Friday, September 19, 2008

Da Qais Awlad (Offspring of Qais)

We live our lives moment by moment, exist breath by breath
Your guidance is our certainty until the moment of our death

You honoured this nation took witnesses from among us
And no matter what they say, it could never be a loss

Some of them live on, though we perceive them not
Alive and here with us though it seems some forgot

Your immortally beloved, the kings among saints
Free in their certainty no tribulations or constraints

As we stand on this plain with a fragrant scent in the air
As we witness another witness, on us shall be no despair

Our vision is a reality gardens beneath which rivers flow
Birds blissfully roaming, enlightened faces that glow

As we are standing here watching, there shall be no grief
Your favour to us is real enshrined in our belief

As we wait here left behind we shall sense no fear
From now until the end it is your call that we hear

It is you we ask for help, and your aid only that we seek
Avenger of the oppressed, oh comforter of the weak

It is you who elevate and certainly you who abase
The matter is in your hands no matter what we chase

In every tribulation that we face we can but turn to you
There are no paths except through you, if only they knew



Omar Sayyid Shah September 2008 / Ramadhan 1429

Monday, September 03, 2007

Islam Not a Cereal : Shaykh Nuh Keller, UK Suhba 2007 on Modernism and Fiqh Al-Aqaliat

Alhamdulillah we were graced with Shaykh Nuh visiting the UK for the Suhba in August 2007, for 4 days of guidance and inspirational reminders.

A lot of people have posted notes on various websites about the things the Shaykh said e.g.


http://andalus.wordpress.com/2007/08/29/uk-suhba-notes/ and
http://www.sunniforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24690&page=4

As the Shaykh has instructed murids not to discuss/write about tassawuf in public, I am sharing my notes on one specific group of fiqh (as opposed to sulook) related topics the Shaykh spoke about namely the perils of Western Apologetic Islam, Modernists and Minority fiqh.

The topic was covered, chiefly in response to a question asked on 17 August during the Q&A session, but the Shaykh made references to the topic throughout the Suhba and encouraged murids who had missed the to session to get the recording and specifically listen to what was said about the topic of minority fiqh. The Shaykhs answer was passionate and masha Allah as always very balanced but also straight and to the point. It contained several quite strong warnings, and coming from a man of the Shaykhs calibre such are not to be taken lightly.


The text in bold and in quotation marks are exact quotes from the Shaykh. The text has been corroborated with the notes of several brothers, including individuals with recordings of the actual speeches, and utmost care has been taken to ensure it is as close as possible to the Shaykhs exact words.

Update September 8 2007: The actual audio for the first two thirds of this post is now available on the blog of sidi Alex. The third heading of this post titled "Modernists", is however not covered by the audio. http://andalus.wordpress.com/2007/09/08/modernism-and-fiqh-al-aqaliat/


Western "Apologetic Islam"

On the 17th of August a question was asked

“How should we treat non Muslims who are hostile or just ignorant and don’t treat us as they should, should we be confrontational and demand our rights etc”

The Shaykh responded, “No, demand Allah’s rights only.”, stating that we should not be demanding our own rights and whenever we could sacrifice our own prestige we should not hesitate to do so, but whenever something was for Allah swt we should stand up for it, as the Shaykh said
“this is the way”.

The Shaykh continued:
“Don’t compromise your deen, because of them (the non Muslims). Don’t do anything because of them and don’t. refrain from anything because of them, but just speak your truth”

He told the listeners to get over the idea that Islam needs people (in the form of new adherents) and so, Islam should be modified to be made more palatable for the non Muslims, he said

“Get over the idea that the truth needs people, So we have to water it down enough so everybody can accept it. Yeah .. Islam is really just flower power. Islam is really just a new health cereal like granola Islam is anything you want.”

The Shaykh said that whoever hears this from among the non Muslims will be disgusted with the Muslims and with Islam, rather Muslims should say:
“No, Islam is the haq. Islam is the truth, and this is the way it is. Like it. Don’t like it. Here it is.“

The Shaykh went on to say that the apologetic trend of “many Islamic spokesmen in the west” is a “big fat mistake” that only makes more contempt for the Muslims and what we stand for. He said that while not apologising, we should speak out against wrongs such as suicide bombings and tell those people who think its an act of worship (i.e., fellow Muslims) directly that it is not, that we should “straighten them out”.

But he further warned that we should never be shy and try to make Islam into something it is not, a new species, or say to the non Muslims “Well we are just like Presbyterians , only we put our hats on when we go into our mosques. We don’t take them off. “

The Shaykh said that this is “a bunch of rubbish” that nobody is ever going to believe, rather we should say “I am a muslim and I am proud, for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala that he has made me muslim.”, and that this is what impresses the non-Muslims.

The Shaykh stated that this is what impressed him and that he started thinking about becoming muslim when he saw muslim who was like that. The Shaykh Specifically said
“He was a modernist but still he had that amount of decency that he wasn’t an apologist” and further emphasised the point stated above that Muslims should not be going out of their ways to apologise for this or that by saying (in a raised voice),
“There is nothing to apologise for, nothing to apologise for!” “

The Shaykh went on to reiterate, and stating for the second time in the talk that Islam does not need new adherents at any cost, by saying:
“The haq doesn’t need people. People need the haq. Don’t make your self irrelevant by all this watering things down until they don’t even look like Islam or sound like Islam, and no one will recognise it.”

He narrated that he went to the Toronto Suhba in 2006 at the same time as the Canadian media was full of stories about a plot to kidnap and behead the Prime Minister. The Shaykh went into a medical clinic wearing his usual attire and when a 60 year old man saw him, he suddenly smiled at him thinking “this man has got crust”. Essentially that the man respected the fact that Shaykh Nuh was unfazed by all the publicity and went about things in his usual way including his attire.

The Shaykh continued with the story about the Muslim who had impressed him, namely his former lecturer in Islamic Studies at the university of Chicago.

In response to a question about why “Islam relegates women to an inferior position” by a group of feminist ladies the lecturer responded
“actually, men and women are equal in Islam with regards to all their works with Allah swt however men are one degree higher than women because they work and they spend on women with their livelihood”

This straight answer without beating around the bush and without any fear of being un PC had deeply inspired the Shaykh, who said
“So by being politically incorrect Allah swt will give you if your intention is haq”

The Shaykh warned against cowardice and especially fearing the opinions of the non Muslims and demonstrated the repulsive nature of cowardice by giving an example from the prophet sws. He said:

“The prophet sws was a man who really didn’t care about what anybody thought, except for Allah swt. And despite the huge, hugeness of his courage sws He used to take refuge from cowardice with Allah”

He went on to warn against some of the absurdities in the obsession with winning the hearts of the non Muslims and the futility of this approach by saying:

“So when people see that the Muslims are trying to say that Islam is flower power, Islam is a new vitamin packed cereal or Islam is a new species of Christianity or whatever they are saying to try to win the hearts of the Christians and Jews, You are not gonna win their hearts until you quit making sajdah with your head upon the ground my friends in that sense but stand your ground and say this is the way I am, like it or don’t like it.”

The last very powerful statement about making sajdah on the ground really summed it up, that Muslims should not be apologetic cowards, should be proud of the truth of Islam, that Islam is not a commodity to be marketed in an attempt to get as many customers as possible and that any attempts to “win hearts” by watering down the truth would be futile



Minority Fiqh – Fiqh al Aqaliat

After a very brief pause the Shaykh proceeded to speak about the topic of “Minority Fiqh” and the damage done to the Muslims by this invalid approach.

The Shaykh said that somebody had come to him and told him that his wife had taken of her hijab.
“Why? Because somebody gave her a fatwa one, of the students that studied abroad for 86 years now he is back being a modernist so he can win peoples hearts”

The Shaykh said that such a person giving such a fatwa is not a faqih, and that finding discrimination in the work place is not a reason to take of the hijab.

The Shaykh said that a modernist would argue: “
Well the masalih mursalah sharia countenance interests permits exceptions to rules after all, discrimination , Who wants to be discriminated against?”

The Shaykh said the sister was a consultant and what was a consultant supposed to do?
Supposed to come up with solutions, creative ways out of problems. He proceeded to say
“Paid to do what? Paid to take off her hijab? No paid to think, come up with some good ideas, do your work proficiently and people wont care, “

The Shaykh stated that the mistake of the fatwa was from several different points of view:

1. Civil Liberties:
civil liberties in a society do not go forward and never retreat rather they are going forwards and they are going forward and going forwards and going backwards at all times John Gray said in his heresies …Progress is the Prozac of the thinking classes, there is no progress in that sense, lock step, Civil liberties continually improving folks It doesn’t work like that, there are all sorts of trends forwards and backwards

The Shaykh said that Somebody who gives a fatwa take off your hijab will erode the civil liberties of all the ladies that won’t take off their hijab, make it harder for those ladies in the society.

2. Tafriqa:
The Shaykh explained it creates differences amongst the Muslims about the way that Islam should be practised. The Shaykh said, If someone says ,Well this is fully valid – I can take off my hijab because I am discriminated against at work What do you get? A situation like in Judaism, Reform, Orthodox and, Conservative. , 3 different groups practising in entirely different ways. Saying Well this is valid, we got our fatwa and we are practising our valid hijab-less Islam, and these others are practising their hijab.

The Shaykh said in such a situation What’s to stop a government like France from saying,
“well both are valid so what’s your beef you either wanna just take it off”

So the second reason it’s a mistake is the tafriqa it makes division. The Shaykh asked how can it not be a social issue between Muslims How? can it not become a social split amongst Muslims in practice.

The Shaykh said:
“It’s better to have someone who is taubana who knows she is doing rotten in the deen, who knows she is not observing the deen that’s why she has her hijab off , but when she wants to make tauba, and come back, better than to give a fatwa its ok, splits up the Muslims, validating those different kinds of Islam, this Islam and that Islam “

3. The imperativeness of Hijab:
Hijab is thabit, something that is established by the text of the Qur’an itself. The Shaykh said that Shaykh Ali Gomaa “who is more liberal than many in some issues”, said that one of the few example of something which is absolutely concurred upon by everyone is the imperativeness of the hijab. The Shaykh said there is no disagreements about it by “anybody, whose disagreement counts”

4. Masalih Mursalah:
Lastly the Shaykh said that with regards to the sharia countenance interests, the Masalih mursalah that are invoked to make it easy ,”Making it easy isn’t any of them, But rather the necessities”

The Shaykh proceeded to list the necessities

Deen: if you cant practice your deen except by doing something, that is obviating someone, then you can obviate them even though it might involve subterfuge.

Survival: The second one (nafs),

Aqal – sanity: The third one, if one can only do something to keep ones sanity by making exceptions and exceptions can be made disobeying ones parents, even to the extent of moving away from them (rather than as in the example given shaving ones beard). As the Shaykh said, If ones parents say
“look reasonable and shave that beard off pressuring you and putting all these things upon you until you cant practice”, practically losing your mind you can take off and preserve your sanity”

Nasal (Progeny): the Fourth sharia countenance is progeny, having children

Property: – The firth sharia countenance is property.
The Shaykh said
“and by property they don’t mean enhancing ones career, they mean that if the woman can not survive , here this one has a husband that can support her, who says it’s a sharia countenance interest that both the man and the woman be working, as a family as a mum and dad they can support her”

After having listed the necessities above and the limitations of these the Shaykh proceeded to describe the concept of ”Minority Fiqh” and called it the buzz word of out time, saying

“There’s a lot of flee bitten fatwas and the “Fiqh al Aqaliat”, fiqh of minorities which is a buzz word in our time,” The Shaykh said that this is something a small minority of fuqaha find:
“that anybody who is a minority is.. has an excuse to behave, ..has a different Islam than countries where Muslims are a majority”

The Shaykh voiced his opposition to this mode of thinking and said
“Its not like that! , its sloppy thinking, its bad fiqh”

The Shaykh said that the fact that somebody gets harassed in London on the tube, does not make it ok for a woman in Sacramento California to take off her hijab with the excuse that both are minorities., he proceeded to say that
“Minority is the least precise description statements that covers both of these two people, it doesn’t mean anything “

The Shaykh explained that rather the Sharia already has exceptions built in it case by case, and each case its decided upon by its own merits Not by making a generality by saying
“oh they’re minorities here so they can have a different Islam, that’s easy, take it off, your careers may be hindered”

The Shaykh summed up his view of Minority Fiqh and the problem with its popularity among western Islamic spokesmen by saying.

“So the Fiqh al Aqaliat, fiqh of minorities this is something that none of the shaykhs in Damascus who are fuqaha and who are the shaykhs agree with its countenance all of them think its a big batil, there are some of the shaykhs from Egypt who have popularised it in books and some of the westerners who have adopted it who are Western Islamic spokesmen this Its baatil fil baatil, and the way of taqwa is far from it"

After having explained the invalidity of the concept of Minority Fiqh and its incompatibility with taqwa the Shaykh concluded by saying

“So Be proud of who you are and people will respect you, proud of who you are for Allah swt “


and

“Ghazali says you have to understand something about fiqh so Depend on the conservatives for your religious practice and you will find a safe way to Allah swt.”

Throughout the Suhba the Shaykh made references to statements made in this short lesson, but most clearly in the last Q&A session on the last day of the Suhba where a specific question was asked on cooperating with Modernists and Salafis.


Modernists:

A question was asked:
“What should be the approach of someone in the tariq towards working with other Muslims with different beliefs e.g. modernists or salafis”

The Shaykh responded that we should help them with ourselves. He proceeded to say that The modernists are doing a disservice to Islam, because their fatwas are against the interest of the Muslims (and the Shaykh referred back to the example of the hijab fatwa mentioned above).

The Shaykh warned against the divisions modernists create amongst Muslims and warned against the geographical segmentation of the Muslims and said (about the Modernists)
“They divide up the Muslims, They validate things that are slack in Islamic practice, they divide up the Ummah, with fatwas like we’re a different society here we’re a muslim minority here”

The Shaykh said “We say to the modernists nothing needs to be modernised” and referred to them (the modernists) as pernicious. The Shaykh further stated that Salafism seems to be fleeing and in the state of reversal, that they had “spent their coin”. He stressed that we pray behind everybody in the masjid, but that we should be firm in case anyone tries to give us a dars about this or that.

The Shaykh went on to explain that the Qur’an commands us “ask those who know well, (Ahl ul dhikri)”, and that
“A modernist is someone with an inferiority complex, so he’s not of the Ahl ul dhikri, not someone who knows well about the things of his deen.”

The Shaykh finished off by warning against what he called the insidious poison of the modernists appealing to the vanities of the educated Muslims, and said:

“We don’t have a superiority complex, we don’t have a supercilious way of looking at others, but tell plainly in word and deed to the Modernists whose poison more insidious and worse and more likely to have a detrimental impact than salafis”

He continued:

“Modernists they do manage to steal a lot of the
hearts of educated Muslims who think that being an educated muslim consist in repeating their phrases and so forth and having zero taqwa”

He described the way of zero taqwa displayed by the modernists as “The way of giving someone who is a diabetic more candy - Rukhsa city oh boy” and , “it’s the way of making the person more sick so they cant get any better so they don’t feel anything so their hearts become further and further from Allah swt”

His concluding remark was that those who say “I’m just making it easier” only made it easier for the Shaitan to take people.

The above was one of the last statements of the Shaykh in the UK 2007 Suhba.

May Allah swt preserve Shaykh Nuh and reward him for his warnings against being apologetic Muslims or cowards, against in his words “the batil of Minority Fiqh/Fiqh al Aqaliat” and against the insidious poison of the modernists who are pushing for a geographical segmentation of Islam and who in the shaykhs words “are more likely to have a detrimental effect than the salafis”.

Such a strongly worded warning from a scholar and a man who has devoted the better part of his life as a muslim and scholastic career to refuting the batil of the salafis is not to be taken lightly, and may Allah swt protect us from the above mentioned perils.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Hvorfor muslimer følger retsskoler

Hvorfor muslimer følger retsskoler (madhahib)[i]

Nuh Ha Mim Keller © 2002,

oversat af Omar Sayyid Shah, 2007



8.1.a (n): Introduktionen til det nuværende værk[ii] havde til hensigt at skabe klarhed over, hvad fiqh eller ”islamisk retslære” er, og til hvilken nytte en lille håndbog som den foreliggende kan være for den der måtte læse den. Det nedenstående afsnit uddyber dette, da mange muslimer nu til dags, når de for første gang stifter bekendtskab med Sunni retslærens traditionelle skoler eller madhhaber, så som Shafi‘i skolen som imam Nawawi fulgte, gerne vil vide; ”Hvorfor kan man ikke bare være muslim, uden nogen retslære eller madhhab?” Kort sagt er det ikke længere åbenlyst for folk, hvad [rets]skolernes formål er i islam.
Førhen var det blandt praktiserende muslimer en selvfølge, at alle fulgte en madhhab. Ingen bestemt skole var obligatorisk [at følge], men de fleste mennesker vidste det var obligatorisk at følge en imam i ens daglige praktisering af religionen. I vore dage er årsagerne til dette blevet så glemte eller tilslørede, at de ikke længere er alment kendte. En moderne muslim, der praktiserer sin religion, som den er blevet praktiseret siden islams tidligste århundreder, støder på argumenter fra nyere tids reformatorer der, ofte med fuld oprigtighed, siger: ”Allahs og hans budbringers (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) ord, er guddommeligt beskyttede imod fejl, mens mujtahid imamerne, såsom Abu Hanifa, Malik, Shafi‘i, og Ahmads, skoler, ikke er. Hvem har brug for den hellige lovs imamer, når vi har Qur’anen og hadith?”
Det kan ikke være forbigået nogen, hvor alvorlig denne sag er, eller at mange af de uenigheder imellem traditionelle muslimer og velmenende ”reformatorer,” vi ser og hører i vores moskeer nu til dags, skyldes mangel på viden om islamisk retslære og dens forhold til islam som helhed. Nu, måske mere end nogensinde før, bør vi vende tilbage til fundamentet og spørge os selv, hvorledes Allah ønskede vi skulle forstå og fuldføre Hans befalinger.
Dette appendiks giver et detaljeret svar. Til at starte med undersøger det den viden om islam som enhver muslim besidder, og påpeger dernæst hvor fiqh indgår. Ved at se på de
[påkrævne] kvalifikationer nævnt i Qur’an og sunna for dem, der udøver fiqh, mujtahiderne, vil det fokusere på omfanget af mujtahidernes viden – hvor mange hadith han skal kende, og så videre – og efterfølgende se på dybden af hans viden, igennem faktiske dalil eksempler eller ”"juridiske beviser” som demonstrerer, hvordan lærde sammenslutter imellem forskellige og endda modsætningsfulde hadith for at komme frem til en forenet og konsekvent juridisk afgørelse. Det afsluttes med en diskussion af mujtahidens forhold til videnskaben om hadith autentificering og betingelserne igennem hvilket mujtahiden ved, at en given hadith er sahih eller ”strengt autentificeret,” for at han kan acceptere og følge den.



Viden om Qur’an og hadith

Den viden som enhver muslim tager fra Qur’an og hadith er af forskellige typer: den første og allervigtigste vedrører hans tro, og det er viden om Allah og Hans attributter, og den islamiske tros andre grundlæggende sætninger, såsom Profetens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) egenskab som budbringer, den Sidste Dag og så videre. Enhver muslim kan og skal tilegne sig denne viden fra Allahs bog og sunna.
Dette er også tilfældet med den anden generelle form for viden, der imidlertid ikke vedrører tro, men snarere handlinger. Islams generelle forskrifter om at handle godt og undgå det onde, at udføre bønnen, betale zakat, faste i Ramadanen, at samarbejde med andre i gode gerninger, at søge belønningen i gode gerninger, undgå onde handlinger og så videre. Enhver kan lære og forstå disse generelle regler, som opsummerer Sirat al-Mustaqim eller vores religions ”Lige Vej”.

Fiqh

En tredje form for viden vedrører den islamisk praksis’ specifikke detaljer. Mens enhver kan forstå de første to former for viden igennem Qur’an og hadith, har forståelsen af denne tredje form et specifikt navn, fiqh, der bogstaveligt betyder ”forståelse”. Folks evner hvad dette angår varierer. For eksempel havde oversætteren[iii] en besøgende i Jordan, der efter at han blev spurgt om hvorfor han endnu ikke var taget på hajj, nævnte hadithen af Anas ibn Malik om at

Allahs Sendebud (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sagde, ”Enhver som beder morgenbønnen (fajr) i en forsamling og dernæst sidder og laver dhikr indtil solen står op, og efterfølgende beder to rak‘at, vil modtage den samme belønning som den svarende til en hajj og en ‘umra.” Anas sagde, ”Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sagde: ’aldeles, aldeles, aldeles’” (Tirmidhi (9.79), 2.481: 586).

Gæsten havde lige gjort dette netop denne morgen, og troede nu, at han havde opfyldt sin forpligtigelse til at udføre hajj og ikke behøvede at tage til Mekka. Hadithen var vel autentificeret (hasan). I den efterfølgende diskussion, skelnede oversætteren [Shaykh Nuh] for sin gæst, mellem at det få belønning for en handling, og at indfri islams forpligtigelse ved virkeligt at udføre den, og gæsten indså pointen.
Men den større lære her er, at mens Qur’an og sunna er ma’sum eller ”guddommeligt beskyttet mod fejl,” er forståelsen af dem det ikke. Og en person som udleder bestemmelser fra Qur’anen og hadith uden færdighed i ijtihad eller ”udledning fra primære tekster,” som oversætterens gæst gjorde, vil stå til regnskab for det på Dommens Dag, akurat som hvis en amatør læge, der aldrig havde studeret medicin, ville være ansvarlig, hvis han udførte en operation, og nogen døde under hans kniv.
Hvorfor? Fordi Allah har forklaret i Qur’anen, at fiqh, den detaljerede forståelse af den guddommelige befaling, kræver specifikt trænede medlemmer af det muslimske samfund, til at lære den og undervise i den. Allah siger i Sura al-Tawba:

”Ikke alle de troende bør drage ud for at kæmpe. Af hver enhed, hvorfor drager ikke blot en del ud, så resten kan opnå forståelse for religionen og formane deres folk, når de vender tilbage, kan hænde de vil lade sig formane” (Qur’an 9:122).

hvor udtrykket li yatafaqqahu fi al-din, ”at opnå forståelse for religionen,” præcist er udledt af den samme rod (f-q-h) som ordet fiqh eller ”retslære,” og er hvad vestlige arabisk studerende ville kalde et ”femte-forms verbum” (tafa‘‘ala), der antyder at betydningen indeholdt i roden, forståelse, opnås ved grundig, vedvarende anstrengelse.
Dette Qur’aniske vers fastsætter, at der bør være en kategori af mennesker, som har lært religionen, for til gengæld at være kvalificerede til at lære fra sig. Og Allah har påbudt dem, som ikke kender en bestemmelse i den hellige lov, at spørge dem, der gør, ved at sige i surat al-Nahl,

”Spørg dem som ihukommer, hvis I ikke ved” (Qur’an 16:43),

hvor ordene ”dem som ihukommer,” ahl al-dhikr, indikerer dem med viden om Qur’anen og sunnaen, de fremmeste af dem denne Ummas mujtahid imamer. Dette er klart først og fremmest fordi Qur’anen og hadith er på arabisk, og oversætteren, kan forsikre læserne om at det ikke drejer sig om et hvilket som helst arabisk.
For at forstå Qur’anen og sunna, skal en mujtahid have fuldt kendskab til det arabiske sprog i samme kapacitet, som de første arabere selv havde, før sproget blev brugt af ikke indfødte. Denne kvalifikation, som næsten ingen i dag besidder, er ikke hovedtemaet i den foreliggende diskussion, men selv hvis man besad den, hvad så hvis en ganske almindelig muslim, ikke oplært af specialister, ønskede at udlede den islamiske praksis’ detaljer direkte fra kilderne? Når alt kommer til alt, har Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) i en hadith i Bukhari og Muslim sagt:

Når en dommer fælder dom og bestræber sig på at kende en afgørelse (ijtahada) og har ret, får han to belønninger. Hvis han fælder dom og bestræber sig på at kende en afgørelse, men tager fejl, får han en belønning (Bukhari (9.10), 9.133: 7352).

Svaret er at begrebet ijtihad eller ”at bestræbe sig på at kende en afgørelse” i denne hadith ikke betyder en hvilken som helst persons anstrengelser for at forstå og operationalisere en islamisk afgørelse, men snarere personen som besidder en gedigen viden om alt, hvad Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) lærte fra sig, som vedkommer spørgsmålet. Hvem der end udfører ijtihad uden denne kvalifikation er en kriminel. Beviset på dette er hadithen, hvori ledsageren Jabir ibn ’Abdullah sagde:

Vi tog på en rejse, og en sten ramte en af os og åbnede en flænge i hans hovede. Da han senere i søvne havde en ”våd drøm” i, spurgte han sine ledsagere, ”Finder I nogen dispensation for mig for at udføre tør ”afvaskning” (tayammum)?” [Det vil sige i stedet for et fuldt renselsesbad (ghusl).] De svarede ham, ”Vi finder ikke nogen dispensation for dig, hvis du kan bruge vand.”
Så han udførte renselsesbadet, hans sår åbnede sig og han døde. Da vi ankom til Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham), blev han underrettet om dette og han sagde: ”De har dræbt ham, må Allah dræbe dem. Hvorfor spurgte de ikke? – for de vidste ikke besked. Den eneste kur for en, som ikke ved hvad han skal sige, er at spørge” (Abu Dawud (9.72), 1.93: 336).
Denne hadith som blev berettet af Abu Dawud er vel autentificeret (hasan), og enhver muslim som besidder taqwa eller ”gudfrygtighed” bør reflektere over den med stor omhu, for Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham), indikerede i den – med den strengeste mulige formulering – at det at dømme omkring en islamisk afgørelse baseret på utilstrækkelig viden er en forbrydelse. Lignende, er den vel autentificerede (hasan) hadith

Hvem der end bliver givet en dom (fatwa) uden viden, hans synd tilfalder udelukkende den person, som gav ham dommen” (Abu Dawud (9.72), 3.321: 3657).

Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sagde også:

Dommere er tre: to af dem i helvede, og en i paradis. En mand som kender sandheden og dømmer i overensstemmelse hermed, han kommer i paradis. En mand der dømmer for folk men er uvidende , han kommer i helvede. Og en mand, som kender sandheden men dømmer uretfærdigt, han kommer i helvede (Sharh al-sunna (9.6), 10.94).

Denne hadith som blev berettet af Dawud, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, og andre er strengt autentificeret (sahih), og enhver muslim som ønsker at undgå helvedes ild bør overveje skæbnen for hvem der end, i Profetens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) ord, ”uden viden dømmer for folk.”
Dog har de fleste af os, som engelsktalende muslimer,[iv] vores Yusuf ‘Ali Qur’aner, og vores Sahih al-Bukhari oversættelser. Er disse ikke fyldestgørende [islamisk] videnskabelige ressourcer?
Disse er værdifulde bøger, og formidler muligvis den største og vigtigste del af ens din: de grundlæggende islamiske trossætninger og religionens generelle love. Spørgsmålet her omhandler imidlertid ikke disse brede principper, men snarere forståelsen af specifikke detaljer om islamisk praksis, som helt præcist kaldes fiqh. Hvad angår dette, vil enhver ærlig efterforsker, der studerer disse spørgsmål, være enig i, at de engelske oversættelser ikke er tilstrækkelige. De er utilstrækkelige i og med at forståelsen af den totale Qur’an og hadith tekstsamling, som omfatter hvad der kaldes dinen eller ”religion,” kræver to dimensioner hos en lærd: en dimension af bredde, den konkrete viden om teksterne; og en dimension af dybde, de metodologiske værktøjer, der kræves for at sammenslutte imellem Qur’aniske vers og hadith, selv dem, der tilsyneladende modsiger hinanden.


Viden om primære tekster

Hvad angår bredden af en mujtahids viden, dokumenterer Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya at imam Ahmad ibn Hanbals student Muhammad ibn ‘Ubaydullah ibn al-Munadi hørte en mand spørge ham [imam Ahmad]: ”Når en mand har memoriseret 100.000 hadith, er han så en af den hellige lovs lærde, en faqih?” Og han sagde, ”Nej.” Manden spurgte, ”Hvad med 200.000?” Og han sagde, ”Nej.” Manden spurgte, ”Hvad med 300.000?” Og han sagde, ”Nej.” Manden spurgte, ”400.000?” Og Ahmad lavede en bevægelse med hånden som for at sige ”deromkring” (I‘lam al-muwaqqi‘in (9.35), 4.205).
I sandhed, mente Imam Ahmad med begrebet ”hadith” her, Profetens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) hadith i alle deres forskellige overleveringskæder, hvor hver overleveringskæde regnes for en separat hadith, og hvor erklæringer af Sahaba muligvis også er regnet med. Men den større pointe her er, at selv hvis man eliminerer de forskellige kæder, og kun taler om de af Profetens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) hadith som er klart acceptable som bevis, hvad enten sahih ”strengt autentificerede” eller hasan ”vel autentificerede” (som hvad angår ijtihad, kan lægges sammen med de sahih), er der stadig tale om et godt stykke over 10.000 hadith, og de rummes ikke i Bukhari alene, eller udelukkende i Bukhari og Muslim, ej heller i seks bøger eller endda i ni. Og dog skal enhver, der vil udstede en fatwa eller ”formel retslig afgørelse” og for folk dømme at noget er tilladt eller ikke tilladt, obligatorisk eller sunna, kende alle de primære kilder, som relaterer til dette. For de måske 10.000 hadith som er sahih, er for mujtahiden som en enkel hadith, og han skal først kende dem for at være i stand til at sammenslutte imellem dem, for at forklare Allahs forenede befaling.
Vi siger ”sammenslutte imellem” fordi de fleste læsere skal være opmærksomme på at nogle sahih hadith lader til at stride imod andre lige så sahih hadith. Hvad gør en mujtahid i sådan et tilfælde?


Ijtihad

Svaret kan måske bedst illusteres gennem eksempler. De fleste muslimer kender de hadith om at faste på ’Arafa Dagen for ikke-pilgrimme, at ”det udsoner [synder for] et år før og efter” (Muslim (9.55), 2.819: 1162). Men en anden strengt autentificeret hadith forbyder at faste om fredagen alene (Bukhari (9.10), 3.54: 1984), og en vel autentificeret hadith forbyder at faste om lørdagen alene (Tirmidhi (9.79), 3.120: 744), som Tirmidhi forklarer, ”Betydningen af ’det anstødelige’ i dette er, når en mand udvælger lørdagen til at faste på, idet jøderne ærede lørdage” (ibid., 3.120). Nogle lærde regner det for anstødeligt at faste på søndage, af samme grund, at de er ærede af ikke-muslimer. Andre hadith tillader at faste en af disse dage sammen med dagen før eller dagen efter, som nogle lærde antyder er det fordi ingen religioner ærer to af disse dage i træk.
Spørgsmålet opstår: hvad gør man, når ’Arafa falder på en fredag, en lørdag eller en søndag? Det generelle krav om at faste på ’Arafa Dagen kunne godt være betinget af det specifikke forbud imod kun at faste på en af disse dage. Men en mujtahid, som kender hele hadith samlingen, vil med sikkerhed kende en tredje hadith i Sahih Muslim, som endda er mere specifik, og siger: ”Udvælg ikke fredag iblandt andre dage til at faste på, medmindre den falder sammen med en faste en af jer udfører” (Muslim (9.55), 2.801: 1144). Denne hadith etablerer for mujtahiden det generelle princip, at afgørelsen om at faste på en dag, der normalt er forbudt at faste på, ændrer sig, når den ”falder sammen med en faste, en af jer udfører” – og således er der intet problem i at faste, hvad enten ’Arafa Dagen falder på en fredag, lørdag eller søndag.
Her som andetsteds, skal enhver der gerne vil forstå afgørelsen for at udføre en handling i islam kende alle tekster knyttet til den, da man som almindelig muslim, ikke kun er ansvarlig for at adlyde de Qur’aniske vers og hadith, som vi er fortrolige med. Man er ansvarlig for at adlyde dem alle, hele shari‘a. Og hvis man ikke er personligt kvalificeret til at sammenslutte imellem alle dens tekster – og Ahmad ibn Hanbal diskuterede ovenfor hvor meget viden dette forudsætter – skal man følge en, der er i stand til dette, hvilket er årsagen til, at Allah siger til os, ”Spørg dem der ihukommer, hvis I ikke ved.”
Omfanget og arten af denne viden nødvendiggør, at ikke-specialisten udviser adab eller ”behørig respekt” overfor fiqh lærde, når han finder en hadith, det være i Bukhari eller et andet sted, som tilsyneladende modsiger fiqh skolerne. En ikke-lærd der eksempelvis læser Sahih al-Bukhari igennem vil finde hadithen, at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) blottede et lår på rideturen tilbage fra Khaybar (Bukhari (9.10), 1.103–4: 371), og han kunne forestille sig, at de fire madhhaber eller ”retsskoler” – Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi‘i, og Hanbali – tog fejl i deres bedømmelse af, at låret er ’awra eller ”nøgenhed som skal tildækkes”
Men faktisk er der en mængde andre hadith, alle velautentificerede (hasan) eller strengt autentificerede (sahih), om at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) eksplicit påbød forskellige Sahaba at tildække låret, fordi det var nøgenhed. Hakim beretter, at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) så Jarhad bære en kappe i moskeen, og hans lår blev blottet, så Profeten sagde til ham, ”Låret er en del af ens nøgenhed” (al-Mustadrak (9.19), 4.180), om hvilket Hakim sagde, ”Dette er en hadith, hvis overleveringskæde er strengt autentificeret (sahih), som imam Dhahabi bekræftede (al-Talkhis (9.19), 4.180). Imam al-Baghawi nedskrev den strengt autentificerede hadith, at “Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelse være med ham) passerede forbi Ma‘mar, hvis to lår var blottede, og han fortalte ham, ’O Ma‘mar, dæk dine to lår, for de to lår er nøgenhed’” (Sharh al-sunna (9.6), 9.21: 2251). Og Ahmad ibn Hanbal nedskrev, at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sagde, ”Når en af jer gifter sin tjener eller tjeneste karl [med nogen], lad ham da ikke kigge på hans nøgenhed, for hvad der er under hans navle indtil hans to knæ er nøgenhed” (Ahmad (9.26), 2.187), en hadith med en overleveringskæde, hvis ægthed er vel autentificeret. De fire skolers mujtahid imamer kendte disse hadith, og sammensluttede imellem dem og Khaybar hadithen i Bukhari ved hjælp af det metodologiske princip at: ”Et eksplicit påbud i ord fra Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) har prioritet over en af hans handlinger.”
Hvorfor? Blandt andet fordi bestemte shari‘a love udelukkende gjaldt for Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham). Så som faktummet, at når han drog i kamp, var det ikke tilladt for ham at trække sig tilbage, uanset hvor talmæssigt underlegne muslimerne var. Eller såsom det obligatoriske, der kun er gældende for ham, at bede tahajjud eller ”nat bønnen” efter at man står op fra ens søvn før daggry, der blot er en sunna for os andre. Eller såsom tilladelsen for ham alene til ikke at bryde sin faste om aftenen imellem fastedagene. Eller såsom tilladelsen for ham alene til at have mere end fire hustruer – midlerne igennem hvilke Allah i sin visdom, bevarede de nøjagtigste detaljer om Profetens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) dagligdags sunna for os, som et større antal hustruer, ville være i stand til at observere og huske langt bedre.
Fordi bestemte shari‘a love udelukkende gjaldt for ham, har ijtihad lærde grundlagt princippet, at i mange tilfælde, når en handling blev udført af Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) personligt, såsom blottelse af låret efter Khaybar, og når han gav et eksplicit påbud til os om at gøre andet, i dette tilfælde at dække låret, fordi det er nøgenhed, i så fald er påbudet vedtaget for resten af det muslimske samfund (umma), og handlingen anses for at angå Profeten alene (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham).
Vi kan gennem dette eksempel se hvilken form for videnskabelig færdighed, der kræves, for seriøst at begribe hele hadith legemet,både med hensyn til bredden af den viden, og dybden af den fortolkende forståelse eller fiqh, og at enhver, der vil give en fatwa, på grundlag af Khaybar hadithen i Sahih al-Bukhari, at ”de lærde tager fejl og at hadithen har ret” ville gøre sig skyldig i kriminel forsømmelighed for hans uvidenhed.
Når man ikke har egentlig viden om Qur’anen og hadith samlingen, og mangler fiqh metodologi til omfattende at sammenslutte imellem dem, er haditherne man har læst ikke nok. For at tage et andet eksempel, er der en anden vel autentificeret (hasan) hadith, at ”Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) forbandede kvinder, der besøgte grave” (Tirmidhi, 3.371). Men lærde siger, at forbudet for kvinder mod at besøge grave, blev abbrogeret (mansukh) af den strengt autentiserede (sahih) hadith “Jeg havde forbudt jer at besøge grave, men besøg dem nu” (Muslim, 2.672).
På trods af at ordene ”besøg dem nu” (fa zuruha) her, er et imperativ til mænd, eller mere nøjagtigt til en gruppe, hvoraf mindst en er en mand, er det faktum at hadithen tillader kvinder såvel som mænd at besøge grave udtrykt ved en anden hadith, berettet af Muslim i hans Sahih, at da ”A’isha spurgte Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham), hvad hun burde sige, hvis hun besøgte grave, sagde han, ”Sig: Fred være med de troende og muslimer blandt disse bopæles mennesker: Må Allah være barmhjertig overfor dem af os, der er gået forud, og dem der er blevet tilbage: med Allahs vilje, vil vi sandeligt blive forenet med jer’” (Muslim (9.55), 2.671: 974), som klart medfører tilladelse for hende til at besøge grave med den hensigt at sige dette, for Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) ville aldrig have lært hende disse ord, hvis det at besøge gravene for at sige disse ord var ulydighed. Med andre ord at kende alle disse hadith, sammen med det metodologiske princip naskh eller ”ophævelse”, er med andre ord væsentligt for at drage den gyldige fiqh konklusion, at den første hadith, hvori, ”Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) forbandede kvinder, som besøgte grave” – blev ophævet af den anden hadith, som attesteres af den trejde.
Eller overvej den Qur’aniske tekst i Sura al-Ma’ida:

”Føden fra de som bogen blev givet til, er tilladt for jer, og jeres føde er tilladt for dem” (Qur’an 5:5).

