next world and hoping for the mercy of his Lord? Say: 'Are they equal, those who know and those who know not?'"

"Devotion" is undertaking the courteous acts of service outwardly and inwardly without slackening or shortcoming, being cautious because of the threatened chastisement and hoping for the promised reward.

This is the attribute of a group who are constantly at God's threshold in the station of service. Their makeup at the time of prayer becomes entirely reverence itself, and they are always burning in remorse because of shame for sin. One of the great ones of the religion said, "You must show reverence for God's commands, for it is not apparent which command brings proximity to God. You must avoid all prohibited things, for it is not apparent which prohibition brings distance from God."

It has been said that putting God's commands into practice is of two sorts, one according to the property of servanthood, the other according to the property of love. The property of love is higher than the property of servanthood, because the lover's constant wish is for the Friend to command a service. Hence his service is all voluntary and nothing of it is coerced. He acknowledges the favours done to him, and he never lays favours on God, nor does he look for recompense.

In contrast, a service that is done because of servanthood has both free choice and coercion. The person is seeking a reward and expecting recompense.

The latter is the station of the worshipers and the common faithful, and the former is the attribute of the recognizers and the sincerely truthful. The two groups can never be equal. The worshipers are satisfied with the blessings and held back from the Beneficent, but the recognizers have reached the Presence and take ease in contemplating the Friend.

Say: "Are they equal, those who know and those who know not?" Knowledge is three: reported knowledge, inspired knowledge, and knowledge of the Unseen. Reported knowledge is heard by ears, inspired knowledge is heard by hearts, and knowledge of the Unseen is heard by spirits. Reported knowledge comes to outwardness so that the tongue may speak of it, inspired knowledge comes to the heart so that explication may speak of it, and knowledge of the Unseen comes to the spirit so that the present moment may speak of it. Reported knowledge comes from narration, inspired knowledge comes from guidance, and knowledge of the Unseen comes from solicitude.

Concerning reported knowledge, He said, "Know that there is no god but God" [47:19]. Concerning inspired knowledge, He said, "Surely those who were given knowledge before it" [17:107]. Concerning knowledge of the Unseen, He said, "We taught him knowledge from Us" [18:65].

Beyond all these is a knowledge never reached by the Adamite's imagination or grasped by his understanding. It is God's knowledge of Himself in keeping with His reality. God says, "They encompass Him not in knowledge" [20:110].

Compiled From:
"Kashf al-Asrar wa Uddat al-Abrar" - Rashid al-Din Maybudi. pp. 432, 433

From Issue: 1045 [Read original issue]

Understanding the Prophet's Life

Humanness

The things the Prophet (peace be upon him) said and did, he said and did in response to specific situations that arose in people's daily lives; none of them occurred in a vacuum. Hence, they were necessarily tied to practical situations of one sort or another. This is one of the most significant aspects of the distinction that must be made between the Quranic text, which for the most part contains universal principles, and the 'prophetic text,' which issued for the most part from concrete, changing circumstances.

When the hadith narratives portraying the life of the Prophet came to be viewed as themselves constituting the Sunnah, messages that had once been specific to defined situations came to be viewed as though they were intended for general application. However, most of the things the Prophet did and said were not only responses to specific, concrete situations, they were also, and no less importantly, reflections of his humanness. The Quran commanded the Prophet on numerous occasions to declare openly that he was only a human being. And in fact, he took care to emphasize this fact.

Consequently, the Prophet's humanness disqualifies many of his words and actions from being treated as the basis for binding legislation. He made this point explicitly clear in the well-known incident in which he expressed the view that the pollination of palm trees was not a useful practice, after which he reconsidered what he had said in light of his lack of knowledge about such matters, saying, "I am only human. So if I instruct you to do something relating to your religion, do as I say. But if I instruct you to do something based on my opinion, then remember that I am a mere human being." [Muslim] In another version of the same account, the Prophet was quoted as saying, "You all know best how to handle your worldly affairs." [Muslim] And in still another we read, "If I have supposed something to be true, do not take me to task for a mere supposition. But if I tell you something on God's authority, then act on it, for I would not lie about God." [Ibn Majah]

Herein lies the greatness, and earthiness, of this religion. Herein lies its fitness for all times and places. For here we find the Prophet himself drawing a decisive distinction between his abilities as Prophet and his abilities as mere human being, between personal opinion and religious instruction, between human attempts to discern truth and divine revelation, between worldly affairs and spiritual affairs, between what he says on his own behalf and what he says as God's representative. There exists, then, both revelation from God, which is binding as a religious duty, and earthly matters about which experts in the field concerned know best.

Compiled From:
"Reviving The Balance: The Authority of the Qur'an and the Status of the Sunnah" - Taha Jabir Alalwani, pp. 140, 141

From Issue: 1004 [Read original issue]

Blindspot!

Projection

One payoff for believing that problems and the suffering in our cities are the inevitable products of modern life and culture is that it lets us off the hook. The payoff begins the moment we believe that problems reside in others and that they are the ones who need to change. We displace or assign to others certain qualities that have more to do with us than with them. This is called projection, an idea most of us are quite familiar with. The essence of our projection is that it places accountability for an alternative future on others. This is the payoff of stereotyping, prejudice, and a bunch of "isms" that we are all familiar with. This is what produces the "other." The reward is that it takes the pressure off of us. It is a welcome escape from our freedom. We project onto leaders the qualities or disappointments that we find too much to carry ourselves. We project onto the stranger, the wounded, the enemy those aspects of ourselves that are too much to own.

We are generally familiar with these ideas from the psychology of projection for individuals, but projection also works more broadly at the level of profession, institution, and community.

Take poverty, for example. When we see low-income people, we focus on their needs and deficiencies, and that is all we see. We think their poverty is central to who they are, and that is all they are. We believe that the poor have created the condition for themselves. We view them with charity or pity and wring our hands at their plight. At this moment we are projecting our own vulnerability onto the poor. It is a defence against not only my own vulnerability, but also my complicity in creating poverty.

If we took back this projection, we would stop denying that each of us plays a role in creating poverty - by our way of living, by our indifference, by our labelling them "poor" as if that is who they are, by our choice not to have them as neighbours and get to know them. It's the same with unemployed, with broken homes, neighbourhoods, youth on the street, and all the other symptoms we live with.

Compiled From:
"Community: The Structure of Belonging" - Peter Block, pp. 57-58

From Issue: 515 [Read original issue]