Dette er en generel dom, angiveligt vedrørende al deres føde. Dog er denne dom genstand for takhsis, eller ”begrænsning” ved hjælp af mere specifikke domme, som beviser at bestemte madformer tilhørende Ahl al-Kitab, ”dem som bogen blev givet til”, såsom svinekød eller dyr, der ikke er korrekt slagtede, ikke er tilladt for muslimer.
Uvidenhed omkring denne takhsis eller dette begrænsningsprincip, lader til at være specielt udbredt iblandt vor tids pseudo mujtahider, fra hvem man ofte hører den mere generelle bestemmelse, der udtrykkes i ordene ”Jamen Qur’anen siger,” eller ”Jamen hadithen siger,” uden overhovedet at nævne den mere nøjagtige bestemmelse fra en anden hadith eller et andet Qur’anisk vers, som begrænser den. Svaret kan udelukkende være ”Ja broder, Qur’anen siger at ”Føde fra dem, som Bogen er blevet givet til, er tilladt for jer, og jeres føde er tilladt for dem,” men hvad siger den udover dette? Eller ”Ja, hadithen i Sahih al-Bukhari fortæller, at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) blottede sit lår på vej tilbage fra Khaybar. Men hvad siger haditherne udover det, og vigtigere endnu , er du sikker på du ved det?
De overstående eksempler belyser blot få af de metodologiske regler, der kræves af mujtahiden, for at forstå og operationalisere islam ved at sammenslutte imellem alle beviserne. Det første var princippet takhsis eller ”begrænsning” af generelle regler igennem nogle mere specifikke, både med hensyn til eksemplet om at faste på ’Arafa Dagen, når den falder på en fredag, lørdag eller søndag og i eksemplet om Ahl al-Kitabs føde. Det andet, der kom til udtryk i Khaybar hadithen om at blotte låret i Sahih al-Bukhari samt haditherne som påbyder, at låret tildækkes, var princippet om hvordan et eksplicit profetisk påbud prioriteres over blot en handling, når der er en modsætning. Den tredje bestemmelse var princippet ”nasikh wa mansukh,” eller at ”en tidligere bestemmelse, ophæves af en senere,” i eksemplet med det oprindelige forbud imod, at kvinder besøger grave, og den efterfølgende tilladeliggørelse af dette..
Disse er blot tre af måderne hvorpå to eller flere Qur’an eller hadith tekster kan påvirke hinanden og kvalificere hinanden, regler som personer , der udleder shari’a fra dem skal kende. Med andre ord er de kun tre redskaber ud af en hel metodologisk værktøjskasse. De afspejler den oprindelige åbenbarings situationelle kontekst, den universelle lovgivning den (åbenbaringen) havde til hensigt at tilvejebringe og selve måden hvorpå ord udtrykker betydning. Den nuværende artikels omfang tillader ikke en detaljeret behandling af alle disse redskaber, selvom nogle af de vigtigste (dis: 8.14.b (I)) kan nævnes i forbifarten, begyndende med deres arabiske betegnelser:

– ‘amm, en tekst med general anvendelighed i mange retsafgørelser, og det modsatte:

– khass, det der kun er anvendeligt til én afgørelse eller én form for afgørelse.

– mujmal, det der for fuldt ud at blive forstået kræver andre tekster, og det modsatte:

– mubayyan, det som står klart uden andre tekster.

– mutlaq, det som er anvendeligt uden begrænsninger, og det modsatte:

– muqayyad, det som har begrænsninger, givet i andre tekster.

– nasikh, det som annullerer [og erstatter] tidligere åbenbarede bestemmelser, og det modsatte:

– mansukh: det som annulleres [og erstattes].

– nass: det som entydigt afgør et bestemt juridisk spørgsmål, og det modsatte:

– dhahir: det som tåler mere end en fortolkning.

Hensigten med at nævne, hvad en mujtahid er, hvad fiqh er, og tekst typerne, der legemliggør Allahs påbud, med eksemplerne som illustrerer dem, er at besvare det basale spørgsmål, hvormed denne artikel begyndte: “Hvorfor kan vi ikke tage vores islamiske praksis fra Allahs og Hans Budbringers ord, som er guddommeligt beskyttede, i stedet for at tage den fra mujtahid imamerne, som ikke er?” Det er tydeligt, at svaret er, at der ikke kan handles i overensstemmelse med åbenbaring uden at forstå den, og forståelse kræver først og fremmest bredden af beherskelsen af helheden, og for det andet den viden om, hvordan delene relaterer til hinanden. Den som forstår disse to af åbenbaringens dimensioner, tager sin islamiske praksis fra Allahs og Hans budbringers ord, hvad enten han gør dette personligt, ved at være en mujtahid imam, eller gennem en anden, ved at følge en [o: mujtahid imam].


At følge en imam uden at kende hans bevis (taqlid)

Allah den Højeste siger i sura al-Nisa,’ ”Og havde de referret det til Sendebudet og til dem med autoritet iblandt dem, så ville de hvis opgave er at finde ud af det, have kendt sagen” (Qur’an 4:83) – hvor ”de hvis opgave er at finde ud af det,” alladhina yastanbitunahu minhum, henviser til dem, der besidder evnen til at drage slutninger direkte fra bevismaterialet, hvilket på arabisk kaldes istinbat.
En person som har opnået dette niveau kan, og skal sandelig drage sine slutninger direkte fra bevismaterialet, og kan ikke blot følge en anden lærds konklusioner, uden at undersøge beviserne (taqlid), en regel der er udtrykt i bøger om fiqhs metodologiske principper som: Laysa li al-‘alim an yuqallida, ”Alimen [d.v.s. muijtahiden på istinbat niveauet der refereres til i det ovenstående Qur’aniske vers] kan ikke blot følge en anden lærd” (al-Juwayni: Sharh al-Waraqat, (9.43) 75), hvilket betyder at det juridisk ikke er tilladt for en mujtahid, at følge en anden mujtahid, med mindre han kender og er enig i vedkommendes beviser.
Mujtahid imamerne oplærte et antal lærde, der var på dette plan. Imam Shafi‘i havde al-Muzani, og Abu Hanifa havde Abu Yusuf og Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani. Det var sådanne studerende Abu Hanifa adresserede med følgende ord: ”Det er ikke tilladt for en person, som ikke kender mine beviser, at videregive mit standpunkt som en fatwa” (Hamid: Majmu’a rasa’il, (9.43) 6), og, ”Det er ikke tilladt for nogen at give vort standpunkt som en fatwa, førend han ved, hvor vi har det fra” (ibid., 6).
Det er en af vor tids brølere, at disse ord sommetider citeres som om de var henvendt til almindelige muslimer. Hvis det ikke var tilladt for tømreren, sømanden, computer programmøren og lægen at udføre nogen tilbedelseshandlinger før han havde behersket hele den tekstuelle samling af Qur’anen og de tusinder af hadith, sammen med de metodologiske principper, der kræves for at vurdere bevismaterialet og omfattende at sammenslutte imellem dem, skulle han enten opgive sin profession eller opgive sin religion. En hel livstids studier ville dårligt nok være tilstrækkeligt, et faktum som Abu Hanifa kendte til bedre end nogen anden, og det var istinbat lærde, mujtahiderne, han henvendte sine bemærkninger til. Enhver som citerer disse ord om ikke-lærde i forsøget på at give det indtryk, at Abu Hanifa mente, at det er forkert for almindelige muslimer at acceptere lærdes værker, bør stoppe et øjeblik og tænke over, hvor vanvittigt dette er, især i betragtning af Abu Hanifas livsværk, fra start til slut, som netop bestod i at opsummere religionens fiqh afgørelser for almindelige folk, så disse kunne følge dem og få gavn af dem.
Imam Shafi‘i henvendte sig også til lærde på dette høje plan, da han sagde: ”Når en hadith er strengt autentificeret (sahih) er den mit standpunkt (madhhab)” – hvilket er blevet misforstået af nogen, der har fået det til at betyde, at hvis man eksempelvis finder en hadith i Sahih al-Bukhari, som er i modstrid med Shafi‘is standpunkt, skal man formode, at han var uvidende om den, droppe fiqhen og acceptere hadithen.
Eksemplerne på at sammenslutte imellem forskellige hadith for (at nå) en enkel bestemmelse, vi hidtil har nævnt, er for klare til at misforstå Shafi‘i på den måde. Shafi‘i refererer til hadith, som han tidligere var uvidende om, og som mujtahid lærde ved, at han har været uvidende om, da han drog en bestemt slutning. Og dette er, som imam Nawawi har sagt, ”virkeligt svært,” for Shafi‘i vidste en hel del. Vi har hørt Shafi‘is elev, Ahmad ibn Hanbals holdning om, hvor mange hadith en faqih skal kende, og utvivlsomt opfattede han Shafi‘i for at være en sådan lærd, for Shafi‘i var hans shaykh i fiqh. Ibn Khuzayma, der er kendt for at være “imamernes imam” i hadith memorisering, blev engang spurgt, ”Har du kendskab til nogen autentificerede (sahih) hadith, som Shafi‘i ikke har medtaget i sine bøger?” Og han sagde ”Nej” (al-Majmu‘, (9.62) 1.10). Imam Dhahabi har sagt, ”Shafi‘i begik aldrig en eneste fejl vedrørende en hadith” (Tabaqat al-Shafi‘iyya, (9.73) 9.114). Det er tydeligt udfra alt dette, at imam Shafi‘is erklæring, ”Når en hadith er strengt autentificeret (sahih), er den mit standpunkt,” kun giver mening, og kun kunne resultere i meningsfulde rettelser, når den var henvendt til lærde der mestrede hadith på et niveau, sammenlignelig med hans eget.

Hadith autentificering

Dette sidste punkt rejser et andet spørgsmål, som måske få nu til dags er bevidste om, og resten af denne artikel vil blive viet til dette. Akkurat som mujtahid imamen ikke er som den almindelige muslim med hensyn til hans beherskelse af Qur’anen og hadith bevismaterialet, eller principperne der kræves for at sammenslutte imellem det og drage slutninger fra det, er han heller ikke som den almindelige muslim i måden hvorpå han dømmer autenciteten af hadith. Hvis en person, der ikke er en hadith specialist, har brug for at vurdere en hadith, vil han sandsynligvis gerne vide om den eksempelvis forekommer i Sahih al-Bukhari eller Sahih Muslim, eller om en hadith lærd har erklæret den for at være strengt autentificeret (sahih) eller vel autentificeret (hasan). En mujtahid gør ikke dette.
Snarere kommer han frem til en uafhængig bedømmelse af, hvorvidt en bestemt hadith virkeligt er fra Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) ved at gøre brug af sin egen viden om hadith berettere og hadith videnskaben, og ikke gennem taqlid eller ”at følge en anden hadith lærds holdning.”
Således er det ikke nødvendigvis et bevis imod en mujtahids standpunkter, at Bukhari, Muslim eller hvem det end måtte være, har accepteret en hadith, der strider imod mujtahidens bevis, eller afvist en der understøtter det. Hvorfor? Fordi der blandt hadith lærde, er uenighed med hensyn til vurderingen af hvor pålidelige enkelte berettere i hadith kæder er, og derfor er der uenighed om hadith på samme måde som fiqh lærde er uenige omkring bestemte fiqh spørgsmål. Som tilfældet med fiqh skolerne, er omfanget af denne uenighed relativt lille i forhold til helheden, men man skal dog huske at den eksisterer.
I og med at en mujtahid lærd ikke er bundet til at acceptere en anden lærds ijtihad vedrørende en bestemt hadith, er en nutidig hadith specialists ijtihad, eksempelvis at en hadith er svag (da‘if), ikke nødvendigvis et bevis imod en tidligere mujtahids ijtihad om, at hadithen er acceptabel. Dette er især gældende i hvor tid, hvor hadith specialister ikke er på niveau med deres forgængere, hverken med hensyn tili faglig viden om hadith videnskaberne eller i memorisering af hadith.
Intet illustrerer dette bedre end at reflektere lidt over, hvad sahih eller ”strengt autentificeret” betyder. Den nuværende artikel afsluttes med at se på de fem betingelser, der skal indfries for, at en hadith kan betragtes som sahih, og hvordan lærde har været uenige om disse.

(a) Den første betingelse er, at hadithen skal føre tilbage til Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) igennem en ubrudt kæde af berettere. Her er der en holdningsforskel imellem Bukhari og Muslim, idet Bukhari mener, at det for hver to efterfølgende berettere i en overleveringskæde, skal være historisk fastslået, at de to virkeligt mødtes, mens Muslim og andre kun gjorde det til en betingelse, at deres møde har været muligt, eksempelvis ved at den ene levede i en bestemt by, som den anden er kendt for at have besøgt mindst en gang i sit liv. Nogle hadith, som Muslim accepterer, accepteres således ikke af Bukhari og de af mujtahid imamerne, der tilsluttede sig hans kriterier

(b) Den anden betingelse for en sahih hadith, er at beretterne er moralsk retskafne. Lærde har været uenige omkring definitionen på dette, hvor nogle accepterer, at det er nok, at en fortæller er en muslim, om hvem det ikke er bevist at vedkommende var uacceptabel. Andre stiller det som en betingelse at det udadtil skal være fastslået at vedkommende har været moralsk retskaffen, mens andre lærde igen stiller det som betingelse at dette derudover også skal være fastslået indadtil. Disse forskellige kriterier er naturlige årsager bag, at to mujtahider kan være uenige om en enkelt hadiths autencitet.

(c) Den tredje betingelse er, at beretterne skal være kendte for at have haft en nøjagtig hukommelse. Bekræftelsen af dette, er ligeledes genstand for uenigheder hadith imamerne imellem, hvilket resulterer i forskelle med hensyn til vurderingen af bestemte beretteres pålidelighed , og derved bestemte hadith.

(d) Den fjerde betingelse for at en hadith er sahih, er at både hadithens tekst og overlevering skal være fri for shudhudh, eller ”afvigelser fra fastsatte standard beretninger af den.” Et eksempel er, når en hadith er berettet af fem forskellige fortællere, der er samtidige, og alle beretter den samme hadith, fra den samme shaykh, igennem hans overleveringskæde tilbage til Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham). Hvis fire af haditherne har den samme formulering, mens en af dem viser sig at have en lidt anderledes formulering, kaldes hadithen med den anden formulering for shadhdh eller ”afviger” og accepteres ikke, fordi forskellen formodes at være den ene beretteres fejltagelse, eftersom alle beretterne hørte hadithen fra den samme shaykh.

Der er en hadith berettet af Ahmad ((9.26), 4.318), Bayhaqi ((9.9), 2.132), Ibn Khuzayma ((9.31), 1.354: 714), og Ibn Hibban, med en kæde af pålidelige berettere (thiqat) – undtagen Kulayb ibn Hisham, som blot er “acceptabel” (saduq) og ikke pålidelig (thiqa) – at ledsageren Wa’il ibn Hujr al-Hadrami sagde, at da han overværede Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) knæle i sin bøns Tashahud eller ”trosbekræftelse,”

løftede Profeten sin [pege]finger, og jeg så ham bevæge den, supplikerede med den. Jeg kom [et stykke tid] efter dette og så folk i [vinter]kapper bevæge deres hænder under kapperne (Ibn Hibban (9.27), 5.170–71: 1860).

Nuvel, alle versionerne af hadithen, der nævner at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) bevægede sin finger, blevet berettet til os igennem Za’ida ibn Qudama al-Thaqafi, en fortæller der opfattes som pålidelig, og som overleverede den fra hadith shaykhen ’Asim ibn Kulayb, som berettede den fra sin fader Kulayb ibn Shihab, fra Wa’il ibn Hujr al-Hadrami. Men vi opdager, at denne ”bevæge fingeren” version, strider imod versioner af hadithen overleveret fra den samme shaykh, ’Asim ibn Kulayb, af ikke mindre end ti af ’Asims andre elever, dem alle pålidelige, som hørte ’Asim berette, at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelservære med ham) ikke bevægede, men snarere pegede (ashara) med sin pegefinger (i retning af qiblaen).
Disse ledsagere af ’Asim (med deres hadith) er: Sufyan al-Thawri: ”efterfølgende pegede han med sin pegefinger, ved at sætte tommelfingeren ved langfingeren, for at lave en ring med dem” (al-Musannaf (9.69), 2.68–69: 2522); Sufyan ibn ‘Uyayna: ”han samlede sin tommelfinger og langefinger for at lave en ring og pegede med sin pegefinger” (Ahmad (9.26), 4.318); Shu‘ba ibn al-Hajjaj: ”han pegede med sin pegefinger, og formede en ring med den midterste” (Ahmad (9.26), 4.319); Qays ibn al-Rabi‘: ”så samlede han sin tommel- og langefinger for at lave en ring, og pegede med sin pegefinger” (Tabarani (9.76), 22.33–34: 79); ‘Abd al-Wahid ibn Ziyad al-‘Abdi: ”han lavede en ring med en finger og pegede med sin pegefinger” (Ahmad (9.26), 4.316); ‘Abdullah ibn Idris al-Awdi: ”han havde samlet sin tommel- og langefinger for at lave en ring, og løftede fingeren imellem dem, for at lave du‘a (bøn) i trosbekræftelsen” (Ibn Majah (9.32), 1.295: 912); Zuhayr ibn Mu‘awiya: ”og jeg så ham [‘Asim] sige, ’Sådan her,’ – og Zuhayr pegede med sin første pegefinger, holdende to fingre inde, og lavede en ring med hans tommel- og anden pege [lange] finger” (Ahmad (9.26), 4.318–19); Abu al-Ahwas Sallam ibn Sulaym: ”han begyndte at lave du‘a sådan her – det vil sige med sin pegefinger, pegende med den – ” (Musnad al-Tayalisi (9.78), 137: 1020); Bishr ibn al-Mufaddal: ”og jeg så ham [‘Asim] sige, ’Sådan her,’ – og Bishr samlede sin tommel- og langefinger for at lave en ring, og pegede med sin pegefinger” (Abu Dawud (9.72), 1.251: 957); og Khalid ibn Abdullah al-Wasiti: ”dernæst samlede han sin tommel- og langefinger for at lave en ring, og pegede med sin pegefinger” (Bayhaqi (9.9), 2.131).
Alle disse fortællere er pålidelige (thiqat), og alle hørte ’Asim ibn Kulayb fortælle, at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) ”pegede med (ashara bi) sin pegefinger” under trosbekendelsen i sin bøn. Der er mange andre beretninger om at ”pege med fingeren” berettet igennem andre shaykher end ’Asim, undladt her af pladsårsager – fire af dem eksempelvis i Sahih Muslim ((9.55), 1.408-9). Sagen er, for at belyse betydningen af en shadhdh eller ”afvigende hadith,” at versionen om at bevæge fingeren kun var overbragt af Za’ida ibn Qudama fra ’Asim. Ibn Khuzayma siger: ”Der er ikke en eneste hadith, der indeholder yuharrikuha (‘han bevægede den) bortset fra denne hadith nævnt af Za’ida” (Ibn Khuzayma (9.31), 1.354).
Så vi ved at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) plejede at pege med sin pegefinger, og at versionen om ”at bevæge hans finger” er shadhdh eller ”afvigende,” og repræsenterer en fejl af fortælleren, for ordet ishara i flertallets version betyder ”at pege eller gestikulere mod” eller ”at indikere med hånden” og har på arabisk ingen dokumenteret betydning om at vrikke eller at ryste fingeren, som verificeret i leksika som Ibn al-Munzurs Lisan al-‘Arab på femten bind ((9.33), 4.437) eller Fayruzabadis al-Qamus al-muhit ((9.15), 540). Fortolkningen om ”at pege” kommer udtrykkeligt fra vel autentificerede hadith (hasan), berettet fra ledsageren Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr at ”Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) plejede at pege med sin pegefinger, under bønnen [i Trosbekræftelsen] og bevægede den ikke” (Abu Dawud (9.72), 1.260: 989) og at han ”plejede at pege med hans pegefinger når han lavede bøn, uden at bevæge den” (Bayhaqi (9.9), 2.131–32).
Sidst men ikke mindst har imam Bayhaqi sammensluttet imellem Za’ida ibn Qudama hadithen og de mange hadith, som tilsyneladende strider imod den, ved at foreslå , at det at bevæge fingeren i Za’ida hadithen blot betyder rafa‘a eller ”at løfte” den, en formulering tydeligt nævnt i en version, som er dokumenteret af Muslim, at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) ”løftede højre finger, som er ved siden af tommelfingeren, og supplikerede med den” (Muslim (9.55), 1.408: 580). Så ifølge Bayhaqi, er der kun tilsynedladende en modsætning, og at løfte fingeren er den ”bevægelse,” som Wa’il så fra Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) og folks hænder under deres kapper, ifølge Za’idas version, som forbliver shadhdh eller ”afvigende” fra en hadith synsvinkel, medmindre den forstås i den begrænsede forstand.

(e) Den femte og sidste betingelse for en sahih hadith, er at både teksten og overleveringskæden skal være uden ‘illa eller “skjulte fejl,” der gør eksperter opmærksomme på at forvente manglende autencitet i den. Dette punkt er værd at dvæle ved et kort øjeblik, ikke kun fordi det hjælper med at belyse ijtihad processen, men fordi en dyb ekspertise i denne betingelse ikke var almindelig, ikke engang blandt top hadith imamer. Det største navn på det område var ‘Ali al-Madini, en af Bukharis shaykher, selvom hans største værk desværre er gået tabt. Daraqutni er måske den mest berømte specialist pa det felt, hvis værker stadig eksister. Med Ibn al-Salahs ord, en hafidh eller ”hadith mester” (en person der besidder mindst 100.000 hadith i hukommelsen), er viden om ’illa eller ”skjulte fejl”:

Iblandt de største af hadith videnskaberne, den mest krævende, og højeste: kun lærde med fremragende udenadslære, hadith ekspertise, og dyb indsigt har en grundig viden om den. Den henviser til obskure, skjulte fejl, der kompromiterer hadith, ”defekt” vil sige at en fejl opdages som eliminerer autenticiteten af en hadith, som udadtil er ”strengt autentificeret” (sahih). Dette påvirker hadith med pålidelige overleveringskæder, som udadtil lader til at opfylde alle betingelserne for en sahih hadith (’Ulum al-hadith (9.38), 90).

Det kan overraske nogle mennesker at lære at et eksempel, der ofte er citeret i lærebørgerne om en sådan skjult fejl (’illa) er fra Sahih Muslim, hvis hadith alle er strengt autentificerede (sahih), som Ibn al-Salah har sagt ”bortset fra et virkeligt lille antal ord, som hadith mestre specialiseret i tekstuel evaluering (naqd) såsom Daraqutni og andre har kritiseret, og som er kendte af lærde på dette niveau” (‘Ulum al-hadith (9.38), 29). Hadithen i det aktuelle eksempel var berettet af Muslim fra ledsageren Anas ibn Malik i forskellige versioner, som måske kunne lede folk uvidende om dens fejl, til at tro at man under bønnnen skal undlade Basmala eller ordene ”Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim” i begyndelsen af Fatihaen. Ifølge hadithen sagde Anas ibn Malik (Allah være tilfreds med ham),

Jeg bad med Allahs Budbringer (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham), Abu Bakr, ‘Umar og ‘Uthman, og de åbnede med ”al-Hamdu li Llahi Rabbi a-’Alamin,” uden at nævne ”Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim” i begyndelsen af recitationen eller i slutningen af den [og i en anden version, ”Jeg hørte ikke nogen af dem recitere ’Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim’”] (Muslim (9.55), 1.299: 399).

Lærde siger at hadithens fejl ligger i negationen af Basmalaen i slutningen [af hadithen], hvilket ikke er Anas’ ord, men snarere en af under-beretternes som forklarer hvad han troede Anas mente. Ibn al-Salah siger: ”Dens under-beretter gengiver den med den overnævnte formulering i overensstemmelse med hans egen forståelse af den” (Muqaddima Ibn al-Salah (9.39), 99). Denne hadith er givet som et eksempel på en ”skjult fejl” i en række manualer om hadith terminologi, såsom hadith mester (hafidh) Suyutis Tadrib al-rawi ((9.63), 1.254–57); hadith mester Ibn al-Salahs Ulum al-hadith ((9.38), 92); hadith mester Zayn al-Din al-‘Iraqis al-Taqyid wa al-idah ((9.39), 98–103); og andre. Al-‘Iraqi siger, ”Et antal hadith mestre (huffadh) har vurderet den til at være kompromitteret ved en fejl, inklusive Shafi‘i, Daraqutni, Bayhaqi og Ibn ’Abd al-Barr” (al-Taqyid wa al-idah (9.39), 98).
Nuvel, Bukhari har berettet hadithen til og med ordene ”og de åbnede med ’al-Hamdu li Lhahi Rabbi l-‘Alamin’” uden at nævne udeladelsen af Basmala (Bukhari (9.10), 1.189: 743), og Tirmidhi og Abu Dawud beretter ingen andre versioner. Lærde understreger i den forbindelse, at ordene ”al-Hamdu li Llahi Rabbi l-’Alamin” faktisk var navnet på verset, for Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) og hans ledsagere brugte ofte suraernes indledningsord som betegnelse for dem; for eksempel hadithen i Sahih al-Bukhari berettet af Abu Sa’id ibn al-Mu‘alla:

Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sagde: ”Jeg vil lære dig en sura, som er Qur’anens mægtigste sura, før du forlader moskeen” og han sagde ”’Al-Hamdu li Llahi Rabbi l-‘Alamin’: det er ’De Syv Mest Reciterede [Vers] (al-Sab‘ al-Mathani)’ og ’Den Mægtigste Recitation (al-Qur’an al-‘Adhim)’ som jeg er blevet givet” (iBukhari (9.10), 6.20–21: 4474).

I denne hadith er ”Al-Hamdu li Llahi Rabbi l-‘Alamin” tydeligt navnet på Al-Fatiha, og har ingen betydning derudover, for det er kun et vers og ikke syv. ‘A’isha, en af Sahabaernes ulema, henviste også til suraers navne på denne måde, som i Bukhari hadithen, at

Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham), når han gik i seng hver nat, samlede sine hænder sammen, spyttede let på dem, og reciterede over dem ”Qul huwa Llahu Ahad,” ”Qul a‘udhu bi Rabbi l-Falaq,” og ”Qul a‘udhu bi Rabbi n-Nas”; hvorefter han tørrede enhver del af sin krop, han kunne komme til, med dem (Bukhari (9.10), 233–34: 5017),

hvilket viser, at han navngav suraerne efter deres indlededende ord efter Basmala som andre tidligere muslimer gjorde, og som Bukhari selv gjorde i mange kapiteloverskrifter, bærende navnene på Qur’anens suraer i den del af hans Sahih med titlen ”Qur’anens dyder.” Så der er intet bevis i den del af Anas hadithens formulering, som både Bukhari og Muslim var enige om, nemlig ”Jeg bad med Allahs Budbringer (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham), Abu Bakr, ’Umar og ’Uthman og de indledte med ’al-Hamdu li Llahi Rabbi l-‘Alamin’,” – at Basmala ikke blev reciteret højt. Tirmidhi siger: ”Imam Shafi‘i har sagt, ’Betydningen er at de plejede at begynde med Fatihaen før suraen, ikke at de ikke reciterede ”Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim.”’ Og Shafi‘i mente at bønnen indledtes med ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim,’ og at den blev reciteret højt i de bønner, der blev reciteret højt” (Tirmidhi (9.79), 2.16).
Hadith lærde som mestrer den tekstuelle kritik, såsom Daraqutni og andre, betragter ordene fra Anas hadithen ”uden at nævne ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim’,” der udadtil ser ud til at indgive at undlade Basmalaen, for at være ”ødelagt” af en ’illah eller ”skjult fejl” af flere grunde, hvor af nogle få er:

(1) Det er fastslået gennem utallige intersubstantiative [gensidigt bekræftende] overleveringskæder (tawatur), at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sagde, ”Der er ingen bøn for den som ikke reciterer Fatiha” (Bukhari (9.10), 1.192: 756), og at Basmala er Fatihas første vers kommer til udtryk igennem flere forskellige fakta:
Først og fremmest bekræftede Sahaba intet under samlingen af Qur’anen (mus-haf) i ’Uthmans tid, udover hvad der var Qur’anen, og enstemmigt placerede de Basmala i begyndelsen af hver en sura, undtagen Sura al-Tawba.
For det andet sagde Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham), ”Når I reciterer ’al-Hamdu li Llahi’ så reciter ’Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim,’ for det er Qur’anens Sammenfatning (Umm al-Qur’an), og Skriftens Indbegreb (Umm al-Kitab), og De Syv Mest-Gentagne (al-Sab‘ al-Mathani) – og ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim’ er et af dens vers” (Bayhaqi (9.9), 2.45) ; og Daraqutni ((9.12), 1.312), en hadith berettet med en strengt autentificeret (sahih) overleveringskæde til Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham), og gennem en anden kæde til Abu Hurayra alene (må Allah være tilfreds med ham).
For det tredje, beretter Umm Salama: “Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) plejede at recitere: ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim; al-Hamdu li Llahi Rabbi l-‘Alamin,’ adkillende hver sætning”; en hadith som Hakim sagde var strengt autentificeret (sahih) ifølge Bukharis og Muslims kriterier (al-Mustadrak (9.19), 1.232), hvilket imam Dhahabi bekræftede (al-Talkhis (9.19), 1.232). Daraqutni beretter også fra Umm Salama at ”Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) når han plejede at recitere Qur’anen, holdt pause i sin fremsigelse vers for vers: ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim: al-Hamdu li Llahi Rabbi l-‘Alamin: ar-Rahmani r-Rahim: Maliki yawmi d-din.’" Daraqutni sagde: “Dens tilskrivning er strengt autentificeret (sahih); alle dens fortællere er pålidelige” (Daraqutni (9.12), 1.312–13). Disse hadith viser, at Basmala, blev reciteret højt af Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham), som en del af Fatiha.
For det fjerde, beretter Bukhari i sin Sahih, at da Anas blev spurgt hvordan Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) plejede at recitere, “svarede han: Ved at forlænge [vokalerne]’ – og dernæst reciterede han [Anas] ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim,’ forlængende Bismi Llah, forlængende r-Rahman, og forlængende r-Rahim” (Bukhari (9.10), 6.241: 5046), indikerende, at Anas betragtede dette som en del af Profetens Qur’an fremsigelse og at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) reciterede det højt.
For det femte, har Daraqutni dokumenteret to hadith, begge fra Ibn ‘Abbas, og har om hver af dem sagt, ”Dette er en strengt autenciteret (sahih) overleveringskæde, der er ikke en svag fortæller i den,” hvoraf den første er, ”Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) plejede at recitere ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim, ’ højt”; og den anden er: ”Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) plejede at begynde bønnen med ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim’” (al-Majmu‘ (9.62), 3.347).

(2) Imam al-Mawardi opsummerer: ”Fordi det er fastslået, at det er obligatorisk at recitere Fatiha i bønnen og at Basmala er en del af den, må bestemmelsen for at recitere Basmala højt eller for en selv, være den samme som den vedrørende at recitere Fatiha højt eller for en selv” (al-Hawi al-kabir (9.48), (2.139).

(3) Nawawi siger: ”Vedrørende at recitere ’Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim’ højt, har vi nævnt at vores standpunkt er, at det er prisværdigt at gøre sådan. Hvor man end reciterer Fatiha og suraen højt, er bestemmelsen for at recitere Basmala højt den samme, som at recitere resten af Fatiha og suraen højt. Dette er majoriteten af Sahabas ulema og dem som blev undervist af dem (Tabi‘in) og de der fulgte deres standpunkt. Hvad angår de Sahaba som mente, at Basmala reciteres højt i bøn, beretter hadith mesteren (hafidh) Abu Bakr al-Khatib, at de inkluderer Abu Bakr, ’Umar, ’Uthman, ’Ali, ’Ammar ibn Yasir, Ubayy ibn Ka‘b, Ibn ‘Umar, Ibn ‘Abbas, Abu Qatada, Abu Sa‘id, Qays ibn Malik, Abu Hurayra, ‘Abdullah ibn Abi Awfa, Shaddad ibn Aws, ‘Abdullah ibn Ja‘far, Husayn ibn ‘Ali, Mu‘awiya, og forsamlingen af Emigranter (Muhajirin) og Hjælpere (Ansar), som var tilstede sammen med Mu‘awiya, da han bad i Medina, men ikke sagde Basmala højt, for hvilket de irettesatte ham og han vendte tilbage til at sige det højt” (al-Majmu‘ (9.62), 3.341).

Disse er nogle af årsagerne bag, at lærde opfatter Anas hadithen i Sahih Muslim, som værende mu‘all eller ”defekt ved en mangel.” Vi har ikke mulighed for her at diskutere andre aspekter af hadithen, så som manglerne i dens overleveringskæde, som er forklaret detaljeret i Zayn al-Din ’Iraqi’s al-Taqyid wa al-idah ((9.39), 100-101), men det ovenstående har sikkert givet en generel ide om, hvorfor formuleringen i dens slutning ”ikke nævnte” ’Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim’” er blevet anset for at være ”en mangel” af hadith mestrer (huffadh) så som Suyuti, ‘Iraqi, Ibn Salah, Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr, Daraqutni og Bayhaqi – og hvorfor shari’a afgørelsen som tilsyneladende kan udledes fra slutningen af hadithen; netop undladelsen af Basmala, når man reciterer Fatihaen i bøn, er blevet afvist af al-Shafi‘i, Nawawi og andre, som mente at Basmala reciteres højt, når Fatiha reciteres således. Abu Hanifa og Ahmad ibn Hanbals standpunkt, det skal påpeges, er mellemstandpunktet: at man skal recitere Basmalaen for sig selv før Fatihaen, og derved når til en overensstemmelse imellem hadith på begge sider, ved at fortolke ”at undlade” i Anas hadithen i andet end dens åbenbare betydning, til blot at betyde ”at recitere den for sig selv.”
Hvorom alting er, og det er pointen her, er dette klart ikke en beretning om ”hadithen i Sahih Muslim som som imamerne ikke havde kendskab til,” som nogle af de ulærte i ramme alvor påstår idag, men snarere en ”meningsforskel” i hadith autentificering som angår shari‘a videnskabens højeste stadier.
Slutteligt viser denne illustration at udsagnet, som er blevet almindeligt i visse kredse nu om dage, om at Bukhari, Muslim og andres bøger endnu ikke eksisterede på de fire mujtahid imamers tid, er sandt, men trivielt: først og fremmest fordi Bukharis og Muslims shaykher tog deres hadith fra de samme shaykher som Abu Hanifa, Malik, Shafi‘i og Ahmad tog deres hadith fra, med de samme overleveringskæder tilbage til Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham); hadtiherne var de samme hadith (dis: 8.2). Men for det andet, og hvad der muligvis er af større betydning, er det trivielt fordi mujtahid imamerne kommer frem til uafhængige vurderinger af autenticiteten bestemte hadith, baseret på deres egen viden og ikke blot ved at følge andre hadith eksperters konklusioner (taqlid), som de flese muslimer nu til dags gør.
At studere de fem overstående betingelser for en sahih hadith og meningsforskellene omkring dem specialisterne imellem, viser os, hvorfor lovskolernes mujtahid imamer sommetider er uenige med hinanden om, hvorvidt en bestemt hadith, eller en del af den virkeligt er fra Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham). Enhver som tror at en enkel lærd, om det er Bukhari, Muslim eller en nulevende shaykh, kan gøre ende på alle meningsforskelle omkring hvorvidt en bestemt hadith er acceptabel bør rette dette fejlindtryk ved at studere emnerne lidt grundigere.
Hvad muslimer kan indse udfra dette er, at når de finder en hadith i Sahih Bukhari, som en fiqh skole lader til at følge, mens en anden ikke gør, kan det meget vel være forskelle i fiqh metodologi, hadith metodologi eller begge dele der spiller en rolle.


Konklusioner

For at opsummere alt hvad der er blevet sagt, først påpegede vi at den viden som muslimer tilegner sig fra Qur’anen og hadith er af tre typer. Den første er viden om den islamiske overbevisnings grundlæggende sandheder såsom Allah og Hans Attributter, Profetens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) profetskab, troen på den Sidste Dag, og så videre. Enhver muslim kan og skal lære denne viden fra Allahs Bog og sunna, hvilket også er tilfældet med den anden form for viden: de generelle islamiske principper, om at gør det gode, undgå det slette, at udføre bønnen, betale zakat, faste i Ramadan, at samarbejde med andre i gode gerninger, og så videre. Enhver kan tilegne sig denne viden direkte fra Qur’anen og hadith.
Dernæst diskuterede vi en tredje kategori af viden, som består af fiqh eller ”forståelse” af specifikke detaljer i islamisk praksis. I Qur’anen og strengt autentificerede hadith ser vi, at folk er af to slags hvad angår denne viden, de der er kvalificerede til at udøve ijtihad og dem der ikke er. Vi nævnte den strengt autentificerede (sahih) hadith om ”en mand der dømmer for folk mens han er uvidende: han kommer i helvede,” som viser at pseudo mujtahider er kriminelle, når de opererer uden [den nødvendige] færdighed.
Vi så det Qur’aniske vers, som fastsætter, at en bestemt gruppe af det muslimske samfund, skal lære og være i stand til at undervise andre i deres religions specifikke detaljer. Vi så det Qur’aniske vers, om at dem der ikke ved, skal spørge dem der gør, såvel som verset om at henvise sager til ”dem hvis opgave det er at finde ud af det”
Vi omtalte disse lærde, mujtahid imamerne, først, med hensyn til deres særdeles omfattende viden om hele Qur’anen og det tekstuelle hadith korpus, og for det andet med hensyn til dybden af deres fortolkning, og her nævnte vi Qur’an og hadith eksempler, som belyser processen igennem hvilken mijtahid imamer sammenslutter imellem flere tekster, og giver precedens, når der tilsyneladende er en konflikt. Vores konkrete ijtihad eksempler gør os til gengæld i stand til at forstå, hvem imamernes berømte bemærkninger om ikke at følge deres standpunkt uden at kende beviserne var rettet til. De rettede dem til lærde af første rang, som de havde trænet og som evnede at forstå og evaluere problemstillingerne involveret i disse specifikke beviser.
Dernæst så vi, at imamerne også var mujtahider med hensyn til at dømme hvorvidt hadith er sahih eller andet, og bemærkede at, nøjagtigt som det ikke er tilladt for en mujtahid imam at lave taqlid ”eller at følge en anden mujtahid uden at kende hans bevis” i et fiqh spørgsmål, så handler han heller ikke sådan i spørgsmålet om at acceptere bestemte hadith. Slutteligt understregede vi at forskellene i pålidelighedsvurderingen af hadith blandt kvalificerede lærde løb parallelt med forskellene blandt lærde hvad angår den islamisk praksis’ detaljer: en relativt lille forskel i forhold til helheden.
Pointen er at mens enhver muslim kan tage sin islams fundament direkte fra Qur’anen og hadith; netop de vigtigste trossætninger og generelle etiske principper som han skal følge – kan der, hvad angår de specifikke fiqh detaljer om islamisk praksis, være himmel og jords forskel mellem kendskabet til et Qur’anisk vers eller en hadith, og at kende shari‘a afgørelsen, medmindre man er en kvalificeret mujtahid eller refererer til en.
Hvad angår pseudo mujtahider, som kan en smule arabisk og er udstyret med hadith bøger, så er de som den pseudo læge, som vi nævnte tidligere: hvis hans eneste kvalifikation var at han kunne læse engelsk og ejede nogle lægevidenskabelige bøger, vil vi helt afgjort komme med indvendinger imod hans praktisering af medicin, selv hvis det ikke drejede sig om andet end at foretage en operation på en eller andens lille finger. Hvad bør der så siges om en, der kun kan arabisk og har nogle hadith bøger og vil foretage et indgreb på din akhira?
For at forstå, hvorfor muslimer følger madhaber, skal vi gå ud over de simplificerede sloganer om ”det guddommeligt-beskyttede versus det ikke-guddommeligt beskyttede,” og påskønne fiqh imamerne, som har gjort Qur’an og sunna operationelt anvendelige i vores liv som shari‘a, og vi bør spørge os selv, om vi virkelig ”hører og adlyder,” når Allah befaler os

”Spørg dem som ihukommer, hvis I ikke ved” (Qur’an 16:43).



8.2 Hadith som Mujtahid Imamerne manglede (fra 8.1)[v]

8.2.a (n:) Da mange af betragtningerne [vi gjorde] i de overnævnte passager ikke længere er alment forståede [blandt muslimer], siger visse muslimer i vore tider, at hvem der end følger de fire skoler, følger dem blindt, og ikke i lyset sunnaen, eftersom deres imamer ikke havde alle de hadith vi har idag. De store hadith samlinger var eksempelvis endnu ikke kompileret på imamernes tid, som af den grund ikke var i stand til at inkorporere disse hadith i deres retsskoler. Hvad kan der siges til sådan en indvending?

Det burde være klart af ovennævnte grunde, at ingen ville oversætte taqlid eller ”at følge en mujtahid lærd” til blindt at følge retsskoler (madhhahib) bortset fra en, der er fuldstændigt uinformeret om de kvalifikationer der kræves for at være en mujtahid, og arten og omfanget af primære tekster en mujtahid skal kende for at give en bestemmelse i den Hellige Lov. Langt fra at være blindhed, adskiller det at følge kvalificeret lærdom sig ikke fra mange andre ting vi alle dagligt foretager os, så som at indtage medicin ordineret af en læge for en almindelig sygdom uden, at vi selv har gået på medicinstudiet, eller at gå ind i en bygning uden at have studeret arkitekternes plan-tegninger for at fastslå, hvorvidt det er sikkert. Til trods for at der er et tillidselement i hver af disse handlinger (og i de fleste i vore daglige liv), udfører vi dem ikke af ”blindhed”, men snarere fordi vore livsstruktur er baseret på en ”arbejdsfordeling ”, der tildeler forskellige specialister forskellige erfaringsområder, foruden hvilke civilisation ikke kunne eksistere. Det indgyder os tillid fordi det virker.
Iagttagelsen der er udbredt nu til dags iblandt muslimer, at Bukharis, Muslim’s og andre samlinger blev kompileret efter mujtahid imamernes tid, og derved ikke tilgængelige for dem, har ringe indvirkning på deres arbejde, af en række årsager.
Først og fremmest havde mujtahid imamerne allerede haditherne som hadith-samlerne senere hen samlede i deres samlinger, de havde taget dem fra de samme mestre som hadithsamlernes shaykher tog deres fra, med den samme overleringskæde tilbage til Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham). Haditherne var de samme hadith: hadith samlerne tilvejebragte ingen nye.
For det andet, som forklaret ovenfor, var imamerne ikke afhængige, som vi er nu til dags, af Bukharis, Muslims eller andres bedømmelse, hvad angår hadiths acceptabilitet — om de var sahih eller det modsatte, men snarere af deres egen viden som mujtahider af hadith og berettere.
For det tredje indeholder de mest kendte værker ikke alle hadith eller endda alle de strengt autentificerede (sahih). Imam Bukhari sagde: ”Jeg kan 100,000 autentificerede (sahih) hadith, og 200,000 ikke autentificerede hadith udenad” (Suyuti: Tadrib al-riwa (9.63), 1.50), og dog udgør haditherne i hans Sahih al-Bukhari kun omkring 7,563, hvoraf mere end 3,000 er gentagelser. Sahih al-Muslim indeholder omkring 3,033 hadith, hvor gentagelserne ikke er talt med, og Muslim sagde: ”Ikke alt jeg anser for at være sahih har jeg medtaget her; Jeg har her blot medtaget, hvad der er enighed om” (Tadrib al-rawi (9,63), 98). Abu Dawud sagde om sin Sunan, som indeholder 5,274 hadith, ”Jeg har skrevet 500,000 hadith fra Allahs Sendebud (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham), hvoraf jeg har udvalgt dem der er indeholdt i sunna bøgerne. (Tadrib al-rawi (9,63), 50). Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal sagde om sin Musnad, der formentligt er den største af de første kompileringer og består af omkring 27,647 hadith, ”Jeg udvalgte Musnaden fra 750,000 hadith” (Tadrib al-rawi (9,63), 49). Ibn Ma’in kom engang med bemærkningen, ”Jeg har [ned]skrevet en million hadith med min hånd” (Tadrib al-rawi (9,63), 50).
Skønt disse imamer, som nævnt i det foregående appendiks i forbindelse med Ahmad ibn Hanbal, plejede at tælle hver en beretningskæde som en separat hadith og ofte også inkluderede ledsagernes udtalelser, er det klart fra deres udtalelser, at ideen om at mujtahid imamerne først efter Bukhari, Muslim og andres samlinger, kunne have haft kendskab til ”alle de hadith vi har i dag”, simpelt hen er fejlagtig. Haditherne eksisterede før samlerne, de var offentligt viden for hadith lærde, inklusiv imamerne og deres shaykher, og deres [hadithernes] antal oversteg langt [haditherne i] de senere kompilerede samlinger.
For det fjerde vedrørende indvendingen, at imamerne ”ikke inkorporerede alle hadith i deres retsskoler (madhhahib)”; selvom det utvivlsomt er sandt i nogle tilfælde (da kendskab til alle hadith sandsynligvis er umuligt), blev det de manglede ikke ignoreret af de efterfølgende generationer af top lærde, der fulgte dem i hver skole, der efterkontrollerede deres beviser og konklusioner, og reviderede deres imamers retskoler (madhhahib). Retsskolerne manglede helt afgjort ikke hadith lærde, og som understreget i det tidligere afsnit, forlangte imamerne af de lærde, som de havde oplært og som kom efter dem, at disse evaluerede og reviderede, og deres [imamernes]formaninger blev udført. Dette kan illustreres gennem eksempler.


Shafi‘i Skolen

De første lærde debatterede, hvilken af de foreskrevne bønner er ”den mest fortrinlige bøn”, nævnt i Sura al-Baqara i verset ”Overhold bønnerne omhyggeligt, og [specielt] al-salat al-wusta, den mest fortrinlige bøn” (Qur’an 2:238), hvori wusta (bogstaveligt, ”midterste”) ifølge det arabiske ordsprog referer til den udvalgte eller bedste del af noget, som stadfæstet igennem brugen af samme komparative adjektiv, i dets maskuline form, i Sura al-Qalam: ”Den bedste af dem (awsatahum) sagde: ’Fortalte jeg jer ikke, hvis I bare ville ophøje [Allah i anger]’” (Qur’an 68:28), hvori awsatahum betyder ”den bedste af dem” (Mahalli: Tafsir al-Jalalayn (9.46), 759).
Nuvel, imam Shafi‘is standpunkt var, at salat al-wusta eller den ”mest fortrinlige bøn” var morgenbønnen (fajr). Beviset for dette er ikke blot de utallige hadith om morgen bønnens specielle fortrin, især når den foretages af en gruppe (jama’a) i moskeen—men for det andet også, at natten (for en bestemt dato) i den islamiske kalender kommer før dagen, sådan at solnedgangs bønnen (maghrib) er den første af de fem foreskrevne bønner og eftermiddags bønnen (asr) den sidste, hvorved morgen bønnen (fajr) bliver den midterste, mellem dem. Hvor overbevisende dette ræsonnement end måtte være, reviderede lærde, der kom efter Imam Shafi‘i hans holdning i lyset af den strengt autentificerede (sahih) hadith, der er berettet af Muslim, at ’Ali ibn Abi Talib (må Allah forædle hans ansigt sagde,

Da det var Forbundsfællernes (al-Ahzab) [slags] dag, sagde Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham), ”Må Allah fylde deres grave og huse med ild: de har forsinket os og optaget os fra den midterste bøn (al-salat al-wusta) indtil solen gik ned” (Muslim (9.55), 1.36:627),

som er en nass eller ”tekst der kun kan fortolkes på en måde” fra Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham), at al-salat al-wusta, som anvendt i Sura al-Baqara, udelukkende betyder eftermiddagsbønnen (’asr) og ingen anden. Det er denne slags opgradering af beviser, vi taler om. Imam Nawawi sagde:

På trods af denne [brede viden om hadith] valgte Shafi’i (må Allah være ham nådig) den større forsigtigheds vej, eftersom viden om alle hadith ikke er menneskeligt muligt, og han kom med udtalelsen, der er berettet af ham selv igennem utallige berettere, hvor han pålagde [lærde] at tage de strengt autentificerede hadith og at se bort fra hans standpunkt, hvis det stred imod en eksplicit, autentisk og entydig tekst (nass). Vore lærde (må Allah være dem nådig) har adlydt hans formaning og anvendt den til utallige velkendte juridiske spørgsmål” (al-Majmu’ (9.62), 1.10-11)


Hanafi Skolen

Denne revideringsproces er på ingen måder forbeholdt Shafi‘i madhhaben, men findes i alle skolerne. Et eksempel fra Hanafi skolen er sunnaen at bade (ghusl) før man begiver sig til fredags bønnen (jumu’a). Skolens anerkendte standpunkt, er at gyldigheden af dette sunna-bad ophæves, hvis ens afvaskning (wudu) brydes imellem [tidspunktet for] badet og fredagsbønnen, i hvilket tilfælde det er nødvendigt for en at bade igen, for at opnå sunnaens belønning.
Men alligevel finder vi i Radd al-muhtar af Ibn ’Abidin, den vigtigste fatwa resource for den senere Hanafi skole, at imam ’Abd al-Ghani Nabulusi efter at nævne det overnævnte gør opmærksom på, at der er to standpunkter omkring det iblandt madhhabens lærde: Det første er de som anser den juridiske årsag bag dette bad for at være renselse (tahara)s standpunkt , i hvilket tilfælde ophævelsen af ens afvaskning imellem det [badet] og bønnen, vil ugyldig gøre det. Det andet er de som anser årsagen bag badet for at være renhed (nadhafa)s standpunkt, i hvilket tilfælde ophævelsen af afvaskning og gentagelsen af den [afvaskningen] imellem badet og bønnen ikke vil ugyldiggøre det, for den ekstra afvaskning, om noget, forøger renheden. Nabulusi tilslutter sig dette andet standpunkt, for med hans ord ”antyder haditherne om denne sag, at formålet udelukkende er at opnå renhed” (Radd al-muhtar (9.22), 1.114), og Ibn ’Abidin hælder også til det, på grund af haditherne om belønningen for at komme til moskeen fra den første time fredag morgen, for at vente på fællesbønnen (jumu’a). Abu Hurayra beretter at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sagde:

Enhver der bader om fredagen, som han ville have gjort i forbindelse med den store rituelle urenhed (janaba), og derefter tager tidligt [til moskeen], [hans belønning] er som om han har ofret en hun kamel. Enhver der tager [dertil] i den anden time [af dagtimerne] er som om han har ofret en ko. Enhver der tager [dertil] i den tredje time, er som om han har ofret en vædder. Enhver der tager [dertil] i den fjerde time, er som om han har ofret en kylling. Enhver der tager [dertil] i den femte time, er som om han har ofret et æg. Og når imamen kommer frem [for at begynde prædikenen],[ holder] englene [op med at nedskrive, og] kommer for at lytte til ihukommelsen” (Bukhari (9.10), 2.3-4)

Ibn ’Abidin siger om Nabulusis standpunkt (at badet (ghusl) om fredagen ikke ugyldiggøres, ved at være nødsaget til at forny ens afvaskning før fredagsbønnen):

Det bevidnes også gennem fordringen om at tage tidligt til bønnen, bedst hvis det gøres på dagens første time, som strækker sig til solopgang. Når dette gøres, kan det vise sig at være svært at holde på ens afvaskning (wudu) indtil bønnens tid går ind, specielt på årets længste dage. At foretage badet på ny vil være endnu besværligere, hvorimod [Allah siger i Sura al-Hajj]: ”Han har ikke pålagt jer nogen vanskeligheder i religionen” (Qur’an 22:78) Det kunne også føre til afholdelse fra at gå på badeværelset i forbindelse med at bede, hvilket ikke er tilladt” (Radd al-muhtar (9.22), 1.114).


Her ser vi, et af Hanafi skolens tidlige standpunkter (at fredagsbadet ugyldigtgøres ved at være nødsaget til at forny ens afvaskning efter det), reevalueret af to af skolens største senere lærde, ’Abd al-Ghani Nabulusi og Ibn ’Abidin, i lyset af en hadith—nøjagtigt som vi i det tidligere eksempel så, imam Shafi‘is holdning, at al-salat al-wusta betyder morgen bønnen (fajr), revideret af senere lærde, til det mere korrekte standpunkt, at det betyder eftermiddagsnønnen (’asr).


Hanbali Skolen

Der findes hadith, der antyder , at en person der forsømmer bønnen (salah) bliver en ikke-muslim (kafir), som imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal lader til i mindst et af de to standpunkter, der er berettet fra ham, at have taget bogstaveligt.. Disse inkluderer den vel auftenticerede (hasan) hadith ”Mellem tjeneren og polyteisme eller vantro [kufr] er det at forlade bønnen” og hadithen ”Det første du vil miste af din tro er varetagelsen af det betroede: det sidste du vil miste af din tro er bønnen” (Tabarani (9.76), 9.353: 9754), som Ahmad udtalte omkring, ”Intet forbliver, når det sidste er væk” (al-Maghni (9.36), 2.444).
Dog opfatter Ibn Qudama Muqdisi, der citerer disse hadith i sit elleve bind lange Hanafi fiqh kompendium al-Maghni, deres formulering som værende zajr, dvs ”at give folk en barsk advarsel” imod disse handlinger ved at forbinde dem med de vantros (kuffars) handlinger, ikke at selve handlingerne direkte udgør vantro. Der er mange hadith med lignende formuleringer, såsom ”Forhånelse af en muslim er en ugerning, og bekæmpelsen af ham er vantro (kufr)” (Bukhari (9.10), 9.63: 7076), der betoner uhyrligheden af synden at bekæmpe, ikke at det rent faktisk sætter en udenfor Islams fold. Og tilsvarende ”Den der indtager vin, er som en afgudsdyrker” (Majma’ al-zawa’id (9.23), 5.70). Eller som hadithen ”Hvis en mand kalder sin broder en ikke-muslim (kafiir) vender det tilbage til en af dem.” (Muslim (9.55), 1.79:60), som kommentatoren Munawi siger om, at det der ”vender tilbage til en af dem” er ”ulydigheden af at betragte ham for værende en ikke-muslim”, ikke kendsgerningen af at være en ikke muslim (Fayd al-Qadir (5.54), 1.295), og om hvilket Nawawi i sin kommentar af Sahih Muslim siger:

Dens udvendige [tilsyneladende] betydning er ikke tilsigtet, for det muslimske ortodoksis (Ahl al-Haqq) standpunkt er, at ingen muslim begår vantroskab igennem ulydighedshandlinger såsom mord, utugt, eller at kalde ens broder en ”vantro”, medmindre man [igennem dette, mener at man] betragter religionen Islam [som han følger] for at være falsk (Sharh Sahih Muslim (9.56), 2.49)

Af den grund er Zajr eller ”kraftigt at advare” betydningen også, hvorledes ibn Qudama Maqdisi forklarer formuleringen af haditherne, der tilsyneladende viser at det at forlade bønnen er vantroskab (kufr), ved at fortolke dem på en måde der stemmer overens med andet bevismateriale, såsom den strengt autentificerede (sahih) hadith

Enhver der bevidner, at der er ingen gud er udover Allah, alene uden en partner, og at Muhammad er Hans tjener og sendebud, og at Jesus er Allahs tjener, Hans budbringer, Hans Ord, som Han førte til Maria, og en ånd fra Ham, og at paradis er sandt og helvede er sandt—Allah vil komme ham i paradiset, uanset hans handlinger (Bukhari (9.10), 4.201: 3435).

Som mange andre hadith, der foregiver det samme, viser denne at en muslim udelukkende begår kufr gennem decideret van-tro og ikke gennem ulydighedshandlinger, for ellers ville han ikke træde ind i paradiset (selv hvis han ville blive straffet først, som i andre hadith) på grund af generelaliteten i [udsagnet] ”uanset hans handlinger”. Ibn Qudama anfører dette og andre overvejelser, og giver sin kendelse, at forsømmelsen af bønnen, skønt det er en forfærdelig synd, ikke i sig selv er vantroskab, (al-Mughni (9.36), 2.446-47) Som de tidligere eksempler fra Shafi‘i og Hanafi retsskolerne ovenfor illustrer dette, hvordan en højtstående lærd indenfor skolen kan undersøge hadith bevismaterialet på ny og i lyset af det forslå en opgradering af sin imams overleverede standpunkt.
Udefra en fatwa eller et ”formelt juridisk standpunkts” tilgang, skal det understreges at Hanbali skolens autoritative standpunkt er, at en person der forsømmer bønnen bedes om at angre og beordres til at bede: hvis han ikke gør det, henrettes han for vantroskab (da han anses for at have nægtet forpligtigelsen af bønnen, hvilket er vantroskab), men hvis han gør det, løslades han. En sådan person må ikke betragtes som en ikke-muslim (kafir) eller henrettes, indtil han er blevet bedt om at angre og at udføre bønnen og har nægtet (Bahuti: Kashshaf al-qina’ (9.8), 1.228-29)


Maliki skolen

Det overleverde standpunkt i Maliki skolen, er at hvis en person spiser eller drikker i en sindsfraværende tilstand under en faste ugyldiggører det fasten, , og han er forpligtet til at gøre den om, hvis den var obligatorisk, så som en af Ramadanens dag (Risala Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani (9.64), 176). Alligevel citerer den Maliki lærde Ibn Rushd i sin Bidaya al-mujtahid [Mujtahidens begyndelse] (al-Hidaya fi takhrij ahadith al-Bidaya (9.18), 5.188) den strengt autentificerede (sahih) hadith af Abu Hurayra i Bukhari og Muslim, at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sagde,

Når en person glemmer, og spiser eller drikker, lad ham færdiggøre sin faste, for det er udelukkende Allah, der har bespist ham og givet ham noget at drikke (Bukhari (9.10), 3.40: 1933).

Visse Maliki lærde, der støtter standpunktet, at indtagelse af føde eller drikke i glemsomhed ugyldiggører fasten, har foreslået at, hvad der menes med hadithens ord ”så lad ham færdiggøre sin faste” er den leksikalske betydning af at faste, hvad der helt enkelt er ”at afholde sig fra at spise”—hadithen indebærer, at en person der i en sinds fraværende tilstand spiser (og ifølge deres standpunkt ugyldiggører sin faste) skal afholde sig fra føde resten af dagen, som det eksempelvis også er tilfældet med en kvinde, hvis menstruationsperiode ophører midt på en af Ramadanens dag: skønt fastedagen ikke regnes [som gyldig] for hende, er hun forpligtiget til at afholde sig fra føde til solopnedgang på grund af dagens ukrænkelighed. De siger, at denne sproglige betydning af ”at faste” er hvad der menes med ”så lad ham færdiggøre sin faste.” Denne fortolkning er en fejl, som Shaykh Nuh ’Ali Salman skriver,

eftersom de primære teksters ord indledningsvist forstås i henhold til deres shari’a betydning, hvor dette end er muligt, og kun når dette er umuligt fortolkes de i overensstemmelse med deres sproglige betydning. Her skal det [”at faste”] forstås i henhold til dets shari’a betydning, i og med at hadithen siger. ”så lad ham færdiggøre sin faste”, hvilket er hans forudgående faste, som var en lovmæssig faste [på en af Ramadanens dage], og ikke en sproglig ”faste” [blot ikke at have indtaget føde] (Qada’ al-’ibadat (9.65), 138)

Den Maliki lærde Abu Bakr ibn al-’Arabi er uenig og forklarer, hvorfor han er af den opfattelse at ordene ”så lad ham færdiggøre sin faste” ikke bør tages bogstaveligt:

”At faste” er udelukkende at afholde sig fra at spise, og kan ikke være samtidig forekommende med at spise, for de to er modsætninger, og en person kan ikke foretage, hvad han er forpligtiget til eller at gøre det op, når dets uadskillelige element og realitet ikke forbliver eller eksisterer. Overvej hvad der ugyldiggører afvaskning (wudu), hvilket er den nødvendige betingelse for bønnen; nemlig, de ting der ophæver afvaskning (hadath) [fx at benytte badeværelset]. Når en af dem forekommer, forsætligt eller ej, ugyldiggører det rensningen (’Ariba al-ahwazi (9.80), 3.247)

Hvad angår overstående hadith, der lader til at vise, at fasten ophæves gennem uforsætlig fødeindtagelse, nævner Ibn al-’Arabi Maliki standpunktet

at ifølge Maliks metodelære, hvis hadithen af en enkelt beretter strider imod et grundlagt princip [netop at manglen på en rukn eller ”obligatorisk integral” (i det her tilfælde, afholdelse fra føde) ugyldiggører handlingen (en gyldig faste)], kan der ikke efterfølgende handles i overensstemmelse med hadithen (’Arida al-ahwazi (9.80), 3.248).

Alligevel udfordrer hadith specialisten Ahmad al-Ghumari, (der også er Maliki), i sin kommentar af Ibn Rushds Bidaya al-mujtahid Maliki standpunktet, at en faste ugyldiggøres gennem indtagelse af føde eller drikke i en sinds fraværende tilstand, ved at fremføre varianter af den overstående Bukhari hadith, såsom den der er relateret i Daraqutnis sunan:

Når en person der faster spiser eller drikker uforsætligt, er det udelukkende underhold (rizq), som Allah har sendt til ham, og han er ikke forpligtiget til at gøre den om (Daraqutni (9.12), 2.178: 27),

—hvilket er en strengt autentificeret (sahih) hadith, der beviser at den lovmæssige faste handling, er betydningen [der tilsigtes] i den overstående hadith, og at indtagelse af føde eller drikke i en sinds fraværende tilstand ikke ugyldiggører denne faste (al-Hifaya fi takhrij ahadth al-Bidaya (9.18), 5.188) Man kunne indvende, at disse hadith kunne blive forstået som henvisning til frivillige faster og ikke obligatoriske faster. Og dette er faktisk Maliki madhhabens standpunkt: at kun obligatoriske fastedage, som i sinds fraværende tilstande er ugyldiggjorte kræves at blive gjort om, ikke de frivillige (Risala Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani (9.64), 176). Men Ghumari fremfører en anden strengt autentificeret (sahih) version af hadithen:

Enhver som i en sinds fraværende tilstand bryder sin faste i Ramadan måneden, er ikke forpligtiget til at gøre den om eller at sone for den (Daraqutni (9.12), 2.178: 28).

som han fremfører ”også er blevet berettet af Hakim [al-Mustadrak (9.19), 1.430] og Bayhaqi [Bayhaqi (9.9), 4.229]: Hakim siger, ’Den er strengt autentificeret (sahih) i henhold til Muslims standarter, til trods for at hverken [Bukhari eller Muslim] beretter den med denne formulering’; og Bayhaqi siger, ’Udelukkende [Muhammad ibn ’Abdullah] al-Ansari berettede den fra Muhammad ibn ’Amr [ibn ’Alqama], skønt alle dens berettere er pålidelige’” (al-Hidaya fi takfrij ahadith alBidaya (9.18), 5.189).
Disse hadith viser Ghumari at, det for det første, til trods for at det intuitivt måtte være muligt, i Abu Bakr ibn al-’Arabis ord, at ”faste udelukkende er afholdelse fra at indtagelse af føde, og ikke kan være samtidig forekommende med indtagelse af føde,” har Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) meddelt os, at indtagelse af føde eller drikke i en sinds fraværende tilstand er en undtagelse, ved at sige i Bukhari hadithen, at ”når nogen glemmer og spiser eller drikker, så lad ham færdiggøre sin faste”. Ordet faste kan på den ene side ikke fortolkes i henhold til en udelukkende spoglig betydning, fordi Baraqutni hadithens ord, ”og han er ikke forpligtiget til at gøre den om”, kun er gældende for den juridiske faste handling: og kan på den anden side ikke referere til kun frivillige faster, for disse forekommer ikke ”i Ramadan måneden”. For det andet er det ikke et tilfælde af en hadith fra en enkel beretter, der strider imod skolens modtagede overleverede standpunkt, men snarere flere versioner med flere forskellige overleveringskanaler.
Dette leder Ghumari til at sige, i hans hadith kommentar af Risala af Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani, hvor forfatteren skriver ”og hvis man bryder sin frivillige faste i en sinds fraværende tilstand, er man ikke forpligtiget til at gøre den op— i modsætning til den obligatorisk [faste]”:

Denne skelnen [imellem obligatorisk og ikke obligatorisk] mangler ethvert acceptabelt bevis, ej heller er der bevis for det i Qur’anen eller hadith overhovedet. Snarere strider det imod det eksplicitte indhold af de primære tekster, og Allah ved bedst, hvilket bevismateriale Malik benyttede sig af deri (Masalik al-dalala (9.17), 109-10)

En ting er sikkert, Imam Malik overgik nulevende lærde i videnen om Qur’anen og sunnaen, ikke mindst på grund af hans nærhed til Profetens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) tid og hans personlige iagttagelse af de tidligste muslimers ’amal’ eller ”ufravigelige sunna praksis”—i modsætning til hadithernes udelukkende mundtlige beretningskæder, der benyttes af dem efter ham. Men under alle omstændigheder er det tydeligt, at Ghumaris diskussion ikke er en ”blind tilslutning” af Maliki madhhaben, men et eksempel fra madhhabens egen literatur, der viser hvordan skolens bevis grundigt er blevet undersøgt og evalueret af senere Maliki lærde.


Opsummering

Visse personers påstand i vor tid, at ”enhver der følger de fire skoler, følger dem blindt, da Imamerne ikke havde alle haditherne vi har nu om dage eller ikke inkorporerede dem i deres retsskoler” viser et behov for uddannelse. Den [påstanden] kunne udelukkende fremsættes af en person der ikke er bekendt med, hvad retsskolerne er og, hvordan de fungerer, for fiqhen der er legemliggjort i en madhhab repræsenterer ikke kun grundlæggerens indsats, som blindt følges, men utallige imponerende lærdes, hvis kritik og opgradering af deres Imamers arv vi har set eksempler på i hver skole. Det sidste eksempel vi så fra Maliki skolen, ligesom de tidligere fra Shafi‘i, Hanafi og Hanbali skolerne vi så, er blot en lille detalje fra hele dette arbejdes vidtstrakte vidtstrakte omfang. Selvom antallet af eksempler, der er anført overfor, på ingen måde er fyldestgørende når man tager dette foretagendes omfang i betragtning, bør de få eksempler vi har nævnt kunne give en ide om, hvor formørket det er at bruge udtrykket ”blindt at følge madhhahib”, til at beskrive, hvad retsskolerne foretager sig.
Muslimer har igennem tiderne fulgt de fire retsskoler, ikke kun på grund af fuldstændigheden af deres deduktive metodelære og deres beherskelse af Qur’an og hadith, de primære kilder, men også fordi det er tydeligt, at en stor kollektivitet af lærde i historiske rækkefølge mere sandsynligt sigter fejl fra og retter fejl, end eksempelvis shaykhen fra ens nabolag, og ens bys ’alim, og muftien fra ens region, eller den hadith lærde, som ens ligemænd på nuværende tidspunkt er allermest imponeret over.
Dette er specielt sandt i betragtning af arbejdsfordelingen iblandt lærde, der bidrog til madhhaberne, og som var specialister i Qur’anisk eksegese (tafsir), hadith, fiqh, det metodologiske grundlag for jurisprudens (usul al-fiqh) og andre felter. Mens en skoles Imam skal kende alle disse videnskaber for at være kvalificeret som en mujtahid mutlaq eller ”ubetinget mujtahid”, i stand til at afsige dom over ethvert emne indenfor retslære, kan specialisterne i bestemte videnskaber godt bidrage fra deres egne studiefelter. Derfor er det ikke så overraskende, at de fleste af Islams største autoriteter indenfor hadith, hufffadh, dem med over 100,000 hadith i hukommelsen, opfattede sig selv som tilhængere af en af de fire skoler.
Imam Bukhari lærte sin jurisprudens (tafaqqaha) gennem Imam Shafi‘is discipel, ’Abdullah ibn Zubayr al-Humaydi, og studerede med Shafi‘is discipel Za’farani, Abu Thawr og Karabisi, hvilket er grunden til at Imam Taj al-Din al-Subki kategoriserede ham med de andre Shafi‘i lærde i sin Tabaqat al-Shafi‘iyya al-kubra [Større Kompendium over Generationer af Shafi‘i Lærde] ((9.73), 2.214) Hans vurdering af at Bukhari var Shafi‘i, skyldes de mange kapitel overskrifter i Sahih al-Bukhari, der indikerede Bukharis fiqh standpunkter og overvejende var i overensstemmelse med Shafi‘i skolens standpunkter. Men dette forbliver en udledning, for vi har ikke en tidlig kilde, der omtaler Bukharis madhhab (eller der tværtimod beskriver ham som selv værende en mujtahid), muligvis fordi tidlige biografer følte, at hans fiqh var periferær i forhold til hans centrale betydning som en hadith Imam.
Imamerne Muslim, Tirmidhi og Abu Dawud ”tilbad alle i overensstemmelse med Shafi‘i skolen” (al-Taj al-jami’ li al-usul (9.58), 1.16) ifølge Mansur ’Ali Nasif, en egyptisk hadith lærd af det tyvende århundrede. Tilsvarende gjorde Imamerne Nasa’i (Tabaqat al-Shafi‘iyya (9.73), 3.14), Bayhaqi (ibid. 4.8) Hakim (ibid., 4.155), Abu Nu’aym (ibid., 4.18), Ibn Hibban (ibid., 3.131), Daraqutni (ibid., 3.462), Baghawi (ibid., 7.75), Ibn Khuzayma (ibid., 3.109), Suyuti (al-Hawi li al-fatawi (9.74), 1.5), Dhahabi (Tabaqat al-Shafi‘iyya (9.73), 9.100), Ibn Kathir (Tafsir al-Qur’an al-’Adhim (9.29), 1.2), Nur al-Din al-Haythami (Majma’ al-zawa’id (9.23), 1.2) Mundhiri (Tabaqat al-Shafi‘iyya (9.73), 8.259), Ibn Salah (al-Taqyid wa al-idah (9.39), 17), Zayn al-Din al-’Iraqi (ibid., 20), Wali al-Din al-’Iraqi (Tabaqat al-Shafi‘iyya (9.34), 4.80), Ibn al-Athir (al_Nihaya (9.25), 1.9) Ibn Hajar al-’Asqalani (Taghliq al-ra’liq (9.3), 1.109), Taqi al-Din (father of Taj al-Din) al-Subki (Tabaqat al-Shafi‘iyya (9.73), 10.141), Jamal al-Din al-Mizzi (Tahdhib al-kamal (9.52), 1.21), og andre. Hver af disse var en hafidh af over 100.000 hadith, i både tekster og overleveringskæder.
Malik og Ahmad ibn Hanbal var selvfølgelig ikke kun hadith imamer, men mujtahider der grundlagde madhhaberne, der bærer deres navne.
Hanafi skolen talte iblandt dens tilhængere sådanne hadith Imamer som ’Ali al-Qari (al-A’lam (9.83), 5.12), Badr al-Din al-’Ayni (’Umda al-qari (9.4), 1.30), Abu Ja’far al-Tahawi (Mukhrasar al-Tahawi (9.77), 3), og Jamal al-Din al-Zayla’i, Ibn Hajar al-’Asqalanis afrikanske shaykh, der endda opfattedes af nogen som værende mere kyndig end sin elev (Nasb al-raya (9.82), 1.5). Maliki skolen havde Ibn ’Abd al-Barr (al-A’lam (9.83), 8.240), og Qadi Iyad (al-Shafi (9.40), 1.21), mens Hanbali skolen havde Imam ’Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Jawzi (Daf’ shubah al-tashbih (9.28), 24-26) og Ibn Rajab (Sharh ’Ilal al-Tirmidhi (9.37), 1.7). Det er tydeligt at man ville være nødsaget til at ”stå meget tidligt op om morgenen”, for at finde en hadith, som disse Imamer ikke kendte.

Bortset fra hadith, har antallet af madhhabernes lærde og deres specialisering i andre felter ligeledes resulteret i et legeme af juridisk arbejde, der i sit bevismateriale, omfang og detaljer kræver mere end en overfladisk affærdigelse med sloganer om ”blindt at følge madhhahib”.
Slutteligt, hvis uddannelsesmæssige nødvendigheder såsom at fremstille lærde specialiserede nok til at kunne lære og undervise en bestemt madhhab, historisk set har resulteret i muslimers geografiske tilknytninger til den ene eller anden af skolerne, eksempelvis Maliki skolen i Nord– og Vestafrika, eller Hanafi skolen i Pakistan og Indien—er deres tilslutning til deres forfædres skoler ikke en blind tradition, men snarere en tradition af at følge solid videnskabelig praksis [retslære]. Og dette er noget [der er] prisværdigt indenfor den Islamiske etik og ikke daddelværdigt.














[i] Nuh Ha Mim Keller, al-Maqasid: Nawawi’s Manual of Islam, Appendix 8.1 (Maryland: Amana, 2002).
[ii] Introduktionen til al-Maqasid, Imam Nawawis vaerk oversat af Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller som artiklen er taget fra.
[iii] Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller, oversætteren af Al-Maqasid.
[iv] Artiklen er oprindeligt skrevet på engelsk.
[v] Nuh Ha Mim Keller, al-Maqasid: Nawawi’s Manual of Islam, Appendix 8.2 (Maryland: Amana, 2002).

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Artikel samling af Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller

Shaykh Nuh Kellers artikler om traditionel islam har laenge vaeret nogle af de bedste artikler paa omraadet der med dybe videnskablige argumenter tilbageviser mange af de angreb modernister og ahl-ul-bid'a generelt udsaetter ahl-us-sunnah for.

En raekke af hans vigtigste artikler paa omraader som Aqeeda, Fiqh og Tassawuf er blevet samlet i en' struktureret tekst som er tilgaengelig paa:

http://www.ahl-ul-hadith.dk/ebooks/a_primer_on_traditional_islam.pdf

eller hvis dette link ikke skulle virke paa www.al-islam.dk under online boeger sektionen.

Maa disse tekster insha allah vaere til gavn for saa mange som muligt.

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Immigrants, Muslims and “New Danes”

Islamica Magazine Issue 16, June 2006

By Omar Sayyid Shah

Due to a glitch of some sort the version appearing in the printed edition of Islamica Magazine is not the last edited version of the article submitted incorporating developments in the "cartoon crisis". As a consequence some variation can be found between the article below and the printed version.
For a complimentary article published in Q-News February 2006, analysing the specific development of the cartoon crisis please see http://al-miftah.blogspot.com/2006/02/something-rotten-in-state-of-denmark.html


A fairytale land?

The turmoil following the “Prophet cartoons” case has generated unprecedented publicity for Denmark, and turned many people’s perception of the little country on its head. It is not without reason that the current situation is called Denmark’s worst crisis in 50 years. If anything the conflict proves just how far the present Danish society and its model is from the Anglo-Saxon and American models. Many recent commentaries on Denmark have highlighted the difficulty outsiders have in grasping the complexities or depth of the “clash” taking place in continental Europe and particularly in Denmark.

So was this case, as some people suggest, an isolated incident perpetrated by “a few idiots”? Are Danish politicians and opinion makers innocent in this, and are Muslims themselves largely to blame for the current crisis for not having reached out to non-Muslims, or even alienated them? Or is this a view that might have been true if the crisis had occurred 20 years ago, not today?

To answer all these questions, it is important to dig deeper and assess the origins of the current situation in all its facets and understand the dynamics within the Danish society.

“My Team”

“Because it isn’t Denmark, and at least they’ve got Ibrahimovic [the Bosnian player]. How many Muslims or even immigrants do you see on the Danish team?”

This was the reply when my friend complained that 11 out of the 12 Danish citizens of immigrant origins who were watching a football (soccer) match between Denmark and Sweden during the Euro 2004 competition supported Sweden. This example highlights a fundamental difference between Denmark, my country of birth, and Britain, my “adopted country.” When British Muslim friends traveled to Portugal to support the English team, my “Danish” friends supported teams that were either not Denmark or at least had immigrant players.

Norman Tebbit, a veteran British Conservative politician, is famous for devising “the cricket test” in 1990. He argued that Indians and Pakistanis in England who supported their “home” teams over the English could not be considered truly British.
However, the support in the above example was not for their “home” countries, but for another European country, a failure of the “cricket test” taken to a new level.

Of course, there are second-generation immigrants in Denmark who would support the Danish team, but the above example is by no means uncommon and it sums up two important points regarding Muslims in Denmark:
1) A lack of attachment is felt by even well-educated second-generation immigrants, and
2) A very strong cross-cultural and cross-national bond is felt by immigrants and Muslims in particular.
This situation is the product of several factors that have made the Danish experience unique with respect to other European countries.

The first of these factors is the historical background and pretext for immigration. Although immigrants started arriving in the 1960s and 1970s, there was no massive influx from the country’s former colonies for the simple reason that Denmark never had any of importance. Therefore, the Danish immigrant and Muslim population is one of the most multiethnic in Europe, without dominant groups as seen in Britain, France and Germany. (see table)

The absence of a significant colonial history meant that immigrants arrived without knowledge of Danish society or without the built-in admiration for European culture often found among immigrants from former British and French colonies. The absence also meant that there were few individuals in Denmark with knowledge of foreign cultures. When immigrants began to arrive, they found a country that was 99% Protestant and virtually ethnically homogenous. Now less than 40 years later, 6% of the Danish population is of “non-Western” origin; two thirds of these (4% of the total population) are Muslims. In a country with no tradition for ethnic diversity, this has been a significant change in a short span of time.

Secularism, Christianity or plain xenophobia?

“Not all values are equally valid and our society is superior. Medieval Islamic culture can never be as valid as ours.” These are the words of Danish Cultural Minister Brian Mikkelsen in a speech last year regarding the “cultural battle” he sees between “Danish” and “Muslim” values. These views, far from being extreme, sum up the stance pushed by Danish politicians and opinion makers across the political spectrum. The Danish perception of nationhood and national identity is very different from an openly multicultural society such as Britain, or an immigrant country such as the United States.

To readers unfamiliar with Danish politics, Mikkelsen’s position may seem somewhat extreme. But quotes by various members of the Danish parliament over the last 10 years illustrate how deeply ingrained the view is that immigrants and their cultures are an inferior alien element:

“Many immigrants think that the Muslim culture is equal to the Danish, and expect us to accept this position.” Karen Jespersen, former interior minister (Social Democrats)

“In 1900, they would not have been able to imagine that so many neighborhoods in Copenhagen would be inhabited by people from a lower level of civilization.” Pia Kjaersgaard (head of the Danish People’s Party, which is anti-immigration)

“Denmark is not multiethnic and will not be multiethnic.” Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, former prime minister (Social Democrats)

“Muslims should be interned in camps, better to be safe than sorry.” Inge Dahl-Soerensen (Liberal Party)

“Muslim youth consider it a right to rape Danish girls…and are like a cancer that should be surgically removed.” Louise Frevert (Danish People’s Party)

It is worth noting that the Danish People’s Party is not a fringe party, but the third largest in parliament with 14% of the votes. Louise Frevert also admitted to forwarding text messages calling for a boycott of Danish Muslim shops in response to the recent boycott of Danish goods in the Middle East.

The Danish media largely backs these views and has contributed to the current climate.
As the cartoon incident has highlighted, “freedom of speech” is a value cherished highly by the Danish media, and statements regarding Islam and Muslims, which would be considered in poor taste in other countries, regularly make it to print. According to an editorial in Jyllands-Posten (Denmark’s largest broadsheet) last year, “Islam and Christianity do not have the same God, as the Christian God is a loving God while the Muslim God is vengeful.”

This is the same broadsheet that had the infamous caricatures published, one of which depicted the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban and another with an entourage of women in the background. This initially achieved its aim and sparked the expected response from the local Muslim community and a debate about the “freedom of speech” and “Muslim sensitivities,” which went on for a couple of months. However, events took an unexpected turn when Danish Muslims and ambassadors from Muslim countries to Denmark, after having been shunned, took the case abroad. The rest is now history as the fallout continues.
One sad note is that the muted response from the Danish Muslim community had less to do with restraint than with resignation, as these types of events are far from unique in Denmark.

In recent years, the concept “Christian foundations of the nation” has made a remarkable appearance in Danish politics despite the fact that Denmark is one of the most secular countries in Europe, with the majority of the population being self-confessed agnostic or atheist. Right-wing parties have seized upon their Christian heritage and cynics note that the Christian declaration of faith seems to have been reduced to “I am not a Muslim.”
Not surprisingly, this climate has led to Muslims’ ingrained mistrust of the media and the political process, which many Muslims now completely boycott. However, for those Muslims who did have political aspirations, political parties have been incapable of accommodating them.

Participation in politics at the parliamentary and even local levels has been off-limits to those Muslims who are not perceived to entirely adhere to “Danish values.” There have been a number of high-profile cases in which Muslims were forced to leave political parties because they viewed the Shariah as an inseparable part of Islam, despite the fact that these views had no direct bearing on Danish politics. Their protests that they did not seek to implement the Shariah were deemed irrelevant.

The Danish parliament does have three members of Muslim origin. However, to put things in perspective, one of them, Kamal Qureishi, is a proponent of homosexual couples’ right to adopt, while another, Nasser Khader, wrote “Honor and Shame,” a highly slanderous book about Islamic culture that ridicules Muslims as being backward and contains more than a hundred factual errors about Islam, including that the Prophet Muhammad had written the Qur’an, or that Muslims today believe that the earth is flat. These are the examples and standards by which other Muslim politicians are judged.
Khader has also launched an “alternative” Muslim group called Democratic Muslims in the wake of the cartoon case. This has become quite a hit among non-Muslims and particularly anti-religious Muslim personalities in Denmark.

In addition to an obsession with the Shariah, there is deep aversion toward public manifestations of Islam, including all Islamic symbols and visible practices. Muslim gatherings that have separate seating arrangements for men and women are routinely called archaic, the Muslim dress is seen with alarm bells, and requests for days off for Eid as well as prayer rooms in the universities or workplace have been discussed in parliament as being counterproductive to integration. The absence of a developed Muslim infrastructure (e.g. no purpose-built mosques, structures that were designed and built as mosques), despite the presence of almost 200,000 Muslims, displays a lack of physical roots, a metaphor for the absence of emotional roots for many young Muslims.

Politicians seem to be more occupied with fighting cultural battles than focusing on integration despite high levels of unemployment, even for Muslims educated in Denmark. The Danish parliament has recently adopted laws widely seen as being directed toward curbing the number of Muslims in Denmark, including a law banning Danish citizens (as well as residents) from getting married to people from abroad until both parties are at least 24 years old, and a law enabling the deportation of Danes to the country their parents immigrated from as a punishment for crimes. The parliament recently debated the mandatory spreading of immigrant students across schools to have fewer in each class. The main benefit envisaged was not academic progress but rather that teachers would have an easier time teaching subjects such as history and social studies, which “Highly politicized Muslim students usually sabotaged!”


Muslim gangstaz?

“New Dane is an insult! We’re not Danes, at all!” - A common response to the politicians’ effort to replace the phrase “second-generation immigrants” with “New Danes.”

With the prevailing hostile attitude toward immigrant cultures and Islam, it is little wonder then that the youth have developed a relatively strong “non-Danish” or even “anti-Danish” immigrant identity (including non-Muslim immigrants), espousing a sense of isolation and a cult of victimization. This has fostered a relatively strong and vocal reactionary minority culture, what Tariq Ramadan terms a ghetto mentality. “Perker” (racist slang for a brown person) and “guest worker” are words routinely used by second-generation minority youth as a badge of honor. There is a lot of pride associated with being “immigrant” to the extent that when “New Danes” was coined as a politically correct term, it was widely ridiculed because it contained the word “Danes.” Although Muslims are dominant in the immigrant subculture, it’s by no means an exclusively Muslim phenomenon and it has built strong bridges between Muslim and non-Muslim immigrants, which is not the feature of most European countries.

Contrary to common prejudice, the dominant culture of the youth is not exactly an eastern culture, but rather it’s a Western culture with eastern elements. It is based on the American Black and Latino minority cultures but with additional Islamic elements, manifesting itself in clothes, music, sports and attitude. Despite not having endured 400 years of slavery, the Danish society’s attitude has led its youth to readily identify with Black American culture and many have the same feeling of being oppressed by “the white man.” This feeling of perpetual victimization (though sometimes justified) is a major hindrance to progress, as it’s an excuse for Muslim youth to avoid responsibility.

Many see themselves not only as “immigrants” before being Danes, but also see themselves as immigrants (and, in the last five years, increasingly as Muslims) before being Pakistanis, Turks, Arabs, etc. The conversations among second-generation immigrants are almost entirely in Danish as they are made up of so many different nationalities. There is also a very high level of intermarriage between Muslims from different ethnic groups. Researchers have been surprised to note that intermarriage between non-Muslim Danes and the second generation is much lower than intermarriage across ethnic Muslim groups within the second generation. This phenomenon indicates that Muslim youth still marry primarily “within their group,” but that this group is wider than in most other European countries where it is usually restricted to the immigrants’ nationalities or related nationalities.

As the youth culture gravitates toward Islam, there are complaints that the public sphere is becoming increasingly Islamisized, a comment aimed primarily at how Muslim women dress. Girls wearing black jelbabs while listening to rap music is not an uncommon sight. Ten years ago, it would have been difficult to find a non-Arab or a young Arab wearing a jelbab or even the hijab (head covering). But it has now become the default clothing of religious and even semi-religious girls. This is partly because of the immense success of Salafism and Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HT), which consider wearing the jelbab an obligation. But perhaps even more importantly, it has become a signal of defiance because it’s a garment the Danish society hates. As Muslim immigrants are increasingly being seen as Muslims by the Danish society, they adopt the same view themselves. Apart from the rising practice of Islam by many Muslims (which the Danes also consider alarming), there is an increased feeling of loyalty among Muslims, and the Islamic language and symbols are being adopted by Muslims who are generally not considered “practicing.” For example, it is not uncommon to hear semi-religious Muslims defend owning guns by saying “It’s sunnah to be strapped!”

The glorification of “thug life,” imported from American minority cultures, and a mistrust of Danish authorities have unfortunately contributed to Muslims, even religious ones, being highly tolerant of Muslim criminals. Some openly display pride in “achievements” such as gangs of “Muslim” youth increasingly moving into territories once the exclusive domain of fearsome Danish biker gangs. Muslims also “run” several jails, only possible because they sadly account for more than a third of the prison population in Copenhagen.

This tolerant attitude and even pride in crime comes from mistrusting authorities. The police are considered institutionally racist and the judiciary is seen as biased, as may be evidenced by the contrasting punishments given to immigrant and Danish criminals for similar crimes. The law enabling the deportation of criminals born and raised in Denmark has increased mistrust of authorities instead of acting as a deterrent. Uncompromising loyalty is a highly regarded virtue among the youth, making it virtually impossible for the police to recruit a sizeable number of Muslim or immigrant officers. A stigma is attached to being in the police, which is commonly viewed as treason!

However, Muslims in Denmark are still not marred by social problems anywhere near the level present among communities in some European countries in terms of drug abuse and the breakdown of families.

The “immigrant” culture in general has become more synonymous with being Muslim, as evidenced by the skyrocketing number of “brown” converts of partial or non-Danish origin. One of the largest groups of converts is in fact youth who have Muslim fathers but were raised by non-Muslim mothers. It is increasingly common to see these youth gravitate first toward immigrants, then eventually toward Islam as they get older. There also are many converted Iranians and Bosnians who were raised atheists.

Conversions in general have risen dramatically since 9/11, with several hundred a year especially among the white youth who grew up with Muslims in the “ghettoes.” They seem to be integrating well with the multiethnic Muslim community, and it is extremely rare to find two converts married to each other as most wish to join the wider Muslim (immigrant) community rather than set themselves apart.


Danish, “immigrant” or global Islam

“There is no such thing as a Danish Islam — Islam is One.” – A common view among young Muslims in Denmark.

The relative success of different Muslim groups is clearly correlated with the attitude of the establishment. Uncompromising and increasingly nationalistic tones have provided opponents of integration with ammunition, and with Denmark participating in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, many Danish Muslims see the ideological struggle in Denmark and abroad as one and the same — stemming from the Western belief in the superiority of its values over those of Muslims.

The groups with the most following have combined an uncompromising stance and a mastering of Arabic terminology (seen as a sign of empowerment) while using the Danish language as a medium of instruction. Khutbas, which tend not to be in Danish, are poorly attended while lectures in Danish, which take place independently of the mosques, are packed. Due to the immigrants’ multiethnic identity, the youth seek environments in which all their friends fit in regardless of ethnic origin. Multiethnic groups have also been extremely popular with converts who don’t want to be a third wheel in immigrant groups, but also have an aversion toward organizing themselves in “white Muslim societies,” as was the case with some older Danish male converts.

In general there has been a great shift from the first to the second generation. “Immigrant” Islam is perceived as non-authentic, having lost out to more international or “Arab” versions, whether it be in the shape of Salafism, HT or “traditional scholarship,” with the last trailing the first two.

In addition, the Islam that appears confident and proud is also attracting more adherents at the expense of those who are perceived as compromising and subservient, as Muslims in Denmark generally take immense pride in being Muslim (even if not practicing). Salafis and HT are seen as being very true to their principles and are widely admired even by non-religious youth.

There is widespread contempt for Muslims who seem to compromise their religion in the hope of obtaining favors from the very politicians who routinely humiliate Muslims. HT, apart from being the first group to teach in Danish, has had success rates in reforming Muslim criminals that social workers could only dream of. Its greatest selling point, however, has been the notion of a khilafah (caliphate). The concept strikes a chord with many Muslims in Denmark: ONE nation (not Denmark) in which they and all their friends would be countrymen is seen as ideal. HT also has a very large number of converts and about 20% of its members and supporters are Danish, a feat unrivalled by any group.

Although Salafi thoughts are becoming increasingly dominant among the youth, this is mainly because of the literature available rather than organizational prowess. Hardcore Salafis are numerically insignificant as compared with Britain, but Salafi thoughts, such as opposition to schools of thought and Sufism, are widespread.

“Moderate” Islam (though not moderate enough for Denmark) is represented by a group known as Muslims in Dialogue (MID). The core group is made up of the former youth wing of Minhaj-ul-Quran (MUQ) that broke away from the main group in 2003. But MID has since distanced itself from its former Pakistani Barelvi image and has adopted a more multiethnic outlook to have a broader appeal. As opposed to HT, MID’s focus is more on Denmark and less on the “ummah.” In Denmark, as opposed to Britain, enthusiasm for a Danish Islam is found primarily among non-Muslims, while many Muslims consider the term almost an obscenity. Muslims who do push for a Danish Islam, such as MID to some extent, mainly do so to remove their “immigrant religion” tag. Interestingly, very few younger Danish converts support this idea, as opposed to older Danish converts and some second-generation Pakistanis.

Removing the blinkers

Over the last 10 years, one can find very few examples of meaningful dialogue, neither in times of “peace” nor in situations such as the current turmoil. Muslims have become increasingly mistrusting of the establishment, and the politicians and media are increasingly mistrusting of Muslims.

Sociologists’ predictions that second-generation Muslims would adopt Western values en masse and break with their backgrounds have not materialized. Although many have broken with their ethnic backgrounds, this has not meant an increased sense of Danishness; rather the vacuum has been filled with religion and an almost tribal multiethnic immigrant identity.

The feeling of having been scorned is hard to miss in the rhetoric of Danish politicians and opinion makers. The fact that poor Third World people are allowed into the paradise that was Denmark and could have the audacity to take pride in an “archaic faith and medieval culture” has been hard to stomach. The government’s insistence on sidelining religious figures and speaking only to representatives of secular and ethnic organizations also has been counterproductive. The argument is that by speaking to the imams, one gets the impression that religion, or Islam, has a legitimate role to play in politics, something inconceivable! It is fair to conclude that this perpetual humiliation of imams has not exactly diminished the appeal of the Islam that flourishes outside the mosques.

In the wake of the July bombings in London, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen for the first time arranged a meeting with leading Danish imams to discuss how they could help the government monitor (“dangerous”) currents among the Muslims. A similar meeting was arranged between the Danish Intelligence and the imams. Unfortunately this didn’t last as the imams and religious Muslims were ignored with respect to the cartoon issue. However the prime minister has been quick to reach out to secular and even overtly anti-religious Muslims.

It seems that the government has barely realized that if it wants to weaken the “radical” elements among Muslims, it must be seen to be speaking with at least some Muslims who have not abandoned all but their names. The imams who accepted the government’s invitation also find themselves between a rock and a hard place, as accusations of treason and “selling out” are already being made.

One could argue that Muslims have only been in Denmark for 40 years and that it takes time for integration, which has only just begun. However, the situation has far from improved in the past decade. Denmark is getting increasingly involved militarily against Muslims abroad and the peculiar combination of secular fundamentalism and “nationalist Christianity” is growing. But, the Muslims are still being talked about, not to.
It’s not all bad in Denmark. Both the unique level of cohesiveness between born and convert Muslims — which has not been seen in many European countries — and the strong sense of pride in Islam can ensure dynamism and vibrancy in the Muslim community. Despite the stigmatization of Muslims, the number of converts seems to grow exponentially. However, to progress from here, the Danish establishment needs to at least accept the reality and be willing to engage with those Muslims who do want to participate in society but are not willing to give up their religion. It takes more than a few smiles to your neighbors or calling yourself Danish to rectify the situation Denmark is in. To find a lasting solution, all aspects of the conflict must be considered including aspects not clearly visible to foreigners visiting Denmark for a few days!

To answer our original question, the current climate is not the work of a few people; rather it is rooted in the Danish society. A serious effort based on serious understanding rather than simple sloganeering is necessary to turn Denmark into the fairytale land some people still perceive it to be. Muslims have certain problems in Denmark, but serious attempts for Muslims to interact with society have repeatedly been shot down, and Muslims unwilling to forego their beliefs have been shunned. To place the main blame for the current situation on the Muslims of Denmark would constitute a gross injustice.
To sum it all up the Danish State Prosecutor has just ruled (as in the Louise Frevert case), that there are no grounds for a case against Jyllandsposten. A decision which makes the words of the prime-minister, that Muslims should take their grievances to the courts ring so much more hollow. Once again strongly giving the impression that the Danish society really does not contain impartial mechanisms for the Muslims to seek recourse.

It does not seem like the blinkers are going to come off anytime soon, so it may be a while before a group of 12 football-loving friends will be wholeheartedly cheering the Danish team as their team.


Omar Sayyid Shah is of Afghan/Danish origin, born in Denmark and now residing in the UK. He has participated extensively in the Danish debate on immigration and religion through political commentaries in leading Danish broadsheets, and has contributed to two books on the subject; “Islam. Christianity and modernity” (2004) and “With other eyes” (2003), both published in Danish.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Moderate, troende og 'demokratiske' muslimer?

Politiken 8. maj 2006

Det vrimler med forfejlede beskrivelser af muslimer: moderate, kritiske, demokratiske, fundamentalistiske og så videre. Og det er lige før, en 'acceptabel muslim' nødvendigvis skal være ateist, kulturmuslim eller ikkepraktiserende. Men en sekularistisk fanatisme vil føre til fremvæksten af parallelsamfund.

Af Omar Shah

Man siger, kært barn har mange navne, og at dømme efter den mængde af tillægsord, der bruges og konstant udvikles til at beskrive muslimers tilhørsforhold i den ene eller den anden lejr, burde vi være nogle af de højest elskede borgere i Danmark.

I takt med at muslimerne optager mere og mere af mediernes og politikernes opmærksomhed (langt over 4 procent af tiden/pladsen, vi burde gøre os fortjent til), kommer flere og flere definitioner på banen. Dette kan tolkes som et forsøg på at klassificere den ukendte størrelse islam og muslimer og proppe dem i nogle kasser med letforståelige mærkater, så selv Jyllands-Postens og B.T.s læsere kan følge med.

Til trods for de forskellige ord, der bruges, lader de fleste dog stadig til at være variationer af de to rigide størrelser 'de moderate muslimer' og 'fundamentalisterne', selv om definitionen på, hvem der falder i hvilken lejr, kan variere alt efter konteksten, og hvem der bedømmer.

To produkter af JP-krisen, Asmaa Abdol-Hamid som tv-vært og specielt stiftelsen af foreningen Demokratiske Muslimer, har i høj grad givet klassificeringslysten endnu et skub. Og specielt spørgsmålene om, hvad det egentlig betyder at være demokrat eller islamist, har fået ny prominens.

Et af de første hovedbrud, man støder på i klassificeringsspillet er, hvad der egentlig konstituerer en troende muslim. På trods af Danmarks lille størrelse er den muslimske befolkning her utroligt broget, og det er svært at generalisere på tværs af sekter, nationaliteter og ikke mindst graden af tro/praksis. Spørgsmålet om, hvad en troende og ikketroende muslim er, og om hvorvidt man som troende per definition er 'fundamentalist', er desværre alligevel længe blevet diskuteret på en yderst usmagelig måde og desværre alt for ofte med voldsomme generaliseringer, der opstiller et sort-hvidt billede, hvor man er enten-eller.

Denne model blev også i høj grad brugt under JP-krisen til at bedømme, hvem der egentlig var for eller imod karikaturerne. Igen og igen fik vi at vide, at »imamer som Abu Laban højst repræsenterer 5 procent af Danmarks muslimer, og at resten faktisk er moderate« uden hensyntagen til alle nuancerne. Men hvis man ikke kan forholde sig til to fundamentale fakta, er det umuligt at danne sig et meningsfyldt billede af Danmarks muslimer.

For det første er der stor forskel på at være ikketroende og ikkepraktiserende.

For det andet er der også stor forskel på at have et tilhørsforhold til islam (som identitetsmarkør) og ikke at have det, uanset graden af praksis.

Mange muslimer i Danmark har et forhold til religionen som det, man finder i katolske lande, med en stor symbolsk tilknytning til troen, der især viser sig ved højtider som ramadanen, mens det kniber lidt med den daglige praksis. Disse muslimer passer ikke ind i nogen af de to lejre, der er opstillet.

Endvidere er der stor forskel på ’mindre troende’ muslimer, ’ikketroende’ muslimer, og endelig ’antitroende’ med muslimsk baggrund. De tre grupper omtales ofte, som om de var en størrelse. Specielt den sidste gruppe har i mange henseender fået lov til uanfægtet at fremstå som moderate muslimer på trods af medlemmernes stærke antiparti mod religionen i sig selv. Politikere og medier har været med til at promovere sådanne individer, og med sådanne forbilleder som ’gode muslimer’ er de fleste andre partout blevet stemplet som fundamentalister.
Blandt Danmarks unge muslimer findes der også mange, som har svært ved den daglige praksis, men for hvem islam stadig er den vigtigste identitetsmarkør, mens der ligeledes findes muslimer, der praktiserer mange aspekter af deres tro, men ikke ser det at være muslim som en identitet i sig selv.

Som med trosaspektet (fundamentalister vs. moderate) bliver der med hensyn til det politiske aspekt igen ofte opstillet to rigide størrelser: En muslim kan enten være demokrat eller islamist, en form for klassificering, der ofte leder til interessante konklusioner.
Den tørklædebærende Asmaa Abdol-Hamid er således blevet stemplet som islamist, på trods af at hun er medlem af Enhedslisten, mens Nihad Riazi pludselig er blevet muslim (om end en demokratisk en af slagsen), på trods af at hun er selverklæret ateist. Denne unuancerede opdeling af mennesker som demokrater og islamister er kun blevet forstærket af JP-krisen, og på den måde er Jyllands-Postens 12 tegninger ikke de eneste karikaturer i denne sag.

Imamerne er igen blevet karikeret som religiøse mørkemænd, der har nedkaldt alskens forbandelser over lille sagesløse Danmark, mens Naser Khader og Co. er superheltene, der vover liv og lemmer for at tage et opgør med disse skurke. Igen et todimensionalt billede, der burde opfattes som en hån mod danskernes intelligens.
Det er naivitet af allerhøjeste grad at formode, at en person som Khader repræsenterer alle dem, Abu Laban ikke gør. En ung hashrygende muslim fra Nørrebro, der godt kan lide at tage i byen og måske til nød beder en gang om ugen om fredagen, er måske ikke praktiserende, men dette betyder ikke per automatik, at han er ’moderat’ i en fordansket version.

Tværtimod har mange i denne målgruppe udpræget foragt for dem, de ser som Onkel Tom-perkere.
Demokratiske Muslimer har som sagt fået megen ros og er udråbt til at være det nye ’muslimske’ håb, præcis som Kritiske Muslimer blev det i sin tid. Det er faktisk lidt af et paradoks, at Hadi Khan, der dengang var superdemokrat, nu pludselig er fundamentalist i forhold til Naser Khader. Forløbet kan sammenlignes med et evolutionsforløb, hvor første stadie var kritiske muslimer, andet stadie, vi er ved nu, er demokratiske muslimer for måske til sidst at ende med den gode muslim over dem alle – den ikkemuslimske muslim! Det er også værd at bemærke, at Demokratiske Muslimer har mange gange flere (danske) ikkemuslimske støttemedlemx mer, end den har medlemmer af muslimsk oprindelse.

Foreningen har fået en medieomtale og opbakning fra ikke-muslimer, der overgår alt, hvad der tidligere er set, og har endvidere formået at samle så godt som alle antimuslimske indvandrerpersonligheder, hvilket må siges at være en ikke så lille bedrift endda, selv om der lader til at være en klar overvægt af eksiliranere og tidligere venstreorienterede arabere. Mennesker som defineret ovenfor er, ikke som mange fejlagtigt tror, mindre troende muslimer, men derimod direkte antitroende. Nasser Khader har aldrig lagt skjul på sit syn på troende muslimer, og ej heller har en person som ateisten Nahid Riazi.
Disse personer er oftest, hvor danske de end måtte hævde at være, et produkt af de regimer og lidelser, de har vendt ryggen – ikke mindst med hensyn til fanatisme og totalitær tankegang. Eksiliranere som Nahid Riazi, Mehdi Mozaferi og Kamran Tahmasebi ser islamiske spøgelser overalt, mens desillusionerede arabiske socialister som Fathi El-Abed har set islamisterne i deres hjemlande kapre kunder fra de arabiske socialistpartier, der var så populære i tresserne og halvfjerdserne.
Sådanne individer lader således deres hjemlandes tabte kampe udspille sig her i Danmark, mens både de danske muslimer og den generelle danske befolkning, som ikke er skyld i de traumer, personerne måtte have oplevet i hjemlandene, skal belemres med den paranoide og yderst destruktive heksejagt, der blokerer for meningsfulde initiativer.

I forlængelse af dette er det bemærkelsesværdigt, at ledelsesstilen i Demokratiske Muslimer heller ikke er specielt dansk, men derimod yderst autoritær, som vi kender den fra Mellemøsten. Om det er palæstinensiske Yassir Arafat eller syriske Bashar Al-Assad, der har virket som inspiration for Naser Khader, er ikke godt at vide, men man kan ane visse ligheder mellem Demokratiske Muslimer og Hizb-al-Baath, der igen og igen klart kommer til udtryk i måden, hvorpå Nasser reagerer på kritik, hvad enten det er fra partifæller som Margrete Vestager eller rivaler som Hadi Khan. Der er kort sagt én vej, nemlig partifaderens. Denne infantile opførsel er hverken dansk eller demokratisk, men alligevel er den blevet målestokken for, hvordan en muslim skal forholde sig til tro og til demokratiet.

Demokratiske Muslimers succes (nøjagtig som Kritiske Muslimers tidligere succes) skal ses i lyset af den stigende dogmatisering af den sekularistiske tro og den dertilhørende jagt på ’kættere’, der er blevet normen i mange europæiske lande. Et fænomen, der er lidt af et paradoks, da denne form for fanatisme og jagt på anderledes tænkende netop er noget, religioner og dens udøvere tit beskyldes for.

Hetzen mod troende muslimer i politik er ikke helt ny, og vi har set den i forskellige afskygninger lige fra Minhaj-sagen til den tidligere mediedarling Sherin Khankans fald, da hun nægtede at underskrive en resolution imod sharia.
Denne inkvisition lader ikke den spanske meget tilbage og med udsagn fra personer som Asger Aamund om, at medlemskab af Demokratiske Muslimer bør give lettere adgang til job (hvoraf det må kunne konkluderes, at manglende medlemskab må have den modsatte effekt), er vi ovre i det groteske.
Den implicitte betydning af dette er, at hvis man ikke ønsker at afsværge visse dele af sin tro (og således kvalificere sig til at være i selskab med mennesker som Naser Khader og Nahid Riazi), må man finde sig i at blive reduceret til andenrangsborger uden at kunne gøre sig håb om hverken job eller politisk indflydelse af nogen art.

Hvordan dette skulle fordre god integration er svært at se.
At true med eksklusion fra arbejdsmarkedet giver netop ammunition til de kredse, der ikke mener, det er muligt at bidrage til samfundet, samtidig med at man beholder sin tro. Birte Rønn Hornbech er en af de få politikere med en forståelse for, hvordan religionen påvirker politik hos troende mennesker, men desværre er hendes holdninger en sjældenhed.

Skal man tro en af medstifterne af Demokratiske Muslimer Kamran Tahmasebi, er det mere eller mindre en umulighed at være demokrat og muslim samtidig.

I en udtalelse til JP 1. april siger han, at en praktiserende muslim ikke kan være demokrat, og »at man som demokratisk muslim er nødt til klart at kritisere islam og Koranens fortolkning af vores levemåde«. Hans udtalelse er en implicit indrømmelse af, at han ikke opfatter særlig mange af foreningens medlemmer som praktiserende muslimer, og man kan spørge sig selv, om kulturmuslimske og ateistiske demokrater måske ikke ville have været et mere præcist navn for foreningen? At dømme efter udtalelser fra flere ledende medlemmer er afstandtagen fra islam som religion lige så vigtig for foreningen, som nogen snak om demokrati er, og det er ærlig talt svært at se, hvordan en religionsforskrækket selverklæret ateist som Nahid Riazi overhovedet kan betegnes som demokratisk muslim.

Men kan man så være troende muslim og demokrat samtidig? Svarer afhænger i høj grad af, hvordan man definerer demokrati, da det aldrig har været en rigid størrelse.
Hvis det at være demokrat betyder, at fru Jensen, fru Hansen og hr. Petersen til sammen udgør den øverste moralske autoritet, der bestemmer, hvad der er godt og skidt, og at børnepornografi i forlængelse af denne bemyndigelse burde være tilladt og accepteret i samfundet, hvis bare 51 procent af den danske befolkning gik ind for det, så udelukker det at være troende muslim klart at være demokrat. Hvis en demokrat derimod er en person, der går ind for en proces, hvorved regenterne vælges ved valg, der afgøres ved flertallets beslutning, så er der ingen modsætninger.

I den konkrete situation, der omhandler deltagelse i parlamentsvalg i vestlige lande, kan vi som muslimer ikke komme uden om (og bør ikke forsøge at skjule), at der både er muslimske lærde og grupper, der mener, at det er tilladt (og prisværdigt) at deltage, og muslimske lærde og grupper, der mener, det ikke er tilladt. De, der er imod deltagelse, argumenterer for, at man deltager i en proces, der ved et simpelt flertal kan legitimere alskens uhyrligheder, mens de, der argumenterer for, at man bør deltage, netop bruger argumentet om, at ens deltagelse kan være med til at forhindre vedtagelsen af disse.
Det burde ikke kunne chokere nogen, at en muslims holdning til politiske spørgsmål utvivlsomt vil påvirkes af hans livssyn, men på den anden side bør det heller ikke glemmes, at muslimer – tro det eller ej – præcis som andre borgere også har holdninger til skattetrykket, miljøpolitikken osv. At nogle sager, specielt hvad angår etik, integrations- og udenrigspolitik, optager muslimer i høj grad, betyder ikke, at andre opfattes som irrelevante.

Som troende muslim står man utvivlsomt tilbage med et svært valg. Hvis man deltager i politik (som f.eks. Asmaa Abdol-Hamid), er man selvsagt en del af en femtekolonne, men hvis man ikke deltager, er man derimod antidemokrat og uintegreret.

Det at være ’demokrat’ er i sig selv blevet gjort til det største kriterium for en persons evne til at være til gavn for Danmark. En dansk sofavælger, der aldrig har stemt i sit liv, udstilles ikke som en fare for nationens sikkerhed, mens en muslim, der ikke skilter med, at han eller hun er demokrat, automatisk bliver stigmatiseret.
Denne kafkaske proces vil højst sandsynligt ikke producere flere glade velintegrerede borgere, tværtimod. Vi har i Danmark i dag en situation, hvor det at være troende/praktiserende muslim ikke opfattes som værende kompatibelt med demokratiet, nationens styreform, samtidig med at vi har kræfter, der i ramme alvor mener, at mennesker, der ikke er rede til at smide de fleste aspekter af deres tro fra sig, bør udelukkes fra job og indflydelse.

Tilbage står vi med spørgsmålene: Skal den acceptable muslim være enten ateist, ’kulturmuslim’ eller ikkepraktiserende? Hvis dette er tilfældet, er det bestemt ikke befordrende for sameksistensen, da man som muslim i så fald lige så godt kan opgive på forhånd, hvis man ikke er rede til at klippe en hæl eller hugge en tå! Den sekularistiske fanatisme vil kun accelerere dannelsen af parallelsamfund, en udvikling ingen af os i længden er tjent med.

Fakta
Omar Shah er økonom, revisor og kommentator.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Habib Ali tale London December 2005

http://www.radicalmiddleway.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43&Itemid=73

Habib Alis tale i Kensington, London 16 December 2005 er masha allah fuld af visdom som altid.

Talen er paa arabisk med engelsk oversaettelse.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Mawlid? - Answer by Ibn Adam Al-Kawthari

Nu hvor det snart er tid til Mawlid og den uendelige diskussion om tilladeligheden af denne handling genopblusser er en artikel som den foreliggende yderst nyttig.


Why do some Sunni Ulama- like the Dewbandis- prohibit the Mawlid?



Question # q-11251622
Date Posted: 30/06/2004


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In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,
In an age and time when Muslims are being attacked by the enemies of Islam from every angle possible, to debate and talk about something which is a non-issue (yes, a non-issue), such as “celebrating the Mawlid” is doing injustice to ourselves.

Thousands of Muslims are being massacred and persecuted day in day out, many are involved in all sorts of un-Islamic activities, youngsters are on the brink of disbelief (kufr), our young brothers and sisters are involved in drinking, drug abuse and fornication, yet here we are debating whether it is permissible to celebrate the birthday of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace).

I personally was reluctant to write on this subject, but my dear friend Sidi Faraz Rabbani ordered me to compile a piece explaining the Deobandi position with regards to the Mawlid. Thus, adhering to his command, I will endeavour to explain the ruling on celebrating the Mawlid, as understood by the Deobandi scholars.

Before explaining the Deobandi position on the Mawlid, I would like to emphasize that unfortunately many of our disputes, disagreements and arguments are due to not understanding (or not wanting to understand, should I say) the opposite parties stance on a particular issue. I have experienced this many times. This is a problem on both, the Deobandi and Barelwi, sides.

Rather than find excuses for the statements of fellow Muslims and interpret them so they are justified, we force people to believe something which they themselves no dot believe. In my personal experience, this is the main reason why so many Muslims are divided.

I hear some Deobandis claim that the Barelwis believe this and that, yet when I speak to some of our Barelwi brothers about the issue, they categorically state that this is not what we believe; rather…….and then they explain their stance. The case is same with the Barelwis, in that they themselves decide for the Deobandis that agree or disagree; this is what you believe, despite the Deobandis rejecting it.

This is quite unfortunate indeed. If we look at all the other religions, faiths, nations, groups, and organisations, they try and increase the numbers of their associates. The Christians claim that most of the world’s population are followers of their faith, and many other religions also try their best to include every individual in their religion who has a minor attachment to them, in order to increase the size of their following. However, Muslims are the only ones who try their best to decrease the Ummah of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) by forcing people to believe what they don’t, and reduce the Muslim Ummah as much as possible. We don’t hesitate for one moment in branding one another as disbelievers.

The great Hanafi Imam, Allama Ibn Abidin (Allah have mercy on him) states in his renowned Sharh Uqud Rasm al-Mufti:

“Branding someone a non-believer (kafir) is a great thing indeed; hence I do not label a believer as a non-believer as long as one sign of him believing is found….One should not issue a Fatwa of a believer’s disbelief (kufr) as long as it is possible to interpret his statement in a justified manner, or there is a difference of opinion regarding him disbelieving, even if there is a weak narration.” (Sharh Uqud Rasm al-Mufti, 1/36)

Thus, one should not haste in branding and terming other Muslims as disbelievers or sinners and innovators, for branding a Muslim a disbeliever is a grave thing indeed. The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him eternal peace) said: “Any person who calls his brother: O Unbeliever! (then the truth of this label) would return to one of them. If it is true, (then it is) as he asserted, (but if it is not true), then it returns to him (and thus the person who made the accusation is an Unbeliever).” (Sahih al-Bukhari, no. 6130 and Sahih Muslim, no. 60, reported by Ibn Umar, Allah be pleased with him)

Thus, it is very important that we have tolerance, patience and forbearance. We must be precautious in what we say. We should try and look for excuses for our fellow Muslim brothers and sisters. If a statement or viewpoint of a fellow Muslim seems incorrect, then rather than condemning the person, go and investigate as to whether it is true or otherwise. Don’t force others to believe what they themselves do not believe.

Many of the issues on which the Deobandis and Barelwis are divided are for this very reason. In reality, there is no “significant” difference, rather it is only a case of interpretation or how it was said, yet there is so much fuss made about it.

For example: The matter of whether the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) had knowledge of the unseen is made such an issue, but if we were to ponder deeply with cool headedness, it would become clear that there is no real difference.

The Deobandis state that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) had knowledge of many unseen things, but the knowledge was given to him by Allah Most High. Thus, one cannot call the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) the “knower of the unseen” (a’lim al-Ghayb), for that is used when one has knowledge of the unseen without someone else informing him. When I asked some of my Barelwi friends that do you believe that the messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) had knowledge of the unseen in a manner that Allah has? They said: “of course not” How can the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) be equal in knowledge to Allah. However, he had the knowledge of the unseen, but it was given to him by Allah Most High.

Now, when we look at these two positions, it becomes clear that both the Deobandis and Barelwis agree that the Messenger of Allah’s (Allah bless him & give him peace) Knowledge of the unseen was given to him by Allah Most High. The only minute difference is whether one can call him A’lim al-Ghayb or otherwise. The Deobandis state that because the knowledge was given to him by Allah most High, it is not correct to call him A’lim al-Ghayb, for that title is for someone who knows of the unseen without being informed by another. The Barelwis, on the other hand, say there is nothing wrong in giving this title to the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) even if the knowledge to him was given by Allah Most High.

Thus, the difference is very minute indeed, but rather than explain to people that it is a very minute difference, we make it a fundamental part of one’s Aqidah. The Deobandis insist that the Barelwis regard the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) to be equal to Allah, and that they regard his knowledge to be similar to that of Allah, whereas the Barelwis refuse to accept that the Deobandis also believe that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) also had knowledge of the unseen, and that they disrespect the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace)

The second point to remember is that we must abstain from using the various names and titles like Deobandis, Barewlis, etc. I myself have used these terms here, because I had no choice. I am explaining the differences of the two schools, thus it was indispensable for me to use them. But in our day-to-day conversations, we should not call ourselves and others but with the title of Muslims and Sunnis.

Allah Most High says:

“He has chosen you, and has imposed no difficulties on you in religion; it is the cult of your father Ibrahim. It is he who has named you Muslims, both before and in this (Revelation); that the Messenger may be a witness for you and you be witnesses for mankind.” (Surah al-Hajj, V. 78)

Thus, we must avoid using names other than that of being a Muslim. To use different names and titles in order to incite others and cause friction and disunity among Muslims is a grave sin, and must be avoided.

Once a student approached a Syrian Arab Scholar and said: “I need to ask you some questions, but before I do that, I need to know whether you are a Barelwi or Deobandi” He said: “I am a Muslim, follower of the Shafi’i School, I don’t know what this Barelwi/Deobandi thing is” The student insisted that he must be one of them. He suggested that the Shaykh look into the classical Aqidah books and see the Aqidahs of these two groups. The Shaykh said: “I have read almost all of the major works in Aqidah but have never found these names. The student insisted that it must have been overlooked by the Shaykh!

Once a brother said to me that Allama Ibn Abidin was a Deobandi and Imam Suyuti a Barelwi! I became infuriated and said: “This is completely incorrect. How can you call someone a Deobandi when Deoband did not even exist? The reality is that the Deobandis, Barelwis and also others follow the likes of Allama Ibn Abidin and Imam Suyuti.

Therefore, these titles and names should be completely avoided. I sincerely advice our brothers and sisters to abstain themselves and prevent others from using these names, for it causes nothing but friction.

Thirdly, when we look at the issues of difference between the Barelwis and Deobandis, it is quite evident that some of them are minor and petty issues. You won’t find any of the classical books of Aqidah discussing these issues.

Thus, we need to overlook these petty issues and concentrate on the more important issues of Islam. People are in need of real guidance, someone to help them strengthen their faith, teach them about the basics of Islam, not someone who debates whether one can say Ya Rasul Allah or otherwise.

Unfortunately, we have given extra significance to these issues than they deserve. These were issues that were associated to a person’s individual connection with Allah Most High and His beloved Messenger (Allah bless him & give him peace), but we have made them into the basic tenets of Creed (aqidah) and issues that distinguish belief from disbelief and piety from impiety (fisq).

One a brother phoned me and said: “I need to ask you a question concerning business and trade but first tell me are you from the Aqidah of Assalatu wassalamu alayka ya Rasul Allah? I said that this is not a matter of Aqidah. It is similar to saying: “Do you have the Aqidah of Subhan Allah or Assalamu Alayka ayyuhan Nabi”! I explained to him that these are minute and petty issues and debating about them should be avoided.

Keeping the above three points in mind, we come to the issue of celebrating the birthday of our beloved Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace).

The Deobandi stance on the Mawlid is that, not only is it permissible to celebrate it, rather it is an great act of virtue, as long as the celebrations are free from the unlawful or reprehensible activities, such as free intermingling of the sexes, excessive wasteful spending, fixing of a particular date, etc, and it is not held to be something necessary to do such that those who choose not to participate are considered to be in the wrong.

This is the Deobandi viewpoint and it would not be appropriate to force it down them that they totally reject the celebration of the Mawlid. As mentioned earlier that it is wrong to force upon others their beliefs and opinions, rather we should take what they say at face value.

The fundamental book that explains the viewpoints of the Deobandi scholars is al-Muhannad ala al-Mufannad compiled by Shaykh Mawlana Khalil Ahmad al-Saharanfuri and endorsed by many scholars, such as: Imam Ashraf Ali al-Tahanawi, Shaykh al-Hind Mawlana Mahmud al-Hasan Deobandi and many others (Allah have mercy on them all). The abovementioned viewpoint can be seen quite clearly in this book.

Shaykh Khalil Ahmad (a student of Shaykh Rashid Ahmad Gangohi) states:

“Far be it from any Muslim that he says (let alone us): mentioning the birth of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace), or even mentioning the soil under his footwear and the urine of his donkey, is an act of reprehensible and unlawful innovation.

Thus, aspects that have even a minute connection with the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace), mentioning them is from the much-loved of practices and from the greatest of recommendations, be it the mention of his blessed birth, or the mention of him reliving himself, standing, sitting, sleeping and being awake. This has been explained in detail in my book al-Barahin al-Qati’a in many places.” (al-Muhannad, P. 78)

The above text quite categorically states the permissibility of celebrating the Mawlid. However, what the Deobandi Ulama reject is the unlawful and evil practices that have found its way in some Mawlid celebrations, especially in the Subcontinent. Thus, Shaykh Khalil Ahmad (Allah have mercy on him) further states:

“It is clear from the above that we do not reject the mentioning of the Messenger of Allah’s (Allah bless him him & give him peace) birth; rather, we reject and refute those evils that are attached to such gatherings as you may have seen them in the Indian subcontinent, such as mentioning fabricated and false narrations, intermingling of the sexes, excessive wasteful spending in lights and decoration, holding it to be something necessary to do such that those who choose not to participate are slandered and called non-believers, and other evils from which very few gatherings (in the subcontinent) are free.
However, if the gathering is free from such evils, far be it from us that we say: Celebrating the birth of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) is evil and an innovation…” (ibid, p. 80)

Let us now look at the Fatwa of Shaykh Mufti Taqi Usmani (may Allah preserve him), with which some people have a problem. The respected Shaykh states:

“As I explained in my article on celebration of Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi (Mawlid), holding a meeting to discuss different aspects of the life of the Holy Prophet (Allah bless him & give him peace) is a very meritorious act for which the Muslims should strive to the best of their ability. But confining this discussion to the events of the birth of the Holy Prophet and restricting it to a particular date and holding attendance at such meetings as necessary or obligatory for every Muslim renders this practice as bid’ah or innovation.

Mostly the meetings of Mawlid today are of this type. Therefore, contemporary Ulema of Deoband have declared it a bid’ah.

If the life of the Holy Prophet is made subject of a meeting, and the meeting is free of the above mentioned defects, nobody can call it a bid’ah. It is in this context that some scholars of the past have allowed the practice.” (Taken from the www.albalagh.net website)

The upshot of the above Fatwa is that there are three things which are disapproved of:
1) Mentioning only the events of the Messenger of Allah’s (Allah bless him & give him peace) birth in the gatherings,

2) Restricting the gathering to a particular date,

3) Thinking it to be obligatory and binding upon everybody,

Thus, if the above three main evils are avoided, not only will celebrating the Mawlid be permissible; rather, it will be a great act of virtue.

I myself once asked Shaykh Taqi Usmani (Allah preserve him) that if the evils were avoided in such gatherings, would they be permitted? He replied in the affirmative and said the most important of these evils that must be avoided is that of restricting the celebration to a particular date.

This is quite significant, because during my stay in Syria, I observed Mawlid gatherings being celebrated on many different dates of Rabi’ al-Awwal. So much so that many gatherings would even take place outside of this month. The celebrations and gatherings would be spread out right through the year, although they would become more widespread in the month of Rabi’ al-Awwal.

Thus, in light of Shaykh Taqi Usmani’s words, these Mawlid gatherings are not only permitted, rather highly recommended practices. It would be wrong (and an innovation) to specifically restrict the Mawlid gathering to the 12th of Rabi’ al-Awwal in a way that it would not take place on any other date.

Below is another Fatwa authorized by Mufti Taqi Usmani (may Allah preserve him):

“The gatherings arranged to remember the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu alayhi wasallam, the mercy to the mankind, are called Milad gatherings. Remembering the life of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam, and teaching others about it, is an act of great blessing and virtue. However all good deeds have to be performed according to the rules and guidelines established by the Shariah. To exceed them is a grave sin. For example reciting the Qur’an is a great act of virtue, but it is prohibited to do so while one is in ruku or sujud in prayers. Likewise, Salat is one of the most important acts of worship. Yet, it is haram to perform it at sunrise or sunset.

Similarly, there are rules governing the blessed remembrance of the Sirah. For example, this remembrance must not be associated with a particular day or month; it should be considered equally virtuous during every month of the year, every week of the month, and every day of the week. Also it can take any permissible form. For example you can arrange a reading of an authentic book on Sirah or have a lecture delivered by a scholar. Doing that is not only permissible but it will bring great reward. But it is important to stay away from the evils found in the prevalent Milad gatherings. Here are some of those evils:


1) A particular date (12 Rabi al-Awwal) has been designated for this remembrance.

2) The element of show-off (riya) is commonly present in these gatherings.

3) If someone does not attend these gatherings, he is looked down upon.

4) Distribution of sweets is considered an indispensable part of the proceedings.

5) To meet the expenses, donations are collected from sometimes unwilling people who give money under social pressure. According to the hadith it is not permissible to take any Muslim’s money without his willingness.

6) Intermixing of men and women commonly takes place in these gatherings. People stay late at night in these meetings thereby missing the next morning’s prayers.

7) The focus of the talks delivered there is very limited. The Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi wasallam, has given guidance for every aspect of our life. These cover acts of worship, dealing with other people, morals and manners, social relationships, business dealings, etc. However, it has been observed that the prevalent Milad talks concentrate mainly or solely on the account of the birth of the Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi wasallam, and his miracles. They do not attempt to cover the vast teachings of the Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi wasallam.

For these reasons, one should refrain from the prevalent Milad gatherings. However, if care is taken to avoid all of these evils and to follow the Shariah carefully, then a meeting organized to remember the Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi wasallam , with the sole purpose of seeking Allah’s pleasure, will Insha-Allah be a blessed event. And Allah knows best. (End of Fatwa)

Written: Muhammad Abdul Muntaqim Sylheti (Darul-Ifta, Darul-uloom Karachi) Concurrence from:

Justice Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani

Mufti Muhammad Rafi Usmani

Mufti Abdul Rauf Sakkharvi

And many others. (See: www.albalagh.net)

The above Fatwa of Dar al-Uloom Karachi and approved by Shaykh Mufti Taqi Usmani (Allah have mercy on him) also gives the same message, in that the Mawlid, if free of impermissible matters, cannot be considered blameworthy or an innovation.

In my personal view, it is only a difference of interpretation and the way one puts forth his viewpoint. It is a case of what we discussed earlier that one says something and much more is added to it.

If we were to look at the same above Fatwa endorsed by Mufti Taqi Usmani and turn it around, the message would seem quite the opposite. There are two ways of putting your argument forward.

For example: One can say that celebrating the Mawlid is a great act of virtue, a highly praiseworthy practice, etc….Then conclude the Fatwa or article by saying: However, if there are evils attached to the gathering, it would not be permitted. On the other hand, one may say: “celebrating the Mawlid is wrong, an innovation, has too many evils, etc….Then conclude the answer by saying: However, if these evils were avoided it would be permissible.

Now, even though these two arguments give the same message, the assumption made is quite the opposite. It’s just a case of “how you say it”.

It is related that the great Deobandi scholar of Hadith, Fiqh and Tasawwuf, Shaykh Mawlana Rashid Ahmad Gangohi (Allah have mercy on him) once on his journey to Makkah al-Mukarramah for Umra visited his Shaykh and spiritual master, Haji Imdad Allah Muhajir al-Makki (Allah have mercy on him). Incidentally, on one of the days a Mawlid gathering was organized. His Shaykh Haji Imdad Allah (Allah have mercy on him) said to Shaykh Gangohi that there is a Mawlid gathering organized, would you like to attend with me? He reused and said: “How can I attend a gathering of Mawlid when I prevent others from attending it in India due the evils that have been attached to them. If they (people in India) came to know of me attending a Mawlid what would they say? Upon hearing this, his Shaykh Haji Imdad Allah said: “May Allah reward you. I would have not been happier if you attended the Mawlid than I am in you refusing to come with us, because you are steadfast on what you believe to be the truth.

Thereafter, Haji Imdad Allah al-Makki attended the Mawlid and one of the servants and students of Shaykh Mawlana Rashid Ahmad Gangohi also, without informing his Shaykh, went to the Mawlid. This student of Shaykh Rashid Ahmad said after attending the Mawlid: “If my Shaykh, Mawlana Rashid Ahmad Gangohi would have attended the Mawlid gathering, he would have not condemned it, for it was free from evil and impermissible matters. (See: Malfuzat of Mufti Mahmud al-Hasan Gangohi, 1/99)

The Deobandis also have gatherings in which they mention the Sirah, characteristics and ways of the messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace). Songs and Anashid in praise of the best of creation are sung. These gatherings are organized throughout the year and become more common in the month of Rabi’ al-Awwal. However, they do not attach it to a particular date, and also, rather than calling them “Mawlid gatherings” they call them Sirah gatherings, denoting that not only the birth of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) will be discussed rather his life in general.

Therefore, we can conclude the Deobandi viewpoint on celebrating Mawlid saying that it is a highly praiseworthy act for which one will be rewarded. However, it will be wrong and an innovation to attach the impermissible matters to it, and this is how they understand the statement of scholars such as Hafidh Ibn Hajar, Imam Suyuti and others when they permitted the celebration of the Mawlid.

By looking into the books of the Deobandi Ulama, we can sum up these evils and impermissible practices in the following:

1) A particular date (i.e. 12th of Rabi’ al-Awwal) is fixed,

2) Only the birth events of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) are discussed,

3) It is called a day of Eid, whilst Islam has only prescribed two Eids,

4) Celebrating the Mawlid is considered to be necessary,

5) Unlawful practices (such as intermingling of the sexes) take place,

If we were to look at the statements of those who support the celebration of Mawlid, it becomes clear that they also strongly condemn the various evils mentioned by the Deobandi scholars.

The great Sufi and Maliki scholar residing in Makkah al-Mukarramah, Sayyid Muhammad ibn Alawi al-Maliki (may Allah preserve him) states in his short treatise regarding celebrating the Mawlid, Hawl al-ihtifal bi zikra mawlid al-nabawi al-sharif:

“How many times have we stressed that the Messenger of Allah’s day of birth is not considered a Eid, neither do we regard it as a day of Eid, for it is a day greater and more virtuous than the day of Eid. Eid only comes once a year, whilst celebrating the birth of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) and mentioning his Sirah should be a constant thing, without restricting it to a particular time or place.” (P.8-9)

He further sates:

“We celebrate the birth of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) constantly and all the time, at every occasion and at every event of happiness and joy. This is increased in the month of his birth “Rabi’ al-Awwal” and the day of his birth “Monday”. (p. 11)

He also states:

“One of the innovations (bid’a) of the Mawlid is that, it is practiced by some of those who celebrate it by carrying out unlawful activities, being negligent with prayers, involvement if Riba and not implementing the outward and inward Sunnahs of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace).” (p. 49)

And:

“One of the innovations that is practised in some countries is restricting the mention of the Messenger of Allah’s (Allah bless him & give him peace) sirah, characteristics, and praise, feeding others and carrying out other commendable actions to only the month of Rabi’ al-Awwal because of the birth of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace). However, it is necessary that these acts are not restricted to the month of Rabi’ only; rather, it is necessary (wajib) upon a Muslim that he carries out these good deeds constantly in every day of the month, for the mention of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) is not attached to a particular time….” (p. 50)

And:

“ If we met and mentioned the praises of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace), his struggles, his characteristics and did not even mention the story of his birth, to which people have become accustomed- to such an extent that they consider a Mawlid gathering incomplete without it….,we would have celebrated the Mawlid.” (p. 40)

We can see from the above quotes of Sayyid Muhammad ibn Alawi al-Maliki (may Allah preserve him) taken from his book which he compiled in support of the Mawlid (and should be read by those who reject the Mawlid totally), it becomes clear that there is agreement between what the scholars of Deoband say and those who celebrate Malwid. As such, there is no disagreement in reality.

In conclusion, we need to develop patience and sincerity in our efforts to bring about more tolerance in this world. Try to make differences seem non-existent. There is no real difference between the Deobandi scholars and the Barelwis, in that they both agree with the Mawlid and disagree with the evils and unlawful practices that are practiced by some.

Indeed, there are some ignorant Muslims who do practice the evils mentioned by the Deobandi scholars, but rather than refute their celebration of the Mawlid, Deobandis should strive and correct these practices. If they begin to refute the Mawlid altogether, then those who practice it will say that these are Wahhabis, etc, and won’t even reflect upon their unlawful actions. Conversely, if they support the Mawlid, there is a great chance of them correcting the evils. Thus, they should be given an alternative of pure and uncontaminated gathering of Mawlid in which the Sirah of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) is mentioned. A Gathering in which people are encouraged to implement the Sunnahs and characteristics of the beloved of Allah, whether you call it a Mawlid gathering or a Sirah gathering, for names are irrelevant. This is my sincere advice to the Deobandis.

As far as our Barelwi brothers are concerned, rather than arguing the rationality of Mawlid gatherings and trying to prove it, they should try and stamp out the evils practiced by some individuals. Explain to the masses that celebrating the Mawlid is not sufficient. One has to be a complete believer. One needs to implement the ways of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) in all aspects of one’s life. Use these Mawlid gatherings to spread the message.

If we do this, then, not only will we have a more harmonious relationship, but we will see Muslims becoming stronger in their faith and better Muslims as a whole. May Allah guide us all to the straight path. I seek forgiveness if I may have offended anybody. May Allah unite us and gather us all in Paradise, Ameen.

And Allah knows best



Muhammad ibn Adam
Darul Iftaa
Leicester , UK

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Shaykh Al-Habib Alis tale om tegningekrisen, København 11 Marts 2006.

Følgende er en gengivelse af Shaykh As-Sayyid Al Habib Ali Zain Al-Abidin Al Jifris tale, som han holdt på Phoenix Hotel i København Lørdag den 11.marts 2006. Desværre var det et mindre arrangement som vi dog var privilegerede nok til at deltage i, men på grund af den dybe visdom talen indeholdt har jeg forsøgt at videreformidle dens budskab så andre kan drage nytte af det.
Gengivet Af:

Omar Sayyid Shah
Carim El Husseini
Zakariyah Nurudeen Scharf



Shaykh Al Habib Ali bad først de ældre i forsamlingen om at rykke nærmest og sagde at dette var fra sunnahen, at ældre mennesker og mennesker med viden sad tættest, men at dette var den ydre realitet og at kun Allah swt var vidende om den indre realitet og at en person bagerst i forsamlingen således kunne være den bedste iblandt dem. Han betonede at man skal etablere sunnahen i alle handlinger og handle efter Allah swt og Profetens forskrifter, selv i de mindre anliggender og selvsagt i de større.

Her påpegede at alle de ting vi gør i vores dagligdag, og alt det vi ser, er en manifestation af Allahs attributter. Et af Allahs attributter er Al-Jami’ – Den samlende, og at dette lille møde var et bevis på denne egenskab af Allah. Han tilføjede også at vi er samlet fysisk men også i hjerterum.

Shaykh Al Habib Ali fortsatte med at understrege vigtigheden af, at man indleder alle sine handlinger med ”bismiLlah” – ”i Allahs navn” og således udfører handlingerne for Allah swt’s skyld i og med at tilfredsstillelsen af Allah swt og opnåelsen af Hans velbehag bliver formålet og drivkræften bag det man foretager sig og at man ikke blot handler for handlingernes egen skyld eller af behov som tilfældet er med dyr. Han indikerede at forskellen mellem de der ihukommer Allah og de der ikke gør, er som forskellen mellem mennesker og dyr og selve hensigten bag at vi er skabte; netop er at tilbede Allah swt.

Han fortalte at hvis vi handler som muslimer får vi igen som muslimer og hvis vi handler efter vores nafs får vi igen som på samme måde. Han uddybede at det at handle som muslimer ikke garanterede for at omverdenen ville behandle os bedre (ligesom det heller ikke var tilfældet med Sahaba) men at det istandgjorde os til at modtage alle prøvelser som værende fra Allah swt.

Shaykh Al Habib Ali, undervurderede eller nedgjorde bestemt ikke den dystre situation Danmarks muslimer befinder sig i og han illustrerede de lidelser muslimerne herhjemme udsættes for, og attituden man skulle have ved at bruge eksemplet med Bilal ra og det han følte under den tortur han blev udsat for. Den grusomme tortur var smertefuld, men da han senere blev spurgt hvad han følte under torturen udtalte han at han udover smerten samtidigt havde oplevet imanens sødme. Shaykh Al Habib Ali fortalte at samme sødme ville vi opleve i de prøvelser vi udsættes for hvis vi modtog dem som muslimer, og var bevidste om dette. Gennem dette eksempel understregede Shaykhen at selv om aggresorerne i vores tilfælde, som i Bilals uden tvivl er ikke muslimerne, er det vigtig at vi muslimer som modtagerne af aggressionen stadig reagerer korrekt.

Shaykh Al Habib Ali fortalte også om en episode hvor profeten saaw var blevet såret i ansigtet under et slag mod Qur’aish og blodet løb ned af hans velsignede kinder. En af hans sahaba sagde ”Din dua bliver altid hørt, bed Allah om at tilintetgøre dem og straffe dem hårdt” og profeten saaw som han altid var, i den nobleste tilstand løftede sine arme og sagde ”Må Allah vejlede og retlede min fødebys folk.” Shaykh Al Habib Ali fortalte at der er dyb visdom i denne episode. Vores eksempel, profeten saaw, valgte at bede Allah om at give dem huda snarere end destruktion, hvilket vil sige han planlagde og havde en vision om fremtiden. Nogle år senere blev en stor del af Qur’aishes folk som bekendt muslimer.

Shaykh Al Habib Ali gik videre og sagde at man klart og uden tvivl skulle føle en vrede over tegningerne og hvis tegningerne ikke hvade gjort os vrede, ville det have været en grund til at så alvorlig tvivl om vores Iman, men at denne vrede ikke måtte ændre på vores grundlæggende karakter som muslimer.
Han sagde at tegningerne ikke er en krise i sig selv, da der intet nyt er i sådanne angreb paa profeten saaw, men at den sande krise ville opstå hvis vi gav disse mennesker lov til at ændre på vores karakterer og gøre os hadefulde, så vi satte hadet øverst og gjorde det til vores drivkraft. Han understregede vigtigheden af at vi ikke mister overblikket over hvad der er korrekt og vigtigst. I sidste instans er det vi udsættes for i dette samfund prøvelser fra Allah swt, og sejren vil komme ved at beherske os og ikke overskride Islams rammer, og bestræbe os på at have islamiske manérer og på at handle og reagere med Islamisk karakter.

Shaykh Al Habib Ali fortalte, at sejren ikke vil blive givet til den vredeste, men derimod til den der elsker Allah swt og Profeten saaw mest. I forlængelse af dette, nævnte han en smuk og rørende beretning i forbindelse med slaget ved Khaybar. Muslimerne havde belejret Khaybar i flere dage men kunne ikke indtage den befæstede jødiske by.
Profeten saaw meddelte saa at han ville vælge en ledsager, der skulle påtage sig det ansvar at holde den muslimske hærs banner og føre an, Profeten saaw sagde noget i retning af: “Den som får fanen i morgen er en der elsker Allah og Hans profet og derfor vil Allah og hans profet elske ham.”
Alle ledsagerne håbede inderligt på at de ville blive valgt til denne opgave, velvidende at sejren ville blive skænket den der elsker Allah swt og Hans Budbringer saaw.

Næste morgen, da Profeten saaw kaldte paa den udvalgte ledsager, brugte han, uden at nævne navnet på vedkommende en formulering der indikerede, at den mand der havde lappet hans sandaler natten før, skulle holde banneret. Dette var Hadrat Ali ra.
Shaykh Al Habib Ali påpegede det bemærkelsesværdige i at Allahs Budbringer saaw ikke brugte en anden benævnelse, at han saaw ikke brugte nogle af de benævnelser og titler, der ellers kendetegnede Ali ra som han saaw ellers brugte i andre sammenhænge, såsom ”min fætter”, ”min svigersøn”, Ibn Abi Talib osv., men netop en betegnelse der både betonede ydmyghed, men også den dybe kærlighed der lå i at udføre det ydmyge stykke arbejde.
Så hvor det at holde muslimernes banner og opnå sejren af de fleste af os, hvis ikke alle, anses for ærefuldt, blev denne hæder indirekte tildelt Ali ra gennem hans ydmyge handling som man på overfladen ikke ville betegne som noget hæderfuldt eller specielt. Omar ra sagde at han aldrig havde søgt at opnå ledelsesposter andet end den ene dag, og kun pga. Profetens saaw beskrivelse af den leder.

Shaykh Al Habib Ali fortsatte med at berette om det der udspillede sig før slaget. Idet Ali ra var på vej mod slaget, blev han kaldt af Profeten saaw, men ikke desto mindre vendte Ali ra sig ikke om. Han stoppede blot med at gå, hvad der under normale omstændigheder ville have været manglende respekt overfor Profeten saaw. Dette fremhævede alvoren der lå i det at udkæmpe et slag. Det viser også at ordrer er af højere rang end adab. Da Ali ra stoppede med at gå sagde han saaw : Hvis et af de mennesker i drager imod tager islam til sig er det bedre og mere værdifuldt end alle de røde kameler man kan eje. Røde kameler – var dengang noget af det mest kostbare og tegn på høj status, hvis man var i besiddelse af en.

Shaykh Al Habib Ali påpegede også en vigtig pointe i situationen, at de stod i en krigs situation, med blod og død, og under de omstændigheder brugte profeten saaw ord som ”elske”. Det var utroligt at se ord som da’wa i situationen, for det var en krigs tilstand, og alligevel talte profeten saaw om da’wa. Shaykh Al Habib Ali sagde at vi aldrig skal glemme vores primære opgave, da’wa. Profeten saaw kunne have sagt at i morgen vil jeg vælge den mægtigste af jer der er stærkest. Eller have opfordret Ali ra til at være brutal og nådesløs, men nej, han påminde ham om muslimers opgave, at viderebringe budskabet som en barmhjertighed til hele menneskeheden.
At kæmpe på slagmarken mod islams fjender var dem foreskrevet, men alligevel overskyggede dette ikke den vigtigste pointe, nemlig at dele budskabet med folk.

Shaykh Al Habib Ali sluttede af med at spørge om hvad der var at foretrække? At de 12 tegnere sagde shahada og blev vejledt? Eller at de blev henrettet og straffet for deres ugerninger, og besvarede så spørgsmålet ved at sige at, det at ønske vejledning for folk altid var det højeste ideal, selv hvad angik islams fjender. Han sluttede af med igen at minde os om vores ansvar overfor ikke muslimerne i samfundet, at agere som gode muslimer og derved kalde til Allah swt.


Efter talen var der mulighed for at stille spørgsmål.
Shaykh Al Habib Ali blev blandt andet spurgt om han havde nogen kommentarer til de der angreb Tasawwuf på et falsk grundlag og havde et fordomsfuldt indtryk af denne disciplin inden for de islamiske videnskaber.
Han svarede at ens egen attitude først og fremmest var vigtig og at Tasawwuf var en integreret del af Islam, men at vi alle var muslimer og at folk der var interesserede i Tasawwuf ikke skulle opfatte sig som et parti (hizb) eller en bande og direkte søge konfrontation med anderledes tænkende som det desværre var tilfældet med nogen, der kopierede den adfærd man så hos mange andre grupper.. Han fortsatte med at sige at hvis nogen angreb Tasawwuf på baggrund af grove misforståelser skulle man svare dem ved at sige ”Må Allah swt vejlede både du og jeg til at følge den form for Tasawwuf som f.eks. Imam Al-Ghazali og Imam Al-Junayd praktiserede, men med hensyn til den Tasawwuf du har i tankerne, må Allah swt beskytte os begge mod sådanne afvigelser”.

Shaykh Al Habib Ali blev også spurgt om børneopdragelse her i vesten og om hvorvidt han havde nogen gode råd.
Han svarede at det er vigtigt at vi allerede fra barnets tidligste alder forklarer og manifesterer for det at Islam er noget specielt og et privilegium, så det bliver selvsikkert og stolt over at bekende sig til Islam dog uden at det bliver decideret arrogance. Han gav eksempel på hvordan islamiske værdier kunne manifesteres gennem handlinger ved for eksempel at give barnet ekstra mad med i skole, barnet kunne dele med dem der havde mindre og forklare barnet hvorfor; fordi Allah har anbefalet os at være gavmilde og hjælpe de svage, og dette viste som et eksempel i vores elskede profet saaw. Barnet vil automatisk forbinde islam med de gode handlinger, og vokse op med fornemmelsen af at det er noget godt. Andet eks. Er at hjælpe en blind over vejen. Det vil give barnet følelsen af at islam er noget at være stolt af, og at andre kan se at islam kun har godt i sig.
Han forklarede hvordan dette udover at have en praktisk dimension næsten metaforisk ville give barnet følelsen af at han eller hun havde noget værdifuldt (islam) som de kunne give fra sig. Dette ville også illustrere nogle af de ædle Islamiske værdier og imponere omgivelserne.

Shaykh Al Habib Ali sagde at vi skulle bryde ud af den onde cirkel med hensyn til at se Islam som noget der skulle forsvares og nærmest skjules, noget som vi var ved at miste, og i stedet opdrage børn til netop at føle at de var i besiddelse af noget stærkt og værdifuldt. Han udtrykte at det er skadeligt for børn, at de mere eller mindre opdrages til at skjule deres Islam, hvilket kunne forårsage skamfølelser over at udtrykke deres tilknytning til Islam og føre til manglende selvsikkerhed

Shaykh Al Habib Ali sluttede af med dua for muslimerne.

Efter Stormen: Tegningekrisens efterspil

Sahafa.DK

Af Omar Shah

Brændende danske flag, angreb på ambassader, "vrede imamer" og ophidsede politikere har vi set masser til de sidste par måneder. Beskyldninger om bevidste provokationer, landsforræderi, leflen for muslimerne og politisk inkompetence er fløjet gennem luften i sagen der udviklede sig fra et langt fra atypisk hjemligt dansk stunt, til en udenrigspolitisk, og nu tilsyneladende også en indenrigspolitisk krise.
Så de verdensomspændende reaktioner og balladen om Jyllandsposten famøse karikatur tegninger, den måske største danske krise i nyere tid har splittet det danske samfund, brudt idyllen, trukket fronterne skarpt op, skabt et dybt had og mistroforhold mellem gammeldanskere og de nyere af slagsen... eller?

Tegningerne er trykt, politikerne handlede som de gjorde, og reaktionerne har været som forventet, formålet med denne tekst er ikke at kommentere forløbet som vi alle har læst mere end rigeligt om men at tage et skridt tilbage og reflektere over begivenhederne og deres konsekvenser. Her flere måneder efter at tegningerne blev trykt og lidt over en måned siden at det for alvor eksploderede er der for første gang spæde tegn på at situationen er ved at dæmpe sig.

Nu efter stormen (forhåbentligt) er det på tide at gøre status, hvad gik egentligt galt? Hvem har tabt på denne sag og hvem har vundet (hvis nogen) og endeligt; hvilke lektioner har vi lært, og vil det forhindre at en sådan sag gentager sig?
Nogle vil mene at Jyllandspostens provokation og Foghs arrogance (eller "imamernes 5te kolonne virksomhed" alt efter hvordan man ser på det) har skabt kløfter i samfundet eller gjort de eksisterende dybere, men faktummet er ikke desto mindre at hvis det ikke havde været fordi noget i forvejen var og er rivende galt i Danmark ville disse tegninger aldrig være blevet trykt. Tegningerne i sig selv er symptomatiske på det klima vi har herhjemme og har snart har haft i godt et årti. Et klima med klart definerede antagonister "de sarte og evigt krævende muslimer" og protagonister "ytringsfrihedens og demokratiets modige forkæmpere". Sagen har i høj grad udstillet det hysteriske niveau religionsangsten, xenofobien og den sekulære fundamentalisme efterhånden har nået i Danmark, dette har ikke været nogen hemmelighed for herboende muslimer, forskellen er dog at det denne gang også er blevet udstillet i udlandet. En masse mennesker både muslimer såvel som ikke muslimer har fået øjnene op for at det lille yndige land også har en bagside. Flere vestlige mediers dækning af sagen, godt eksemplificeret af f.eks. CBS's "60 minutes" program "the state of Denmark", har været præget af en stor overraskelse over hvor slemt det egentligt står til med Danmarks behandling af minoritet.

Når man følger den vrælen og piveri der har karakteriseret den danske debat skulle man tro at ytringsfrihed og demokrati var en ensartet og homogen størrelse, måske ikke i hele verden men i det mindste i den vestlige. Men faktum er at der heller ikke her findes EN form for ytringsfrihed. Den Angelsaksiske model har på dette punkt gang på gang vist sig noget mere pragmatisk end den kontinental europæiske. Man kan så være uenige om hvorvidt dette skyldes respekt og (en grad af) anstændighed, eller om det, som islamofobien Daniel Pipes hævder, er fordi USA og England ryster af skræk overfor islam mens det gamle Europa har genfundet sig selv og sin identitet. Uanset hvad er det klart for enhver at ikke "hele den frie verden" har samme trang til at unødigt at provokere som Danmark. Mens lande som USA og UK har strategiske interesser der bringer dem på kollisionskurs med mange muslimer verden over, kan man sige at den danske provokation selv set fra et vestligt ideologisk synspunkt var unødig da den ikke tjener Danmarks strategiske interesser. Tværtimod har den været med til at forpurre det højt besungne "demokratiserings initiativ" i Mellemøsten Danmark har postet millioner af skatteydernes kroner i.

Britiske politikere og kommentatorer har i denne sag langt fra støttet op om Danmark som ytringsfrihedens korsfarer, hvilket da også har ført til klager fra danske højrepolitikere. Som Adrian Hamilton skrev i den britiske avis The Independent er det næppe noget tilfælde at de lande der i forvejen har en udpræget negativ attitude overfor deres muslimske mindretal har været hurtigst til at optrykke tegningerne.

Nyttige lektioner?
Det væsentlige spørgsmål er så om vi har lært noget af denne sag?
Når støvet har lagt sig og vi ser tilbage på debatten er bukkene vitterligt blevet skilt fra fårene, ikke kun som Fogh definerer det i forbindelse med mediepersonager han ikke mener har bakket nok op om regeringens linie, men også de der virkeligt ønsker Danmark det bedste, og de der udelukkende ønsker konfrontation, og er villige til at spille hasard med danske liv og ejendom for at fremme egne interesser, hvad enten det er indenrigspolitiske dagsordener ellers oplag og salgstal.

Har den menige dansker så lært noget af dette postyr? Personligt er jeg som muslim i overensstemmelse med religionens regler stærkt imod vanhelligelse af religiøse symboler, inklusive korset der pryder dannebrog, derfor anser jeg flagafbrændingerne (og ambassade afbrændingerne) som skændige handlinger der ikke kan forsvares på noget punkt, uanset hvor berettiget vreden bag dem er, men ikke desto mindre tror jeg at det for nogen kultur-apatiske og spirituelt tomme danskere har været sundt at se dannebrog brænde! Måske har dette fremkaldt nogle indre følelser de ikke vidste de besad, en vrede og måske ligefrem smerte over at se noget de har kært vanhelliget. Man kan kun håbe at denne vrede har følt til den eneste logiske konklusion, nemlig empatien med de mennesker der har følt det samme med omvendt fortegn. Forhåbentligt er det gået op for mange at folk nu engang bliver rasende når deres symboler bliver hånet (hvad enten vi taler om dannebrog eller profeten Muhammed)
Lad os håbe politikerne også har lært noget, måske lidt om den globaliserede og stadigt "mindre" verden vi lever i, hvordan indenrigspolitik og udenrigspolitik ikke længere kan isoleres og at man i den globaliserede verden ikke kan ligge en hel befolkningsgruppe for had på grund af dennes race/tro og så opfatte det som et indenrigspolitisk anliggende. Vi har ikke for vane at opfatte Koptiske eller andre kristne delegationer I Danmark der klager over forholdene i deres (muslimske) hjemlande som misinformanter og ballademager, og bestyrtelsen over at muslimer også kunne gøre brug af samme taktik virker noget påtaget. Lobby virksomhed blandt sympatisører i udlandet er ikke just et nyt fænomen, hverken i den vestlige del eller i resten af verden.

På grund af regeringens mangelfulde håndtering af denne sag og eskalationen der naturligt fulgte vil der nu være fokus på Danmark et godt stykke tid fremover og historier om "muslim undertrykkelse" i Danmark vil have et bredt publikum. At regeringen er bevidst om dette viste sig da også klart med Foghs usædvanligt hurtige fordømmelse af de seneste gravskændinger. Tidligere tider apati over for muslimers ve og vel syntes forduftet som dug for solen, eller i det mindste når det rapporteres i AP mindre end 20 minutter efter det er blevet bragt i danske medier.

Desværre kan det ikke skjules for mennesker i den muslimske verden at den konfrontationssøgende danske udenrigspolitik og indenrigspolitik i sidste ende udspringer af en og samme ideologi, ej heller er det nogen hemmelighed i mange af de lande hvor de voldsomste reaktioner har fundet sted at Danmark på nuværende tidspunkt stadig deltager i to antimuslimske krige på amerikansk side. Dette faktum kan ikke bare ignoreres når syndebukkene skal findes og ansvaret fralægges.

Når både Fogh og JP den ene dag "beklager", for dagen efter at angribe andre medier og politikere for forræderi og manglende støtte går det dog heller ikke ubemærket hen, og desværre kunne det tyde på at disse endnu ikke har lært lektien
Det er måske bekvemt at skyde skylden på Abu Laban og co., der indrømmet er kommet med et par uheldige udtalelser, men dette argument er udtryk for en yderst forsimplet tankegang. Dele af den danske presse og flere politikere har haft travlt med at flæbe og bebrejde alle andre end dem selv og det har været trættende at se den ene artikel efter den anden om "misinformation", eller at den ene eller den anden imam var "smugler" eller "voldsmand" som om det var sagens kerne. De ansvarlige har således været gode til at skyde skylden på alle andre, "imamerne", arabiske medier, og senest Egypten, i stedet for at indrømme egne fejl og gribe i egen barm. Tonen har hele vejen igennem været præget af følelsen af at være den forfulgte, i stedet for enten den overlagte provokatør (JP), eller den arrogante skødesløse statsmand (Fogh), som i øvrigt bør feje for egen dør, hvad angår "misinformation" af den udenlandske presse. Efter Foghs udtalelser i Der Spiegel lader det til at "imamernes rejsehold" ikke er de eneste der har været lidt uklare i forbindelse med tal og andre faktuelle oplysninger.
Hvad har muslimerne den anden hovedaktør så lært? Desværre først og fremmest en mindre end ideel lektion: at 4 måneders forsøg på lokal dialog intet er værd sammenlignet med et par hundrede millioner i tabt omsætning for en større virksomhed og et par optøjer rundt omkring i verden. Det var ikke de begrænsede og rolige hjemlige protester eller "dialog" der fik både JP og Fogh til at komme med deres kryptiske beklagelser. Flere vestlige muslimer har rost muslimerne i Danmark for deres eksemplariske opførsel i denne sag, det sørgelige er dog at muslimerne manglende reaktion i høj grad har været præget af resignation snarere end bevidst tilbageholdenhed. Ude i verden var tegningerne en chokerende provokation, for muslimerne var det blot endnu en dag i dagens Danmark.

Ros eller ej så har muslimerne desværre også lært at man som muslim ikke modtager nogen hæder for på bedste demokratiske vis at have brugt sin ytringsfrihed til at gøre opmærksom på den forurettelse man mener at have lidt, og holdt sig til fredelige midler.
De muslimer der mener at den vestlige form for ytringsfrihed er hyklerisk og præget af dobbeltmoral har i hvert fald ikke fået mindre gode kort på hånden.
Danske politikere har ikke forspildt nogen chancer in kritikken af "imamerne", men også muslimer som Tariq Ramadan, har beskyldt Imamerne for at internationalisere sagen, en kritik der desværre forbigår sagens kerne og endda ignorerer den rolle diplomaterne efter at være blevet ydmyget af Fogh spillede.

I forlængelse heraf har også Flemming Rose lært en ting eller to. Han har fået udvidet sin viden om ytringsfrihedens principper og lært at der trods 4 måneders insistering på det modsatte ER grænser for ytringsfriheden i Danmark og at man godt nok kan gøre nar af Islam og profeten Muhammed, men at (selv det hypotetisk at nævne) latterliggørelse af Holocaust bogstaveligt talt er en direkte billet til en forlænget ferie.

Vindere og tabere
Situationen har uden tvivl produceret flere tabere og få vindere, men man kan være uenig om hvem der egentligt har vundet og tabt mest på denne sag.
På kort sigt vil de største tabere blive de tavse religiøse muslimer, de tavse ikke synderligt religiøse muslimer (der heller ikke føler sig repræsenterede af antimuslimer) og ikke mindst de "midtersøgende" muslimer der har opdaget at de ikke kan tilfredsstille alles forventninger på en gang.

Det har aldrig været nogen hemmelighed at religiøse muslimer i Danmark har haft svært ved at markere sig politisk, som flere sager fra blandt andet det Radikale Venstre og Socialdemokratiet har vist, men skruen bliver højst sandsynligt strammet endnu en tak og religiøse muslimer der ønsker at deltage i samfundet risikerer nu at blive yderligere marginaliseret. Dette vil gå hårdest ud over de troende muslimer der hidtil har forsøgt at lancere sig som den moderate ansvarlige stemme. De vil få det sværere nu når regeringen har fundet sig en ny legekammerat i kraft af Khaders netværk for eksmuslimer, ahmediaer, parvezier, alevier, bahaier og andet godtfolk.
Det er vigtigt at sådanne miljøer modstår fristelsen til at forsøge at "konkurrere" med Khaders netværk, da det er en kamp der ikke kan vindes uden at afsværge værdier som store dele af baglandet tager ret alvorligt.

Anti-religiøe typer som "Demokratiske Muslimer" har fået deres profil styrket på kort sigt men vil også for eller senere blive bedt om at levere varen. Politikerne bør i deres entusiasme ikke tilsidesætte det reelle spørgsmål om hvor meget pondus et netværk bestående af sådanne individer egentligt har ikke blot blandt vrede unge andengenerationsindvandrere i Danmark, der aldrig har kunnet tage Khader specielt alvorligt, men også i udlandet.
Krisen her har vist at nyhederne spreder sig hurtigt i vores globaliserede verden og det er måske en anelse optimistisk at tro at en erklæret "kultur" muslim med et temmelig langt antiislamisk CV vil blive taget synderligt alvorligt alene på grund af sit muslimske navn. Man kunne starte med at sende ham afsted for at møde samme personligheder som Ahmed Akkari og co. mødte og så hvilken effekt han vil have.

Det kan ikke benægtes at Danmarks muslimer er en broget skare både hvad angår sekterisk tilhørsforhold og etnicitet men også hvad angår graden af praksis. Det er rigtigt at Abu Laban og hans ligesindede ikke til dagligt repræsenterer alle muslimer i Danmark men det er også et faktum vi ikke kan ignorere at de repræsenterer de fleste arabiske og somaliske salafier i Danmark som udgør en langt fra ubetydelig andel af landets muslimer. Udover tyrkiske DMGT er wakf samt søstermoskerne nok den største organiserede muslimske menighed i Danmark. Det er også vigtigt at påpege at holdningen til tegningerne og den rette strategi i forbindelse med disse ikke beror på hvorvidt man kommer i Wakf eller ej. Man kan finde muslimer der ikke ville komme i Wakf af "sekteriske" grunde, der støtter Wakfs initiativ, mens man også kan finde muslimer med samme "sekteriske" baggrund som Wakf, der stadig mener at Wakf handlede mindre klogt i denne sag.

Det mest skræmmende i mediernes og politikerne syn på de muslimske miljøer er dog den yderst naive formodning om at alle de tavse muslimer der ikke har markeret sig nu repræsenteres bedst af antimuslimer. Personer som (eksmuslimen) Nahid Riazi har aldrig lagt skjul på deres syn på troende muslimer ej heller har Khader. Det er en simplificering af den groveste art at tro at alle "troende" muslimer kommer hos Abu Laban, mens resten kan profileres perfekt af Nasser.

Der er en markant forskel på at være en mindre troende muslim og at være antitroende muslim, førstnævnte har ikke en aversion mod troende mennesker mens det for sidstnævnte nærmest er en livssag. Et hurtigt kig på listen over dem har meldt ud om Khaders netværk viser at næsten alt hvad der kan gå og kravle af antitroende muslimer (og eksmuslimer) er med, næppe det bedste "alternativ"!

En anden sikker taber er danske interesser, både fysiske såsom eksporten men også Danmarks image der for at udtrykke det mildt blevet lidt flosset i kanten.
Et stærkt dansk image der måske var faktuelt korrekt for 20 år siden er ved at smuldre på grund af en kombination af tiltagende xenofobisk hysteri og skødesløs opførsel fra politikere og mediers side. De værdier der gjorde Danmark kendt som en tolerancens højborg og menneskerettighedernes forkæmper er ved at være en saga blot. Hvad nytter det at gå op i menneskerettigheder i 3 verdens lande hvis man ikke blot er med til at bryde dem i Irak og Afghanistan, men også i sit eget land dag for dag er i færd med at marginalisere en ikke ubetydelig del af befolkningen.

Dansk industri har ikke fremprovokeret denne sag, men er alligevel blevet et gidsel, og har lidt tab som følge. Det er ironisk at Arla der nu næsten er mere svensk end dansk, er blevet markedsført som Dansk da dette var en stærkere brand.
Et par velvillige positive udtalelser om det danske samfund kan ikke opveje den skade der er sket, og det er værd at bide mærke i at kritikken af Danmark fra mange ikke muslimske kanter har været nådesløs. Det er ikke kun muslimer i udlandet der har observeret erosionen af humanismen i Danmark.
Tabere har vi en del af i denne sag og tilbage står vi med de eneste klare vindere der desværre uden tvivl er de reaktionære kræfter der har sat landets interesser over styr for egen vindings skyld.

Bluitgen hvis bog var JP's oprindelige undskyldning for at trykke tegningerne har oplevet yderst gode salgstal uden personligt at have taget skade af balladen eller fået tildelt noget ansvar, og må således være yderst godt tilfreds. Han formåede endda at fremstå på "60 minutes" som en stakkel der kun ønskede at fremme forståelsen mennesker imellem.
Jyllandsposten hovedaktøren har heller ikke meget at være ked af. For det første har sagen ikke haft negative konsekvenser af nogen art for JP og på den måde har stuntet været en gratis fornøjelse. Tværtimod er avisens internationale profil blevet hævet og blevet et symbol for reaktionære kræfter over hele Europa, der har nok aldrig været så mange mennesker i udlandet der var intersseret i en dansk avis gøren og laden.
Og endeligt har vi vores alle sammens kære Pia Kjærsgaard, efter flere alvorlige offentlige fadæser fra hendes partimedlemmers side har sagen givet hende endnu en chance for at gå i offensiven og meningsmålingerne viser stigende tilslutning til hendes parti! Hendes opførsel i sagen må tælles som blandt de mest uansvarlige, men det ser ud til at en ikke helt ubetydelig del af den danske befolkning støtter hende i denne sag.

Where do we go from here?
Min svigerfar, ikke en fanatisk muslim, pseudodemokrat, gal imam eller shariaforkæmper, men en blåøjet blond kristen dansker har som økonom arbejdet i Asien og Mellemøsten i over 30 år og har boet flere år af gangen i flere muslimske lande. Efter krisen brød ud fortalte han mig hvordan han aldrig havde mødt andet end venlighed under sine ophold, (selv i perioder hvor lande i mellemøsten havde store spændinger med vesten) dette skyldtes netop Danmarks ry for at være et fair og åbent samfund, og et land der støttede retfærdighed overalt i verden. Som han udtrykte det, skammer han sig i dag over at nævne Danmark over for nogen!! Det vil være et stort tab for Danmark hvis det image de forrige generationer opbyggede så skødesløst smides væk, men det ser desværre ud til at processen er godt igang. Den reaktionære højreorienterede bølge er ikke længere kun et internt dansk anliggende men er blevet udstillet for hele verden.

Danmark står endnu ikke ved en afgrund, men har bevæget sig godt hen imod den
Man siger intet er så skidt at det ikke er godt for noget, og man må håbe at hele denne sag har fungeret som et opråb til de danskere der har deres land kært og ikke ønsker Danmarks ry yderligere ødelagt.

Mange øjne i disse dage hviler på Danmark og vil blive ved med det et godt stykke tid fremover. Det er på tide at forlade den simplistiske sloganisme og sekulære fundamentalisme og bevæge os hen imod en mere holistisk og pragmatisk model. Det kan godt være vi har en form for ytringsfrihed i Danmark, spørgsmålet er om vi også skal have empati og samvittighed!
Nu efter stormen har lagt sig er det på tide at træffe et valg, om landet skal styres tilbage på den kurs der har skabt det omdømme mange af os (inklusive "fremmede") længe har levet højt på, eller om vi skal fortsætte ned af den usympatiske sti hysteriske politikere og deres højreradikale allierede i medierne har ført Danmark ned af, en sti med gradvist selvopfyldende profetier der vil producere en hel del tabere og betydeligt færre vindere.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Something Rotten in the State of Denmark - A commentary on the cartoon issue

Omar Shah
Q-News February 2006


The uproar caused by the Danish broadsheet Jyllands-Posten’s publication of a number of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad has put Denmark firmly on the map, but it’s the kind of attention the country would have been perfectly happy without. With Muslim ambassadors being recalled from Copenhagen, Danish embassies burning in Beirut and Damascus, angry protests from London to Lahore and a consumer boycott across the Middle east, the case has now escalated to a point where it’s gone from being another far from atypical event in an increasingly xenophobic little country - better known for its bacon, beer and the Little Mermaid - to an international crisis which Denmark now being referred to as the “frontline in the cultural battle between Islam and the West”. So how did it come to this? Danish Muslim commentator Omar Shah traces the roots of the controversy.

Much ado about Nothing?

For most Muslims in Denmark, accustomed to an increasingly hostile climate, in which both the press and politicians have quite a liberal view of “freedom of expression” (at least when it comes to Islam), the drawings were just another in a long series of provocations and had it not been for a foolhardy decision by the Danish Prime Minister it might have stayed that way.

In September 2005, Kaare Bluitgen, a leading Danish critic of Islam announced in Jyllands-Posten that he had written a “children’s” book about the Prophet Muhammad but could not find any artist to illustrate the book out of fear of the violent Islamists. Though widely perceived by Muslims as being a publicity stunt to get attention, Jyllands-Posten, perhaps deeply touched by Bluitgen’s predicament and the “great threat to Danish freedom of expression”, invited 12 artists to submit drawings of the prophet in order to demonstrate to “fanatics” that the freedom of expression in Denmark is absolute and far above irrational, archaic sensitivities.

The author of the book - was released at the end of January - describes it as a historical account based on the Quran, Sunnah and the famous Seerah by Ibn Ishaq, written for a young Danish audience. In a recent interview, he explained that he wanted to show the “human side” of the Prophet, and that one of the incidents described in the book “entirely from Muslim sources” is the one “where the Prophet fell in love with his daughter in law [the wife of Zaid], got her divorced from her husband and conveniently received a revelation allowing him to marry his adopted sons wife.” He went on to explain that Muslims are immensely proud of the Prophet “being a real man who could get any woman he wanted.”

In view of this, it’s hardly surprising that several artists (one would hope out of decency rather than fear) had reservations about illustrating his book.

Had Jyllands-Posten been a tabloid - Denmark’s equivalent of The Sun perhaps - the stunt might have been understandable, but Jyllands-Posten is the broadsheet with one of the largest circulations in Denmark. Although its right wing sympathies are no secret, as it often functions as a mouthpiece for various reactionary personalities, the latest incident marked a new low point. The drawings caused an uproar, particularly due to the derogatory nature of the caricatures being a combination of old orientalist stereotypes and modern Islamophobic imagery. One drawing depicted the Prophet with a bomb in his turban, while another depicted him as a fierce looking man with a dagger in his hand and four niqab-clad women behind him.

As expected (and intended) the reactions from the Muslim community were heated, complete with demonstrations, fierce condemnations and even a bomb threat from a 17 year old boy. All the while the newspaper could gloat at its role as “protector of Danish values” and publish new editorials and commentaries lecturing Muslims about freedom of expression. Several politicians also banged on the drum of how the Muslim community supposedly did not understand sacrosanct Danish values and how this could pose a threat to the stability of Denmark.

The fact that a leading “quality” newspaper had so clearly violated the sensitivities of the Muslims citizens of Denmark seemed irrelevant. The Muslim reaction was widely misreported in the press, as anger over the flaunting of the Muslim prohibition against drawing the Prophet, rather than anger over the shameless and derogatory way in which he had been depicted.

A number of ambassadors from Muslim countries (with the Egyptian and the Turkish representatives at the forefront), concerned by this public ridicule of the Prophet and vilification of the Muslim community, asked Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen for a meeting and called upon him to distance himself from the actions of the newspaper. The Prime Minister however publicly humiliated them by not only refusing to meet them, but also lecturing them (again) on freedom of speech in Denmark and on the independence of the Danish press. Following this arrogant refusal to even acknowledge that Muslim feelings had been hurt, the diplomats and a number of Danish Muslims organizations decided to seek support abroad, a course of action which was to prove to be even more controversial than the original drawings themselves.

All the world’s a stage

The case was raised both at the Arab league and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and calls were issued for Denmark to apologize. These reactions were widely derided in the Danish press. That such backward countries could have the audacity to criticize Denmark was simply unheard of. This strong belief in the infallibility of the Danish model and the perception of it being a beacon of liberal light in a dark world has incidentally been one of the main obstacles to meaningful dialogue in Denmark.

Following the international attention a rumour arose (originated by the same newspaper that published the drawings) that the Jamaat-i-Islami of Pakistan had issued a bounty on the head of the drawers invoking fresh memories of the Rushdie case, and the artists subsequently got police protection, which led to further protests about how Danish freedom was being threatened.

In addition to the diplomats, a number of local Muslim organizations had also tried to engage the government, but were met with similar responses. Thus shunned by the government and ridiculed by the press, a delegation of Danish Muslims (of primarily Palestinian origin) associated with the largest (Ikhwani) Salafi congregations in Denmark went on a tour of the Middle East to raise awareness of the issue, and visited officials and scholars in countries such as Lebanon and Egypt. The two most prominent personalities in the campaign were Ahmed Abu Laban from Copenhagen and Ahmed Akkari from Aarhus. This coupled with the OIC and Arab League’s stance on the case led to it being widely reported in the Arabic press.

The level of reactions from abroad and the potential dent in Denmark’s “nice image” has taken Danish politicians by surprise, and veteran politicians have criticized the current government for jeopardizing Denmark’s long term projects in the Middle East such as a “democratization initiative” in Yemen, Jordan and Egypt. This was also the position of a number of former Danish diplomats who delivered a petition to the Prime Minister.

Furious about the negative attention, a campaign has been launched by right-wing MP’s (from the Danish Peoples Party) accusing the delegation of treason and of deliberately misinforming the Middle Eastern press to blow the case out of proportion in order to harm Denmark’s international interests. Rather than being lauded for making use of their “freedom of expression” a number of newspapers have jumped on this bandwagon. Additionally leading Danish “terror experts” have accused the delegation’s reckless behaviour of increasing the terror threat against Denmark, which has already participated militarily in both Iraq and Afghanistan with widespread public support. However while other “crusader nations” might have attacked Muslims no other country has overtly endorsed such ridicule of the Prophet Muhammad.

In early January the regional prosecutor stated that it did not find any reason to take legal action against the newspaper over the drawings, a decision which has now been appealed to the High Court, while the group of Muslims accused of treason have launched a libel case against the Danish People’s Party. In the Middle East the boycott of Danish products is spreading day by day and “militant” groups have started issuing threats against Danish interests. As of going to press the situation has become so critical that the Danish papers hardly write about anything else, and The Danish Chamber of Commerce as well as opposition politicians have started putting pressure on the Government and the paper to apologize once and for all. It seems that condemnation from governments across the Muslim world and the potential loss of hundreds of millions of pounds worth of agricultural exports, especially the Gulf countries, have somewhat modified at least some Danes’ views of freedom of speech, and helped them find a tolerance and concern that local Muslim protests could not.
The Muslim boycott of Danish goods has led to a counteraction with text messages being circulated in Denmark calling for a boycott of Danish Muslim shops. An MP for the Danish Peoples Party Louise Frevert has admitted to participating in this campaign and forwarding these messages herself.

On the 30th of January Jyllands-Posten after intense pressure from several Danish politicians and industrialists (especially Arla with annual sales of dairy products to the Gulf exceeding £300 million) finally issued an “apology”, stating that while the caricatures were not illegal under Danish law and the paper was not sorry for publishing them, they were sorry for any offence caused. A position diametrically opposed to their own stated aim in publicizing the drawings in the first place, and a position it took four months to arrive at.


Hath not a Muslim eyes

To a reader unfamiliar with the climate in Denmark the whole situation may seem grotesque and shocking: why would a broadsheet want to engage in such senseless provocation in the first place and why would the Danish government take such a foolish and arrogant stance without even acknowledging Muslim sensitivities?

The answer lies partially in domestic politics and partially in the “cultural battle” which has been taken place in Denmark for the last half a decade, a battle with a stated aim to “revive Danish values” and to stop the encroaching Islamism and “Islamisation” of society.

It is hard to perceive how a minority comprising 4% of the population could Islamise society but in Denmark Muslims are already vilified and deemed too sensitive and demanding. Any concessions to Muslim sensitivities are seen as accommodating fanaticism and “harming integration”.

It is also worth noting that Venstre, the party leading the current government, is heavily dependant on Dansk Folkeparti (Danish Peoples Party) a rabidly anti-Muslim and anti-immigration party which holds 14% of the seats in Parliament, for its mandate. Several of its members have been accused of racism for making statements not dissimilar to those which have currently seen the BNP’s Nick Griffin in court. In the UK, such statements would have meant the end of any serious political career, but not in Denmark.

While politicians increasingly pay lip service to Christianity - as one left wing commentator put it “ the new declaration of faith has become I am not Muslim, hence I am Christian” - as part of the Danish heritage the only thing which is religiously guarded is secular democracy – ridiculing democracy is considered a grave sin while ridiculing religion is not. Secular fundamentalism has been elevated to the status of religion in a way perhaps surpassing even France. The definition of heresy is no longer disowning Jesus and the Tri-nity, but disowning Montesquieu and the Tri-partition of power. Unfortunately for the Muslim immigrants the result is one and the same, whether its criticism for not adhering to Denmark’s “Christian values” or Denmark’s “secular values”.

With this increased polarization, the boundaries for what is acceptable to say have been steadily moved and expanded to a point where some statements bring chilly memories from Germany in the 1930s. In addition to the general aversion against “demanding Muslims” a further problem when it comes to a case such as the drawings is that Danes despite their immense pride in Denmark have very few tangible symbols they hold sacred. Religion is freely made fun of and not even the queen or the flag is held in high esteem leading to an inability to relate to the hurt and anger Muslims feel.

This manifested itself clearly in the Danish reaction to the Van Gogh murder case which saw Denmark gripped by hysteria, the case making headlines in Danish newspapers for several weeks, and being discussed almost as had it happened in Denmark. Sadly, most Danes were oblivious to what Van Gogh had in fact done, only horrified by the fact that a man was killed. The perception of right and wrong in the case was summed up when Ayan Hirsi Ali – Van Gogh’s collaborator on the film which led to his murder - was later given the “freedom prize” by the Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. When vilification and ridicule of Islam is deemed to be synonymous with freedom, the reaction to the drawings is not very surprising. Again and again “freedom of expression” is hailed as a universal right, with no one seemingly worried that this is used as a freedom to offend. Sadly this grandiose attitude is not expanded to include people who are considered “Islamists” as the Danish spokesman for Hizb-ut Tahrir realised when he received a suspended sentence of two months in prison for a leaflet found on the HT website referring to Jews as “a slanderous people”.

Similar logic was also applied when Flemming Rose the editor who originally published the 12 drawings of the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was kindly asked by the Editor in Chief Carsten Juste on the 9th of February to go on indefinite “holiday”. This decision followed Flemming Rose’s claims on CNN on the 8th of February that Jyllands-Posten would publish caricatures about the Holocaust to show that the paper did not discriminate. But apparently the paper did discriminate as burning embassies and flags, consumer boycotts and even a call for his resignation from former foreign minister Uffe Ellemann Jensen (from the liberal party) was not enough to send him on holiday. Whereas the paper could not issue a proper apology to the Muslim world for 4 months it only took Carsten Juste editor in Chief and Flemming Rose Cultural Editor a few hours to retract his statements on CNN and for the error of judgement., and a further day to arrange his holiday arrangements. Sadly there are still two sets of rules!

To be or not to be Danish, that is the question

In a country where referring to Jews as slanderous gets you a (albeit suspended) prison sentence, but where referring to Muslims as a “cancer that should be operated away”, terrorists and people who consider it their “right to rape Danish girls based on the Koran” (as expressed separately by several Danish MP’s) on the other hand is apparently not racism, and where writing a script for a film like Submission gets you a freedom prize from the Prime Minister, one could perhaps excuse the Muslim youth for being a little more than disillusioned.

The attitude of the establishment reinforced by the cultural battle has not done much for community relations, on the contrary if anything it has made immigrants more insular and created a staunchly anti-Danish “immigrant” subculture especially amongst the second generation. Any British politicians worried about lack of social cohesion or the “failure of the British model” should visit Denmark. When asked to describe their affiliation many would say “Denmark is where I was born” instead of saying “I am Danish”. A not so insignificant minority would stumble on the word Danish. The term for immigrant, “perker” (Danish racist slang for a brown person”) is in fact used as a badge of honour. There is also a very strong multiethnic unified immigrant subculture even across religious lines and there are not many countries in which an Albanian, an Iraqi and a Cuban would largely define themselves as belonging to the same group. In Denmark, Danish means a white ethnic group, not a citizenship

The stigmatization of Muslims has also fuelled not only a marked increase in the practice of Islam but also the rise in a what I would term secular Islamism, where adherence to a political aspect of Islam is promoted without strict adherence to the religion. Over the last decade immigrants have increasingly started to define themselves as Muslims (as this is what society calls them) and Islam has become a strong identity marker even where it does necessarily lead to a deeper practice of the religion.

There is something definitely rotten in the state of Denmark where the stage has been set for a tragic play where the roles of the Muslim antagonists and secular Danish protagonists have been firmly defined in advance, with the majority of Muslims still playing the role of extras. The plot is laid out, but it is now up to the Danish establishment to decide whether to follow the script punctually, deliver a good stage-show complete with a disastrous ending, or whether there is courage to depart from the script, redefine the roles, include the extras and achieve a happy ending before curtain call. As for now the very likely economic consequences of a stunt gone far too wrong might be viewed as poetic justice and will hopefully make future events of the same type less likely.


Omar Sayyid Shah is of Afghan/Danish origin, born in Denmark and now residing in the UK. He has participated extensively in the Danish debate on immigration and religion through political commentaries in leading Danish broadsheets, and has contributed to two books on the subject; “Islam. Christianity and modernity” (2004) and “With other eyes” (2003), both published in Danish.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Muharram

En vigtig artikel om den korrekte maade at ihukomme denne maaned paa.

By Mufti Taqi Usmani

Muharram is the month with which the Muslims begin their lunar Hijrah Calendar. It is one of the four sanctified months about which the Holy Quran says, "The number of the months according to Allah is twelve (mentioned) in the Book of Allah on the day He created heavens and the earth. Among these (twelve months) there are four sanctified."
These four months, according to the authentic traditions, are Dhul-Qa'dah, Dhul-Hijjah, Muharram and Rajab. All the commentators of the Holy Quran are unanimous on this point, because the Holy Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, in his sermon on the occasion of his last Hajj, declared: "One year consists of twelve months, of which four are sanctified months, three of them are in sequence; Dhul-Qa'dah, Dhul-Hijjah, Muharram, and the fourth is Rajab."
The specific mention of these four months does not mean that any other month has no sanctity, because the month of Ramadan is admittedly the most sanctified month in the year. But these four months were specifically termed as sanctified months for the simple reason that their sanctity was accepted even by the pagans of Makkah.
In fact, every month, out of the twelve, is originally equal to the other, and there is no inherent sanctity that may be attributed to one of them in comparison to the other months. When Allah Almighty chooses a particular time for His special blessings, the same acquires sanctity out of His grace.
Thus, the sanctity of these four months was recognized right from the days of Sayyidina Ibrahim, alayhi salam. Since the Pagans of Makkah attributed themselves to Sayyidina Ibrahim, alayhi salam, they observed the sanctity of these four months and despite their frequent tribal battles, they held it unlawful to fight in these months.
In the Shariah of our Noble Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, the sanctity of these months was upheld and the Holy Quran referred to them as the "sanctified months".
Muharram has certain other characteristics special to it, which are specified below.


Fasting During the Month
The Noble Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, has said: 'The best fasts after the fasts of Ramadan are those of the month of Muharram."
Although the fasts of the month of Muharram are not obligatory, yet one who fasts in these days out of his own will is entitled to a great reward by Allah Almighty. The Hadith cited above signifies that the fasts of the month of Muharram are most rewardable ones among the Nafl or voluntary fasts.
The Hadith does not mean that the award promised for fasts of Muharram can be achieved only by fasting for the whole month. On the contrary, each fast during this month has merit. Therefore, one should avail of this opportunity as much as he can.


The Day of 'Ashurah'
Although Muharram is a sanctified month as a whole, yet, the 10th day of Muharram is the most sacred among all its days. The day is named 'Ashurah'. According to the Holy Companion Ibn 'Abbas, Radi-Allahu anhu. The Holy Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, when migrated to Madinah, found that the Jews of Madinah used to fast on the 10th day of Muharram. They said that it was the day on which the Holy Prophet Musa (Moses), alayhis salam, and his followers crossed the Red Sea miraculously and the Pharaoh was drowned in its waters. On hearing this from the Jews, the Holy Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, said, "We are more closely rotated to Musa, alayhi salam, than you," and directed the Muslims to fast on the day of 'Ashura'. (Abu Dawood)
It is also reported in a number of authentic traditions that in the beginning, fasting on the day of 'Ashura' was obligatory for the Muslims. It was later that the fasts of Ramadan were made obligatory and the fast on the day of 'Ashura' was made optional. Sayyidina 'Aisha, Radi-Allahu anha, has said:
"When the Holy Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, came to Madinah, he fasted on the day of 'Ashura' and directed the people to fast. But when the fasts of Ramadan were made obligatory, the obligation of fasting was confined to Ramadan and the obligatory nature of the fast of 'Ashura' was abandoned. Whoever so desires should fast on it and any other who so likes can avoid fasting on it." (Sunan Abu Dawud)
However, the Holy Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, used to fast on the day of 'Ashura' even after the fasting in Ramadan was made obligatory. Abdullah ibn Musa, Radi-Allahu anhu, reports that the Holy Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, preferred the fast of 'Ashura' on the fasts of other days and preferred the fasts of Ramadhaan on the fast of 'Ashura'. (Bukhari and Muslim)
In short, it is established through a number of authentic ahadith that fasting on the day of 'Ashura' is Sunnah of the Holy Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, and makes one entitled to a great reward.
According to another Hadith, it is more advisable that the fast of 'Ashura' should either be preceded or followed by another fast. It means that one should fast two days: the 9th and 10th of Muharram or the 10th and 11th. The reason of this additional fast as mentioned by the Holy Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, is that the Jews used to fast on the day of'Ashura alone, and the Holy Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, wanted to distinguish the Muslim way of fasting from that of Jews. Therefore, he advised the Muslims to add another fast to that of 'Ashura'.
Some traditions signify another feature of the day of 'Ashura. According to these traditions, one should be more generous to his family by providing more food to them on this day as compared to other days. These traditions are not very authentic according to the science of Hadith. Yet, some Scholars like Baihaqi and Ibn Hibban have accepted them as reliable.
What is mentioned above is all that is supported through authentic sources about Ashura.


Misconceptions and Baseless Traditions
However, there are some legends and misconceptions with regard to 'Ashura' that have managed to find their way into the minds of the ignorant, but have no support of authentic Islamic sources, some very common of them are these: This is the day on which Adam, alayhi salam, was created. This is the day when Ibrahim, alayhi salam, was born. This is the day when Allah accepted the repentance of Sayyidina Adam, alayhi salam. This is the day when Qiyaamah (doomsday) will take place. Whoever takes bath on the day of 'Ashura' will never get ill.
All these and other similar whims and fancies are totally baseless and the traditions referred to in this respect are not worthy of any credit.
Some people take it as Sunnah to prepare a particular type of meal on the day of 'Ashura'. This practice, too, has no basis in the authentic Islamic sources.
Some other people attribute the sanctity of 'Ashura' to the martyrdom of Sayyidna Husain, Radi-Allahu anhu, during his battle with the Syrian army. No doubt, the martyrdom of Sayyidina Husain, Radi-Allahu anhu, is one of the most tragic episodes of our history. Yet, the sanctity of 'Ashura' cannot be ascribed to this event for the simple reason that the sanctity of 'Ashura' was established during the days of the Holy Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, much earlier than the birth of Sayyidna Husain, Radi-Allahu anhu.
On the contrary, it is one of the merits of Sayyidna Husain, Radi-Allahu anhu, that his martyrdom took place on the day of 'Ashura'.
Another misconception about the month of Muharram is that it is an evil or unlucky month, for Sayyidna Husain, Radi-Allahu anhu, was killed in it. It is for this misconception that people avoid holding marriage ceremonies in the month of Muharram. This is again a baseless concept, which is contrary to the express teachings of the Holy Quran and the Sunnah. If the death of an eminent person on a particular day renders that day unlucky for all times to come, one can hardly find a day of the year free from this bad luck because every day is associated with the demise of some eminent person. The Holy Quran and the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, have liberated us from such superstitious beliefs.


Lamentations and Mourning
Another wrong practice related to this month is to hold the lamentation and mouming ceremonies in the memory of martyrdom of Sayyidna Husain, Radi-Allahu anhu. As mentioned earlier, the event of Karbala is one of the most tragic events of our history, but the Holy Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, has forbidden us from holding the mourning ceremonies on the death of any person. The people of jahiliyyah (ignorance) used to mourn over their deceased through loud lamentations, by tearing their clothes and by beating their cheeks and chests. The Holy Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, stopped the Muslims from doing all this and directed them to observe patience by saying "Innaa lillaahi wa innaa ilayhi raaji'oon". A number of authentic Ahaadith are available on the subject. To quote only one of them:
"He is not from our group who slaps his checks, tears his clothes and cries in the manner of the people of jahiliyyah." (Sahih Bukhari)
All the authentic jurists are unanimous on the point that the mourning of this type is impermissible. Even Sayyidna Husain, Radi-Allahu anhu, shortly before his demise, had advised his beloved sister Sayyidah Zainab, Radi-Allahu anha, at not to mourn over his death in this manner. He said, "My dear sister! I swear upon you that in case I die you shall not tear your clothes, nor scratch your face, nor curse anyone for me or pray for your death." (Al-Kamil, ibn Kathir vol. 4 pg. 24)
It is evident from this advice of Sayyidna Husain, Radi-Allahu anhu, that this type of mourning is condemned even by the blessed person for the memory of whom these mourning ceremonies are held. Every Muslim should avoid this practice and abide by the teachings of the Holy Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, and his beloved grand child Sayyidna Husain, Radi-Allahu anhu.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Friskoler, folkeskoler og kulturkamp

Vil man omdanne folkeskolen fra at være en formidler af viden til en indoktrineringslejr, der skal undervise i den ene endegyldige sandhed, så kan man heller ikke blive forbavset over det stigende fravalg af denne model


Information 10 Januar

Af Omar Shah


En slagmark hvor tapre kristne patrioter med Dannebrog i hånd kæmper en bitter kamp mod en numerisk langt overlegen fjende, der ikke skyr nogen kneb og synes at få forstærkninger hver dag.

Det er ikke lige det billede, der toner frem, når jeg tænker tilbage på min gamle folkeskole, men i disse tider, hvor 'kulturkampen' (et finere udtryk for opblomstringen i xenofobi og national romanticering) er i fokus, kan debatten om folkeskolen til tider antage sådanne dimensioner. Overdramatiseringen balancerer på grænsen til det komiske - hvis det ikke var på grund af de alvorlige konsekvenser, den fejlagtige fokusering på minoriteter og tilhørende stigmatisering får for de unge indvandrer elever, der i sidste ende er gidsler og ofre i dette spil.

Tiden hvor Ali og Aisha blot var glade seks-årige, der ganske som alle andre elever startede i folkeskole fulde af forventninger og ambitioner er forbi. Nu opfattes de oftere som eksponenter for en fremmed kultur og symptomer på en 'kedelig' demografisk udvikling, næsten som en slags islamistiske trojanske heste komplet med tilhørende rabiate forældre, for hvem uddannelsen af deres børn selvfølgeligt må være sekundær i forhold til det primære mål, nemlig at infiltrere den danske folkeskole, stille så mange urimelige krav som muligt, og i det hele taget gøre livet surt både for lærere og 'danske elever'.

Information kunne for nyligt berette, at tilstrømningen til arabiske friskoler er støt stigende, en udvikling undervisningsminister Bertel Haarder betragtede som 'uheldig for integrationen'. I den sædvanlige stil, der er blevet regeringspolitikernes kendetegn, fralagde han sig dog et ethvert ansvar og mente f.eks. ikke, at det hang sammen med afskaffelsen af modersmålsundervisningen eller andre faktorer, men at det bundede i den "stigende fundamentalisme". Ergo at forældrene for det første udelukkende valgte skolerne af rent religiøse grunde, og for det andet at fravalget af folkeskolerne ikke skyldes deres kvalitet og ikke mindst mangel på fleksibilitet og pragmatisme.

Problemet med folkeskolens manglende fleksibilitet opsummeres perfekt af det personlige Korstog (med stort K), undervisningsministeren (eller kirkeministeren?) indledte mod Aalholm skole i Valby, der havde vovet at tage initiativ til at forholde sig til de demografiske realiteter i dagens Danmark og forsøgt at skabe en skole for alle elever uanset etnisk eller religiøs baggrund. I øvrigt er det få sekulariserede lande, der kan bryste sig af at have en kombineret undervisnings- og kirkeminister. På det punkt slår vi selv pseudoteokratier som Iran og Saudi-Arabien, lande vi normalt ikke ynder at sammenligne os selv med.

Traditionelt har den danske folkeskole været friere og mindre rigid end skolesystemerne i andre lande og har netop været kendetegnet ved en udvikling af eleverne gennem opfordring til selvstændig tænkning, men efterhånden som lærere er blevet konfronteret med former for individualitet og selvstændig tænkning, der ikke stemmer overens med den ønskede form for 'fritænkning', er der fra politisk side kommet flere og flere krav om, at folkeskolen ensrettes som 'kulturformidler' (eller indoktrineringsmaskine). Det er set i lyset af denne institution, folkeskolen i Danmark anno 2006, at vi skal se forældrenes skolevalg, og analysere faktorerne, der ligger til grund for disse.

En dør på klem
Tilstrømningen til friskolerne er først og fremmest en del af den bredere 'indvandrerproblematik' i Danmark og kan ikke ses i isolation, men i forlængelse af forældrenes opfattelse af det samfund, de og børnene er bosat i. Et samfund der i de seneste år har taget en kraftig højredrejning for at udtrykke det mildt, og hvor der tales om indvandrere, men sjældent med dem, hvor de er et problem, men ikke en del af løsningen, og ikke mindst hvor tilsvining og latterliggørelse af samfundets svageste nærmest er blevet en dyd.

I dette klima er det forståeligt, at der er forældre, der gerne vil holde bagdøren åben, hvis det på sigt skulle blive uudholdeligt at være bosat i Danmark. Hvis vi ekstrapolerer fra den udvikling, vi har set de sidste 10 år, er det nærmest kun fantasien, der sætter grænser for, hvad vi skal forvente af nye tiltag og eskaleringer det næste årti. Mange forældre vil ikke risikere, at deres børn en dag skal starte forfra som 'fremmede', og holder derfor børnenes bånd til 'hjemlandets' sprog og kultur i live som en slags forsikring.

Kultur kampen
En anden meget vigtig faktor er den politisering af folkeskolen, der har fundet sted, og tidens buzz word 'kulturkamp' opsummerer perfekt det negative forhold, der desværre tit har udviklet sig mellem folkeskolelærere på den ene side og muslimske elever og deres forældre på den anden side.

Muslimske forældre ønsker som andre forældre slet og ret, at deres børn skal ses og behandles som elever, der skal undervises snarere end (i bedste fald) stakler, der skal reddes fra undertrykkelse, eller (i værste fald) kulturelle fjender, der skal bekæmpes, besejres og genskoles i "danske normer". Opfattelsen af forældrene som en mellemting mellem fangevogtere og torturbødler, der holder børnene fastlåst i en arkaisk kultur og piner dem ved at berøve dem det danske samfunds glæder, har ikke overraskende ej heller vist sig at resultere i stærkt forældreengagement eller god kommunikation med skolen. For mange forældre er det til sidst blevet så trættende med lærere, der problematiserer og stejler over de mindste bagateller, at det er blevet lettere at flytte eleverne.

Mangelfuld folkeskole
Sidst, men ikke mindst, kan forældres valg af friskolerne ikke analyseres uden at sammenligne med de konkrete alternativer, forældrene har til rådighed, ikke mindst hvad angår faktorer som undervisningsstandarden og disciplin. Alternativet til den muslimske friskole er oftest ikke den idylliske lille folkeskole med 20 elever i hver klasse og energifyldte lærere med masser af overskud.

Alternativet er ofte en problemfyldt 'sort skole' med for mange elever, for få lærere der ofte har et meget lavt ambitionsniveau, hvad angår indvandrereleverne, og en etnisk sammensætning, der paradoksalt nok ikke adskiller sig markant fra den, man finder i de fleste muslimske friskoler!

Hvis alternativet er Hellig Kors skole, Sjællandsgade eller Rådmandsgade skole, er det forståeligt, at forældre vælger friskoler. Den Islamisk Arabiske skole (DIA) ved Skt. Hans Torv har 700 elever på venteliste, ikke fordi det er islamisternes rugested på Nørrebro, men fordi den rent fagligt er folkeskolerne i området overlegen, hvilket et hurtigt check på CEPOS hjemmeside www.karakter.dk beviser.

DIA har endvidere vundet første- og andenpladsen i konkurrencen 'Skriv til avisen' i 2003 og 2004.

Historier om middelmådige friskoler, der lukkes af tilsynet af frygt for elevernes ve og vel, er populære i pressen, men de viser kun en side af sagen. Gennemsnitligt er Københavns friskoler bestemt ikke folkeskolerne underlegne, tværtimod. Et andet problem på folkeskolerne i mange forældres øjne er den manglende disciplin.

Indvandrerelever på friskoler har langtfra samme grad af adfærdsproblemer, som man ser på folkeskoler, hvilket til dels hænger sammen med, at deres (indrømmet til tider selviscenesatte) offerrolle ikke hele tiden bekræftes af lærerne, til dels af at disciplinen er strengere, og at respektløs opførsel ikke tolereres i samme grad.

At det er de svageste indvandrere, der sender deres børn i friskole, er kort sagt en forkert konklusion. Det ikke ressourcesvage forældre, der er villige til at betale skolegebyrer for en søskendeflok, der ofte er større end den danske gennemsnitsfamilies. Tværtimod er det forældre med overskud til at gå op i børnenes skolegang.

Omvendt er ressourcesvage indvandrere (såvel som danske forældre) typisk apatiske mht. deres børns skolegang.

I modsætning til Bertel Haarders udtalelser er religion næppe direkte den motiverende faktor ved fravalg af folkeskolen, selv om folkeskolens manglende fleksibilitet over for islam som religion er. Det er i mindre grad religionstimerne på friskolerne, der lokker, og i højere grad aversionen over for islam på folkeskolerne, der frastøder, deraf forskellen på ventelister skolerne imellem. Hvis 'fundamentalismen' vitterligt var den vigtigste faktor og ikke det faglige niveau, burde disse forskelle have været minimale.

Der findes gode og dårlige friskoler, og jeg ville være den første til at lukke en muslimsk friskole, hvis undervisning ikke lever op til den forventede standard. Friskolerne er ikke et problem i sig selv, men et symptom på et dybere underliggende problem, nemlig folkeskolens manglende evne til at forholde sig til etniske minoriteter. Det er sørgeligt, at mange forældre ikke har andre udveje end at sende deres børn i friskoler grundet utallige provokationer fra lærere i folkeskolen.

Ca. 20 procent af alle skoleelever i København er af anden etnisk oprindelse end dansk, og hvis den københavnske folkeskole afspejlede realiteterne, og tolerance og hensyn ikke blev afvist som knæfald for fundamentalismen, ville mange af de børn, der i dag ender på friskolerne, højst sandsynligt blive.

Man kan ikke både blæse og have mel i munden, og vil man omdanne folkeskolen fra at være en formidler af viden til en indoktrineringslejr, der skal undervise i den ene endegyldige sandhed, så kan man heller ikke blive forbavset over det stigende fravalg af denne model. At en skoletradition på den ene side påstås at fremme den selvstændige tænkning, men på den anden side slet ikke er gearet til individualisme er mildt sagt et paradoks.

Denne overgås næsten kun af lande som Frankrig, hvor sekularismen er ophøjet i en grad, hvor al individualitet skal udviskes, og hvor mennesker, der ikke vil indordne sig effektivt, reduceres til underklasse. Frugten af dette projekt var vi alle vidner til i starten af november.

Omar Shah er revisor og samfundsdebattør og har blandt andet bidraget til bøgerne 'Islam, Kristendom og det Moderne', og 'Med andre øjne'

Monday, December 05, 2005

GF Haddad om Martin Lings seerah bog "Muhammad- his life based on the earliest sources"

Mange af os har laest Martings Lings seerah bog "Muhammad - his life based on the earliest sources" og fundet den nyttig, selvom bogen indeholder visse problematiske passager.

Gibril Fuad Haddad har skrevet en fremragende artikel om bogen og visse passager der er vaerd at tage sig i agt for, artiklen "A critical reading of Martin Lings' Muhammad his life based on the earliest sources" kan laeses paa http://www.mereislam.info/acrobat/A-Critical-Reading-of-Lings%27-%27Muhammad%27-SAWS.pdf

Ash-Shifaa af Qadi Iyad kan varmt anbefales til alle der oensker at laese en bog der ikke er en kronologisk seerah bog men omhandler forskellige aspekter af rasoolullahs karakter.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Al-Hikam Al-'ata'iyya: The Book of Wisdom

Artikel af Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller, fra Islamica Magazine, Omhandlende Ibn Ata Illah's "Al-Hikam"


By Nuh Ha Mim Keller


APHORISM 4: Relieve yourself of planning: what Another has already done for you do not do yourself.

THE UNIVERSE and all it contains are the deed of a single Doer. If planning is not to veil the spiritual traveller, he must be aware of this tawhid, the Divine Reality behind the world of forms. To know it is to walk in light and not to is to walk in darkness. As a Sufi once told me: “Sit with those of this world, and you become a speck in its sea. Sit with those of Allah, and the world becomes a speck in your sea.” Mawlay al-‘Arabi al-Darqawi wrote in a letter to a disciple:

A certain person who was against us said to me [hypocritically] one day in the presence of some of the brethren (Allah be well pleased with them), “You are our lords and masters.” I told him: “I won’t hear this from you or another, or anyone else, unless Allah is my Lord and Master. As for when my ego is my lord and master, I won’t hear it or accept it.” And I said: “The moment at which Allah Most Glorious is my Lord and Master, then am I the lord and master of all existence despite itself, willing or unwilling. And the moment at which my ego is my lord and master, all existence is my lord and master despite myself, willing or unwilling. It is contemptuous towards me, disparages me, humiliates me, overrides me, ignores me, dismisses me, and does whatever else it wishes with me. So how should we care about your praise or blame, or that of anyone else? It is baseless.”1

Regardless of who appears to be in control, Allah is Master of reality, and knowing this facilitates everything, inwardly and outwardly, while “planning” without this knowledge is mere floundering. The heart of the person who must be in control—of his present, past, and future—is without the tawakkul or “trust in Allah” that is essential to living one’s faith in a real world. The “planning” one should relieve oneself of is that which makes one prey to the Devil, whom Allah tells us “has no power over those who truly believe, and place their whole trust in their Lord” (Qur’an 16:99). Hearts without trust in God have to listen to a lot of advertisements from hell.

When I took the path in the early 1980s from Sheikh ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri, he seemed so old and frail that I kept wondering, “What if he passes away before I finish my spiritual journey?” At every illness—and he had a few—my heart would feel a chill, and I would hear misgivings and suggestions, grounded, as most infernal thoughts are, in some points of fact.

I had arrived in Jordan more than seven years after the death of Sheikh Muhammad Sa‘id al-Kurdi, the last great spiritual guide there. Many disciples I met and talked to had only known him for four years, some for only two years, before he died. Since the days of Sheikh al-‘Alawi of Algeria at the first of the century, the sheikhs of our tariqa had used the khalwa or solitary retreat to train disciples. One of the main reasons I sought out Sheikh ‘Abd al-Rahman in Damascus was that Sheikh al-Kurdi had not authorized anyone else in it.

In the course of my first year with the sheikh, I asked about the khalwa, and he explained that his and Sheikh al- Kurdi’s sheikh, Muhammad al-Hashimi, had used the rooms in the Qalbaqjiyya Zawiya near the Nuriyya Mosque in the Old City. At present, he told me—in the wake of a massacre of scores of ‘Alawite cadets in Aleppo imputed to the Ikhwan Muslimin (Muslim Brotherhood), and the government’s own massacre of thousands of citizens in Hama—the ‘Alawite regime had sent its security forces to clean up the Old City around the Hamidiyya, a warren of resistance. The police had entered the zawiya and placed red wax seals upon almost every door in the place, under the direst threats for breaking them. The khalwa was effectively closed.

Around the same time, at a moment when Syrian troops were massed on the northern borders of Jordan for its allegedly giving asylum to members of the Ikhwan, one of our brothers in Jordan decided to give a mawlid celebration of the Prophet’s birthday (Allah bless him and give him peace). He phoned the sheikh in Damascus, inviting him down by saying, “The brothers (al-ikhwan) would love to see you.” The call was overheard by security in Damascus, and the infelicitous word resulted in repeated interrogations for the sheikh and final cancellation of his passport. For the next seven years he could not come to Jordan.

As the khalwa receded into the distance, my thoughts went on and on about the sheikh’s condition and age. I put my fears before him one afternoon, and he looked at me levelly and said, “Sidi, if I didn’t think I could finish with you, I wouldn’t have begun.” Eventually, other rooms were found in Damascus for the khalwa, and ultimately the sheikh did pass on—but more than two decades later. Looking back, I realized that Allah had been teaching me something about tawakkul: that too much desire for control puts one under the Devil’s control; and that planning does not benefit the traveller when it concerns the warid, or “that which is from God,” but only when it concerns the wird, or “that which is from one to God,” one’s spiritual works.

The wird includes not only one’s five daily prayers, dhikr, fasting, night vigil prayer (tahajjud), going to the mosque, and being with those who uplift one—all of which are praiseworthy to plan—but indeed anything that is intended for Allah, whether learning Sacred Knowledge to worship, saving money for hajj, raising funds for disaster relief, supporting oneself and family by honest work, or even the food, sleep, and exercise needed to fulfill the rights of Allah, others, or oneself that are incumbent upon one. Accomplishing all of these is praiseworthy, and to plan and carry them out for the sake of Allah benefits the spiritual traveller. Planning is blameworthy when it concerns the warid or that which is from Allah, such as mystical experiences, spiritual stations, and tawfiq or “divinely given success” in anything, worldly or unworldly. Abul Hasan al-Shadhili once said:

A friend and I took to a cave, seeking to reach Allah, and we would say, “Tomorrow we shall be illumined, or the day after tomorrow.” A man passed by who inspired awe, and we said, “Who are you?” and he replied, “The slave of the King (‘Abd al-Malik),” and we realized he was one of the saints of Allah. He said: “How is someone who says, ‘Tomorrow I shall be illumined, or the day after tomorrow’?—Neither sainthood nor success! O self, why not worship Allah for the sake of Allah?”We then understood from whence we had been taken, and we repented and asked Allah’s forgiveness; and then illumination came.2

One must strive to do works for Allah with true sincerity, while the fruits of these works are sent by Allah, and one should free the heart of turning to them and looking at them, because they are “what Another has already done for you,” and hence a matter of trust in God (tawakkul). As Mustafa al-‘Arusi once said: “The one with real trust is he who sees Allah in the outward forms of causes and effects, doing and choosing everything that those veiled from Him ascribe to them. He thus consigns the matter to Him in charge of the matter, and is well pleased with Him to rely on.”3

Trust in God is an exacting spiritual perspective. Without it, there may be false confidence in one’s own striving, while with it, human weakness may try to excuse its own fecklessness, as Ibn ‘Ata’ Illah apprises travellers by saying:


APHORISM 5: Your striving for what is ensured to you and neglect of what is sought from you show the blindness of your spiritual insight.

The journey to the Real described in these aphorisms is the path of wilaya or “friendship with Allah.” To travel it, the wali or friend must realize that Allah is his wali, his all powerful patron and helping friend, who says:

Allah is the protecting friend (wali) of those who believe, bringing them out of darknesses into the light (Qur’an 2:257).

This is “what is ensured” to the disciple in the mystic path, and is what Allah has destined for him from beginningless eternity, and what he must know and be absolutely certain of. The friend (wali) of Allah must know the favor of Allah and not place his hope in anything besides. The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said:

Allah Most High says: “I shall be to My servant as he thinks I shall be. I am with him when he makes remembrance (dhikr) of Me. If he remembers Me to himself, I remember him to Myself, and if he mentions Me to an assembly, I mention him to an assembly better than they. If he draws nearer to Me by a span, I draw nearer to him by a cubit, and if he draws nearer to Me by a cubit, I draw nearer to him by a fathom. If he comes to Me walking, I come to him running.”4

The sign that God wants one is that one wants God; just as the sign of His drawing nearer to one is that one is drawing nearer to Him. Abu Bakr al-Warraq used to forbid his disciples to journey or travel, saying, “The key to every spiritual blessing is patience in the place where you first aspire, until you truly desire. When you truly desire, the beginnings of blessedness have appeared in you.”? To become such a person, the disciple must spend all he has, like a runner who does not catch his second wind until he has used up his first. True desire (irada) to do “what is sought” from one is the mark of the kind of person Allah calls My servant in the above hadith.

Desire means taking a serious look at oneself, turning one’s back on what Allah detests, and walking away from it. Speaking badly of someone absent, for example, which Allah has likened to “eating the flesh of one’s dead brother” (Qur’an 49:12)—no matter how witty, chic, or entertaining in the eyes of friends—is hated by God. Imam Nawawi tells us, moreover, that “just as it is unlawful to speak of a person’s failings to someone else, so too it is unlawful (haram) to speak to oneself of them and think badly of him.”? How many of one’s thoughts are about others’ failings? If one takes a step forward in the spiritual path with dhikr and prayer, and two steps backward by slandering others, how soon will one reach the goal? Desire means adding these up.

Desire also means loving what God loves, and He loves a heart alive with His remembrance. The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) has said, “Truly, this world and all it contains are accursed, except for the remembrance (dhikr) of Allah, that which He loves, and someone who has Sacred Knowledge or someone learning it.”? For Sufis dhikr is the main stanchion of the spiritual path, its way, aim, and method. Ibn al-‘Arabi advises:

Be diligent in the remembrance of Allah, secretly and openly, to yourselves and with others, for Allah has said, “Remember Me and I will remember you” (Qur’an 2:152), making remembrance from Allah the consequence of remembrance from the servant.8

Dhikr has tremendous power. Those who travel to the hajj, for example, and constantly make the dhikr that is sunna in motion, at rest, and in all the rites, find their whole reality changed. Few ever forget the hajj, but for those able to continue in their certitude after they return home, it is an axial experience. In this sense the spiritual path is a permanent pilgrimage. All of these matters are sought from the traveller.

To summarize, desire means change, first by takhliya or “ridding oneself ” of the acts, motives, and states unacceptable to Allah; then tahliya or “adorning oneself ” with good traits such as sincerity (ikhlas), trust (tawakkul), remembrance of Allah, and finally the ma‘rifa or knowledge of the Divine with which Allah remembers the person of dhikr who perseveres in these. To rely on one’s own efforts to bring about what Allah has already decided is “your striving for what is ensured to you,” while not to change oneself is the “neglect of what is sought from you.” Both are blindness in the way of wilaya.

MMV © N. Keller

NOTES
1 Rasa’il Mawlay al-‘Arabi al-Darqawi. Abu Dhabi: 1420/1999. 98.
2Ibn ‘Ata’ Illah. Lata’if al-minan fi manaqib Abi al-‘Abbas al-Mursi wa
shaykhihi Abi al-Hasan. Cairo: 1406/1986. 101.
3 Nata’ij al-afkar, Cairo: 1290/1873, I. 61–62.
4 Sahih al-Bukhari. Cairo: 1313/1895. 9.147–48: 7405.
5 ‘Arusi, Nata’ij al-afkar, I.166.
6 Al-Adhkar. Beirut: 1425/2005. 555.
7 A well-authenticated (hasan) hadith related in Sunan al-Tirmidhi.
Beirut: n.d. 4.561: 2322.
8 Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya. Cairo:1329/1911. 4.446.


NUH KELLER is a writer and translator who lives in Jordan. He took the Shadhili tariqa in 1982 in Damascus from Sheikh ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri and was authorized by him in 1996.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Kalam and Islam

Fremragende artikel om et meget vigtigt emne af Sheikh Nuh Keller

By Nuh Ha Mim Keller

Most of us have met dedicated and otherwise intelligent Muslims who have made themselves “‘aqida police” to confront the rest of us with their issues in tenets of faith. We are told that this group, or that group, or most Muslims, or we ourselves are kafirs or “non-Muslims” on grounds that are less than familiar, but found in some manual of Islamic creed. Before going to hell on a trick question, or sending someone else there, many Muslims today would do well to cast a glance at the history of traditional Islamic theology (kalam), and the real creedal reasons that make one a Muslim or non-Muslim. Nuh Keller examines them in the following address given at the Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Amman, Jordan

Few would deny today that the millions of dollars spent worldwide on religious books, teachers, and schools in the last thirty years by oil-rich governments have brought about a sea change in the way Muslims view Islam. In whole regions of the Islamic world and Western countries where Muslims live, what was called Wahhabism in earlier times and termed Salafism in our own has supplanted much of traditional Islamic faith and practice. The very name Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama‘a or “Sunni orthodoxy and consensus” has been so completely derailed in our times that few Muslims even know it is rolling down another track. In most countries, Salafism is the new “default Islam,” defining all religious discourse, past and present, by the understanding of a few Hanbali scholars of the Middle Ages whose works historically affected the tribes and lands where the most oil has been found. Among the more prominent casualties of this “reform” are the Hanbalis’ ancient foes, the Ash‘ari and Maturidi schools of Sunni theology.

For over a thousand years Ash‘ari-Maturidi theology has defined Sunni orthodoxy. When I visited al-Azhar in Cairo in 1990 and requested for my library the entire syllabus of religious textbooks taught by Azhar High Schools in Egypt, one of the books I was given was a manual on Islamic sects, whose final section defined Ahl al-Sunna as “the Ash‘aris, followers of Abul Hasan al-Ash‘ari, and the Maturidis, followers of Abu Mansur al-Maturidi” (Mudhakkara al-firaq, 14).

This is not an isolated assessment. When the Imam of the late Shafi‘i school Ibn Hajr al-Haytami was asked for a fatwa identifying as-hab al-bida‘ or heretics, he answered that they were “those who contravene Muslim orthodoxy and consensus (Ahl al-Sunna wa al- Jama‘a): the followers of Sheikh Abul Hasan al-Ash‘ari and Abu Mansur al-Maturidi, the two Imams of Ahl al-Sunna” (al-Fatawa al-hadithiy-ya, 280).

Few Muslims today know anything about the Ash‘ari and Maturidi schools or their relation to Islam. So I shall discuss their theology not as history, but as orthodoxy, answering the most basic questions about them such as: What are the beliefs of Sunni Islam? Who needs rational theology anyway? And what relevance does it have today? We mention only enough history to understand what brought it into being, what it said, what it developed into, what its critics said of it, and what the future may hold for it.

I

Islamic theology is based on an ethical rather than speculative imperative. Many Qur’anic verses and hadiths show that iman or “true faith” is obligatory and rewarded by paradise, and that kufr or “unbelief” is wrong and punished by hell. Every Muslim must know certain matters of faith, be convinced of them himself, and not merely imitate others who believe in them. The faith God requires of man is expressed in the words

“The Messenger believes in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, as do the believers. Each believes in Allah, His angels, His books, and His messengers. We do not differentiate between any of His messengers, and they say: We hear and obey, O Lord grant us Your forgiveness, and unto You is the final becoming” (Qur’an 2:285).

This verse defines the believer as someone who believes in the Prophet’s revelation (Allah bless him and give him peace) in general and in detail. The details have to be known to be believed, for as Allah says, “Allah does not tax any soul except in its capacity” (Qur’an 2:286), and it is not in one’s capacity to believe something unless it is both known to one and not unbelievable, meaning not absurd or self-contradictory. Moreover, “belief” means holding something to be true, not merely believing what one’s forefathers or group believe, such that if they handed down something else, one would believe that instead. That is, “belief” by blind imitation without reference to truth or falsity is not belief at all. Allah specifically condemns those who reject the message of Islam for this reason, by saying:

“When they are told: ‘Come to what Allah has revealed, and to the Messenger,’ they say, ‘It suffices us what we found our forefathers upon’ -- But what if their forefathers knew nothing, and were not guided?” Qur’an 5:104).

In short, Islamic kalam theology exists because belief in Islam demands three things:

(1) to define the contents of faith;
(2) to show that it is possible for the mind
to accept, not absurd or inconsistent;
(3) and to give reasons to be personally convinced of it.

“Very well,” one may say, “these are valid aims, but what proof is there that rational argument, the specific means adopted by traditional theology, is valid or acceptable in matters of faith?” -- to which the first answer is that the Qur’an itself uses rational argument; while the second is that nothing else would have met the historical threat to Islam of Jahm and the Mu‘tazila, the aberrant schools who were obligatory for Ash‘ari and Maturidi to defeat.

The Qur’anic proof is the verse

“Allah has not begotten a son, nor is there any god besides Him, for otherwise, each would have taken what they created and overcome the other -- how exalted is Allah above what they describe!” (Qur’an 23:91), whose premises and conclusion are: (a) a “god” means a being with an omnipotent will; (b) the omnipotent will of more than one such being would impose a limit on the omnipotence of the other, which is absurd; (c) God is therefore one, and has not begotten a son, nor is there any god besides Him.

A second proof is in the Qur’anic verse

“Were there other gods in [the heavens and earth] besides Allah, [the heavens and earth] would have come to ruin” (Qur’an 21:22),

whose argument may be summarized as: (a) a “god” means a being with an omnipotent will, to whom everything in the universe is thus subject; (b) if the universe were subject to a number of omnipotent gods, its fabric would be disrupted by the exercise of their several wills, while no such disruption is evident in the universe; (c) God is therefore one, and there are no other gods.

The historical proof for rational argument -- unmentioned in kalam literature but perhaps even more cogent than either of the Qur’anic proofs just mentioned -- is that nothing else could meet the crisis that Ash‘ari and Maturidi faced; namely, the heretical mistakes of the two early proto-schools of ‘aqida, the Jahmiyya and the Mu‘tazila. We say “nothing else” because a chess player cannot be defeated by playing checkers, and the only way to refute the arguments of the Jahmiyya and of the Mu‘tazila was by intellectual means. Mere political suppression would have but hardened their party spirit into sectarian obstinacy, so it was necessary to defeat them with rational argument.

II

The challenge facing Abul Hasan al-Ash‘ari and Abu Mansur al-Maturidi was thus threefold: (1) to define the tenets of faith of Islam and refute innovation; (2) to show that this faith was acceptable to the mind and not absurd or inconsistent; and (3) to give proofs that personally convinced the believer of it. Though not originally obligatory itself, kalam became so when these aims could not be accomplished for the Muslim polity without it, in view of the Islamic legal principle that “whatever the obligatory cannot be accomplished without is itself obligatory.” As we have seen, the specific form of the response, rational argument, was used by the Qur’an, mandated by human reason, and necessitated by history. We now turn to the concrete form of the response, which was the traditional tenets of faith (‘aqida) of the two schools, after which we will look at how the response was conditioned by their historical predecessors, the Jahmiyya and Mu‘tazila schools.

III

The heart of traditional kalam theology is that -- after the shahada “there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,” and after acknowledging Allah’s infinite perfections and transcendence above any imperfection -- it is obligatory for every Muslim to know what is (a) necessarily true, (b) impossible, or (c) possible to affirm of both Allah and the prophets (upon whom be peace). These three categories traditionally subsume some fifty tenets of faith.

(a) The twenty attributes necessarily true of Allah are His (1) existence; (2) not beginning; (3) not ending; (4) self-subsistence, meaning not needing any place or determinant to exist; (5) dissimilarity to created things; (6) uniqueness, meaning having no partner (sharik) in His entity, attributes, or actions; (7) omnipotent power; (8) will; (9) knowledge; (10) life; (11) hearing; (12) sight; (13) speech; such that He is (14) al-mighty; (15) all-willing; (16) all-knowing; (17) living; (18) all-hearing; (19) all-seeing; (20) and speaking -- through His attributes of power, will, knowledge, life, hearing, sight, and speech, not merely through His being.
(b) (b) The twenty attributes necessarily impossible of Allah (21–40) are the opposites of the previous twenty, such as nonexistence, beginning, ending, and so on.
(c) The one attribute merely possible of Allah (41) is that He may create or destroy any possible thing.

The attributes of the prophets (upon whom be peace) similarly fall under the three headings:
(a) The four attributes necessarily true of the prophets (42–45) are telling the truth, keeping their trust, conveying to mankind everything they were ordered to, and intelligence.
(b) The four attributes necessarily impossible of them (46–49) are the opposites of the previous four, namely lying, treachery, concealing what they were ordered to reveal, and feeblemindedness .
(c) The one attribute possible of them (50) is any human state that does not detract from their rank, such as eating, sleeping, marrying, and illnesses not repellant to others; although Allah protected them from every offensive physical trait and everything unbecoming them, keeping them from both lesser sins and enormities, before their prophethood and thereafter.

When one reflects on these fifty fundamental tenets of faith, which students memorized over the centuries, it is not difficult to understand why Ash‘ari-Maturidi kalam was identified with Islamic orthodoxy for over a millennium; namely, they are the tenets of the Qur’an and sunna.

IV

We find however in the history of kalam that authors sometimes urged the distinctive doctrines of their school, particularly against opponents, as if they were basic principles of Islam. Now, “basic principles” are what every Muslim must know and believe as a Muslim, while “distinctive doctrines” may include virtually any point that controversy has brought into prominence. The two are not necessarily the same.

A number of points of ‘aqida were not originally central to the faith of Islam, but entered the canon of “orthodoxy” by celebrity acquired through debate among schools. To take but one point for example: the question of “whether man is obligated to know God by revelation or whether by human reason alone” has been treated by Ahl al-Sunna, Mu‘tazila, and Jahmiyya theologians as a point of ‘aqida, though it does not personally concern one single Muslim—–for all Muslims know Allah through the revelation of the Qur’an—–but rather concerns Allah’s own judgement of human beings who have never been reached by the Islamic revelation, a judgement Allah is unlikely to consult anyone else about, whether believer or unbeliever. Something so devoid of practical consequences for Muslims could not have become prominent except through faction and debate.

Treating distinctive doctrines as basic tenets of faith, however, was not always the result of mere controversy, but because Sunni theologians had to distinguish truth from falsehood, the latter including the many mistakes of the Mu‘tazila and Jahmiyya. All falsehoods are rejected by Islam, and in matters of faith most are serious sins, but some are more crucial than others. In other words, in the spectrum from right to wrong beliefs, there are four main categories:

(1) central beliefs that one must hold or one is not a Muslim;
(2) beliefs that are obligatory to hold, but denying them does not make one a non-Muslim;
(3) beliefs that are unlawful to hold, but affirming them does not make one a non-Muslim;
(4) and beliefs that no one can hold and remain a Muslim.

For many Muslims today, greater knowledge of these four necessary distinctions would bring about greater tolerance, and teachers of Islamic theology must explain that while “orthodoxy” reflects what Sunnis believe, only some of their issues spell the difference between faith and unbelief, while others are things that Muslims may disagree about and still remain Muslim.

To say it again, a particular point of ‘aqida could be contrary to another, even heretical school of thought and hotly debated, yet not directly concern kufr or iman, faith or unfaith. Indeed, the longer and harder the historical debate, the less likely the point under discussion is a matter of salvation or damnation, for it is inconsistent with Allah’s mercy and justice to create men of widely varying intelligence and then make their salvation depend on something that even the most brilliant of them cannot agree upon. Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 606/1210) acknowledges this by writing:

One should know that theologians have had considerable difficulty defining kufr (unbelief) … Kufr consists in denying the truth of anything the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) is necessarily known to have said. Examples include denying the Creator’s existence, His knowledge, power, choice, oneness, or perfection above all deficiencies and infirmities. Or denying the prophethood of Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace), the truth of the Qur’an, or denying any law necessarily known to be of the religion of Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace), such as the obligatoriness of prayer, of zakat, fasting, or pilgrimage, or the unlawfulness of usury or wine. Whoever does so is an unbeliever because he has disbelieved the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) about something necessarily known to be of his religion.

As for what is only known by inference from proof to be his religion, such as “whether God knows by virtue of His attribute of knowledge or rather by virtue of His entity,” or “whether or not He may be seen [in the next life],” or “whether or not He creates the actions of His servants”; we do not know by incontestably numerous chains of transmission (tawatur) that any of these alternatives has been affirmed by the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) instead of the other. For each, the truth of one and falsity of the other is known only through inference, so neither denial nor affirmation of it can enter into actual faith, and hence cannot entail unbelief.

The proof of this is that if such points were part of faith, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) would not have judged anyone a believer until he was sure that the person knew the question. Had he done such a thing, his position on the question would have been known to everyone in Islam and conveyed by many chains of transmission. Because it has not, it is clear that he did not make it a condition of faith, so knowing it is not a point of belief, nor denying it unbelief.

In light of which, no one of this Umma is an unbeliever, and we do not consider anyone an unbeliever whose words are interpretable as meaning anything besides. As for beliefs not known except through hadiths related by a single narrator, it seems plain that they cannot be a decisive criterion for belief or unbelief. That is our view about the reality of unbelief (Mafatih al-ghayb, 2.42).

Such breadth of perspective was not unique to Razi, the lifelong defender of Ahl al-Sunna ‘aqida and implacable foe of its opponents, but was also the view of Imam Ash‘ari himself. Dhahabi says:

Bayhaqi relates that he heard Abu Hazim al-‘Abdawi say that he heard Zahir ibn Ahmad al-Sarkhasi say, “When death came to Abul Hasan al-Ash‘ari in my home in Baghdad, he called me to him and I came, and he said, ‘Be my witness: I do not declare anyone an unbeliever who prays towards the qibla, for all direct themselves to the One whom alone is worshipped, while all this [controversy] is but different ways of speaking”1 (Siyar al-a‘lam, 15.88).

These passages show that both Ash‘ari and Razi, the early and late Imams of their school, implicitly distinguished between the central ‘aqida of Islam, and the logical elaboration upon it by traditional theology. Clearly, their life work brought them to the understanding that kalam theology had produced a body of knowledge that was, if important and true, nevertheless distinct from the ‘aqida that is obligatory for every Muslim to believe in order to be Muslim. The difference however, between ‘aqida or “personal theology,” and kalam or “discursive theology” was perhaps most strikingly delineated by Imam Ghazali (d. 505/1111).

V

According to Ghazali, kalam theology could not be identified with the ‘aqida of Islam itself, but rather was what protected it from heresy and change. He wrote about his long experience in studying kalam in a number of places in his Ihya’ ‘ulum al-din, one of them just after his beautiful ‘Aqida al-Qudsiyya or “Jerusalem Creed.” After mentioning the words of Imam Shafi‘i, Malik, Ahmad, and Sufyan al-Thawri that kalam theology is unlawful -- by which they meant the Mu‘tazilite school of their times, the only example they knew of -- Ghazali gives his own opinion on discursive theology, saying:

There is benefit and harm in it. As to its benefit, it is lawful or recommended or obligatory whenever it is beneficial, according to the circumstances. As to its harm, it is unlawful whenever and for whomever it is harmful.
Its harm is that it raises doubts in minds and shakes a student’s tenets of faith from certitude and conviction at the outset, while there is no guarantee that he will ever get it back again through proofs, individuals varying in this. That is its harm to faith.
It has another bad effect, namely that it hardens heretics’ attachment to their heresy and makes it firmer in their hearts by stirring them up and increasing their resolve to persist. This harm, however, comes about through bigotry born of argument, which is why you see the ordinary unlearned heretic fairly easy to dissuade from his mistakes through affability; though not if he has grown up in a locale where there is arguing and bigotry, in which case if all mankind from beginning to end were to join together, they would be unable to rid his heart
of wrong ideas. Rather, his prejudice, his heatedness, and his loathing for his opponents and their group has such a grip over his heart and so blinds him to the truth that if he were asked, “Would you like Allah Most High Himself to raise the veil so you can see with your own eyes that your opponent is right?” he would refuse, lest it please his opponent. This is the incurable disease that plagues cities and people: the sort of vice produced by bigotry when there is argument. This also is of the harm of kalam.
As for its benefit, it might be supposed that it is to reveal truths and know them as they truly are. And how farfetched! Kalam theology is simply unable to fulfill this noble aim, and it probably founders and misguides more than it discovers or reveals. If you had heard these words from a hadith scholar or literalist, you might think, “People are enemies of what they are ignorant of.” So hear them instead from someone steeped in kalam theology, who left it after mastering it in depth and penetrating into it as far as any scholar can, and who then went on to specialize in closely related fields, before realizing that access to the realities of true knowledge was barred from this path. By my life, theology is not bereft of revealing and defining the truth and clarifying some issues, but it does so rarely, and about things that are already clear and almost plain before learning
its details.
Rather, it has one single benefit, namely guarding the ordinary man’s faith we have just outlined [the Jerusalem Creed] and defending it by argument from being shaken by those who would change it with heresies. For the common man is weak and susceptible to the arguments
of heretics even when false; and the false may
be rebutted by something not in itself especially good; while people are only responsible for the creed we have presented above (Ihya’ ‘ulum al-din, 1.86).

In this and other passages of Ihya’ ‘ulum al-din, al-Munqidh min al-dalal, and Faysal al-tafriqa which summarize his life experience with kalam theology, Ghazali distinguishes between several things. The first is ‘ilm al-‘aqa’id or the knowledge of basic tenets of faith, which we have called above “personal theology,” and which he deems beneficial. The second is what we have called “discursive theology,” or kalam properly speaking, the use of rational arguments to defeat heretics who would confuse common people about tenets of faith. Ghazali believes this is valid and obligatory, but only to the extent needed. The third we may call “speculative theology,” which is philosophical reasoning from first principles about God, man, and being, to discover by deduction and inference the way things really are. This Ghazali regards as impossible for kalam to do.

VI

The scholars of kalam certainly did not agree with Ghazali on this latter point, and history attests to their continued confidence in it as a medium of discovery, producing what has subsequently been regarded by almost everyone as a period of excess in kalam literature. Taj al-Din al-Subki (d. 771/1370) who was himself steeped in kalam theology wrote:

Upon reflection -- and no one can tell you like someone who truly knows -- I have not found anything more harmful to those of our times or more ruinous to their faith than reading books of kalam written by latter-day scholars after Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and others. If they confined themselves instead to the works of the Qadi Abu Bakr al-Baqillani, the great Abu Ishaq al-Isfarayini, the Imam of the Two Sanctuaries Abu al-Ma‘ali al-Juwayni, and others of those times, they would have nothing but benefit. But truly I believe that whoever ignores the Qur’an and sunna [defended by these scholars] and instead occupies himself with the debates of Ibn Sina and those of his path -- leaving the words of the Muslims: “Abu Bakr and ‘Umar (Allah Most High be well pleased with them) said,” “Shafi‘i said,” “Abu Hanifa said,” “Ash‘ari said,” “Qadi Abu Bakr said”; and instead saying: “The Sovereign Sage (al-Shaykh al-Ra’is) said” meaning Ibn Sina, or “The Great Master (al-Khawaja) Nasir said,” and so on—–that whoever does so should be whipped and paraded through the marketplaces with a crier proclaiming: “This is the punishment of whoever leaves the Qur’an and sunna and busies himself with the words of heretics” (Mu‘id al-ni‘am, 79–80).

For Subki, it showed how far kalam had strayed for latter-day authors to call heterodox figures such as Ibn Sina2 or Tusi3 “Sovereign Sage” or “Great Master” in works supposedly explaining the faith of Islam. The reason he found nothing “more harmful to those of our times or more ruinous to their faith than reading the books of kalam theology written by latter-day scholars” was that they had vitiated the very reason for kalam’s existence: to defend the truth. By widening its universe to include heretics and giving them titles of authority, kalam literature had become a compendium of wrong ideas.

To summarize, although Sunni theology first defined orthodoxy and rebutted heresy, it afterwards swelled with speculative excesses that hearkened back those of the Jahmiyya and Mu‘tazila. At this juncture, it met with criticism from figures who knew it too well to accept this, such as Imam Ghazali, Taj al-Subki, Nawawi, and others, whose view was that kalam was a medicine useful in moderation, but harmful
in overdose. Their criticisms were valid, for when theology obeys a speculative rather than an ethical imperative, it ceases to give guidance in man’s relationship to God, and hence is no longer a science of the din.

What has been forgotten today however by critics who would use the words of earlier Imams to condemn all kalam, is that these criticisms were directed against its having become “speculative theology” at the hands of latter-day authors. Whoever believes they were directed against the ‘aqida or “personal theology” of basic tenets of faith, or the “discursive theology” of rational kalam arguments against heresy is someone who either does not understand the critics or else is quoting them disingenuously.

We conclude our remarks with a glance at kalam’s significance today. What does traditional theology have to offer contemporary Muslims?

VII

With universal comparison, the door today is open to universal skepticism, not only about particular religions, but belief in God and in religion itself. It is hence appropriate to consider the legacy of kalam proofs for the existence of God.
At the practical level, most people who believe in God do not do so because of philosophical arguments, but because they feel a presence, inwardly and outwardly, that uplifts hearts, answers prayers, and solves their problems. Yet Muslims and others find their faith increasingly challenged by an atheistic modern world. The question becomes, can traditional kalam arguments answer modern misgivings?

Now, philosophy as taught today in many places dismisses traditional proofs for the existence of God as tautological, saying that they smuggle in the conclusions they reach by embedding them in the premises. A young American Muslim philosophy student asked me, “How can we believe with certainty that there is a God, when logically speaking there is no argument without holes in it?” He mentioned among the arguments of kalam that (a) the world is hadith or “contingent”; (b) everything contingent requires a muhdith or “cause”; (c) if there is no first cause that is “necessary” or uncaused, this entails an infinite regress, which is absurd; and (d) therefore the world must ultimately have an uncaused or “necessary” cause as its origin.

While scholars like Majid Fakhry in his History of Islamic Philosophy point out that saying that “the ‘contingent’ (hadith) requires a ‘cause’ (muhdith)” is a mere play on words, one can answer that while the form of this argument does contain a play on words, if we penetrate to the content of these words, they express an empirical relationship so basic to our experience that science regards it as axiomatic. That is, to provide a scientific explanation for something is to suggest a probable cause for it, and then present evidence for the particular cause being adduced as its “explanation.”

In cosmology, for example, the origin of the universe must be explained causally, and most scientists currently believe that the universe began about fifteen billion years ago in a cosmic cataclysm they term the Big Bang. And yet this most interesting of all events, indeed the effective cause of all of them, is somehow exempted from the scientific dictum that to explain something is to suggest a cause for it. Why the Big Bang? What urged its being rather than its nonbeing? This is no trivial enigma, still less a play on words. If to explain an event is to find a cause for it, then the Big Bang is not an scientific “explanation” for the origin of the universe in any ordinary sense of the word. Here, the kalam argument that the contingent must return to the necessary is still relevant today, and has been cited by name in works such as Craig and Smith’s Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology. The prevailing cosmological view among scientists is that the universe did have a beginning, and this requires an explanation.

Another traditional kalam argument vitally relevant to the teaching of Islam is the “argument from design,” namely that the complexity of many natural phenomena is far more analogous to our own intentionally planned processes and productions than to ordinary random events. That is, the perfection of design in nature argues for the existence of a designer. As in the previous example, to teach this argument directly from kalam would seem to many intellectual Muslims today, particularly those scientifically literate, to be a mere tautology or play on words. But when filled in with examples drawn from scientific literature, its cogency becomes plain.

Examples abound. One of them forms the central thesis of the work Just Six Numbers by the British Astronomer Royal Martin Reese of Cambridge. He has determined that the fabric of the universe depends on the coincidence of six basic physical number ratios, two of them related to basic forces, two fixing the size and texture of the universe, and two fixing the properties of space itself. These six numbers, in Reese’s own words, “constitute a ‘recipe’ for a universe. Moreover, the outcome is sensitive to their values: if any of them were to be untuned [the slightest bit different in numerical value], there would be no stars and no life” (Just Six Numbers, 4). If any of these six numbers were dependent on the others, the fact that they allow for the existence of the universe would be less astonishing, but none of them can be predicted from the values of the others, and each number compounds the unlikelihood of the others. The only consequence mathematically inferable from this is that the universe that we know and live in is unlikely to an absurd degree. The statistical probability of the confluence of just these numbers is, to borrow the expression of astronomer Hugh Ross, about as likely as “the possibility of a Boeing 747 aircraft being com-pletely assembled as a result of a tornado striking a junkyard” (Discover , 21, no. 11).

The shocking improbability of ourselves and our universe is no play on words, and shows the relevance of the kalam argument for the existence of God from design.

Another example of the argument from design is the origin of life, especially with what is known today, after the advent of the electron microscope, about the tens of thousands of interdependent parts that compose even the simplest one-celled organism known. The probability of such an entity not only assembling itself, but also simultaneously assembling a viable reproductive apparatus to produce another equally complex living reality does not urge itself very strongly according to anything we know about empirical reality. That is, the origin of perfectly articulated functional complexity argues for a design, and a design argues for the existence of a designer.4

A third example of the relevance of the argument from design is what physicist Paul Davies has called in his Mind of God “the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics” in describing and predicting the phenomena of the physical world. The “unreasonableness” in it is that if, as scientism avers, the structure of our brains that determines the way we view reality is only an evolutionary accident, which would presumably be much different if we were, say, a race of aliens who had evolved on different planet, why is it that so much of the mathema-tics that was first worked out as an abstract exercise in the minds of pure mathematicians has been so spectacularly effective in explaining the physical world? If man were hundreds of times larger than he is or hundreds of times smaller, his perceptual reality would be so completely different that he might well not have developed the integers or other mathematical tools that he did. But because man has turned out just so, by an uncannily improbable coincidence, the mathematical rules formulated by pure mathematicians -- which should be a mere accident of man’s evolutionary and cultural history -- turn out, often years after their discovery, to be exactly the same rules nature is playing by.

The enigma here is that, while there is a distinct evolutionary advantage in knowing the world by direct empirical observation, we have been equipped with a second faculty, of no selective evolutionary advantage at all, which can incorporate quantum and relativistic mathematical systems into our mental model of the world. For Davies these facts suggest that a conscious Being has encoded this ability within humanity, knowing that one day they would reach a degree of comprehension of the universe that will bring them to the realization that the unreasonable correspondence of nature to pure thought is not a coincidence, but the outcome of a great design.

There are many other examples of the argument from design, particularly in the complexity of symbiotic and parasitic relationships between species of the natural world, which, if too long to detail here, also strongly attest to the relevance of the kalam argument for the existence of God.

VIII

As for the role of kalam in defending Islam from heresies, Jahm and the Mu‘taziites are certainly less of threat to orthodoxy today than scientism, the reduction of all truth to statements about quantities and empirical facts. The real challenge to religion today is the mythic power of science to theologize its experimental method, and imply that since it has not discovered God, He must not exist.

Here, the task of critique cannot be relegated to traditional proofs drawn from the literature of a prescientific age. Rather, it belongs to scientifically literate Muslims today to clarify the provisional nature of the logic of science, and to show how its epistemology, values, and historical and cultural moment condition the very nature of questions it can ask -- or answer.

Omniscience is not a property of science. In physics today, at the outset of the twenty-first century, we do not yet understand what gives physical matter its mass, its most basic property. In taxonomy, estimates vary, but probably less than 3 percent of the living organisms on our own planet have been named or identified. In human fertility, many fundamental mechanisms remain undiscovered. Even our most familiar companion, human consciousness, has not been scientifically explained, replicated, or reduced to physical laws. In short, though we do not base our faith on the current state of science, we should realize that if science has not discovered God, there is a long list of other things it has not discovered that we would be ill-advised to consider nonexistent in consequence.

In short, attacks today on religion by scientism should be met by Muslims as Ash‘ari and Maturidi met the Mu‘tazilites and Jahmites in their times: with a dialectic critique of the premises and conclusions thoroughly grounded in their own terms. The names that come to mind in our day are not Ash‘ari, Baqillani, and Razi, but rather those like Huston Smith in his Beyond the Post-Modern Mind, Charles Le Gai Eaton in his King of the Castle, Keith Ward in his God, Chance, and Necessity, and even non-religious writers like Paul Davies in The Mind of God and John Horgan in his The End of Science and The Undiscovered Mind. Answering reductionist attacks on religion is a communal obligation, which Muslims can only ignore at their peril. This too is of the legacy of kalam, or the “aptness of words to answer words.”

IX

A final benefit of kalam is to realize from its history that there is some range and latitude in the beliefs of one’s fellow Muslims.

In an Islamic world growing ever younger with the burgeoning population, there is a danger that those quoting Qur’anic verses and hadiths without a grasp of the historical issues will stir up the hearts of young Muslims against each other in sectarian strife. People like to belong to groups, and the positive benefits of bonding with others in a group may be offset by bad attitudes towards those outside the group. The Wahhabi movement for example, recast in our times as Salafism, began as a Kharijite-like sect that regarded nonmembers, including most of the Umma, as kafirs or unbelievers. Here, a working knowledge of the history and variety of schools of Islamic theology would do much to promote tolerance.
The figures we have cited, from Ash‘ari to Razi to Dhahabi to Ibn Taymiya, were men who passionately believed that there was a truth to be known, and that it represented the beliefs of Islam, and that it was but one. They believed that those who disagreed with it were wrong and should be engaged and rebutted. But they did not consider anyone who called himself a Muslim to be a kafir as long as his positions did not flatly deny the truthfulness of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). Imam Ghazali says in Faysal al-tafriqa: “Unbelief” (kufr) consists in asserting that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) lied about anything he conveyed, while “faith” is believing that he told the truth in everything he said (Faysal al-tafriqa, 78).

There is wide scholarly consensus on this tolerance of Islam, and we have heard from Imam Ash‘ari that he did not consider anyone who prayed towards the qibla to be an unbeliever, from Razi that he did not consider anyone to be an unbeliever whose words could possibly mean anything besides, and from Ibn Taymiya that he considered everyone who faithfully prays with ablution to be a believer. None of them believed that a Muslim can go to hell on a technicality.

X

To summarize everything we have said, the three main tasks of kalam consist in defining the contents of faith, showing that it contradicts neither logic nor experience, and providing grounds to be personally convinced of it, and these three are as relevant today as ever.

First, the substantive knowledge of the ‘aqida each of us will die and meet Allah upon will remain a lasting benefit as long as there are Muslims.

Second, demographers expect mankind to attain close to universal literacy within fifty years. Members of world faiths may be expected to question their religious beliefs for coherence, logicality, applicability, and adequacy, and the work of Ahl al-Sunna scholars will go far to show that one does not have to hang up one’s mind to enter Islam.

Third, universal communication will make comparisons between religions inevitable. Blind imitation of ethnic religious affiliation will become less relevant to people around the globe, and I personally believe Islam has stronger theological arguments for its truth than other world religions. Indeed, Islam is a sapiential religion, in which salvation itself rests not on vicarious atonement as in Christianity, or on ethnic origin as in Judaism, but on personal knowledge. Whoever knows that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God is by that very fact saved.

So in the coming century, three areas of kalam’s legacy will remain especially relevant for Muslims: first, the proofs for the existence of God from necessity and design, second, the rebuttal of the heresy of scientistic reductionism and atheism, and third, promoting tolerance among Muslims. The latter is one of the most important lessons that the history of kalam can teach; that if Muslims cannot expect to agree on everything in matters of faith, they can at least agree on the broad essentials, and not to let their differences descend from their heads to their hearts.

MMV © Nuh Keller

(The above is the text of a talk given to the Aal al-Bayt Institute of Islamic Thought on 4 January 2005 in Amman, Jordan.)


Notes

1 Dhahabi goes on: “This is my own religious view. So too, our sheikh Ibn Taymiya used to say in his last days, ‘I do not consider anyone of this Umma an unbeliever,’ and he would relate that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, ‘No one but a believer faithfully performs ablution’ [Ahmad, 5.82: 22433. S], saying, ‘So whoever regularly attends prayers with ablution is a Muslim’” (Siyar al-a‘lam, 15.88).
2 Ibn Sina, the “Sovereign Sage” referred to by latter-day kalam authors here, had a number of heterodox beliefs. First, he believed that the world is beginninglessly eternal, while Muslims believe that Allah created it after it was nothing; second, he believed that Allah knows what is created and destroyed only in a general way, not in its details, while Muslims believe that Allah knows everything; and third, he held that there is no bodily resurrection, while Muslims emphatically affirm in it. Taj al-Subki’s above passage continues: “Is he [such a latter-day kalam author] not ashamed before Allah Most High to espouse the ideas of Ibn Sina and praise him—–while reciting the word of Allah “Does man not think We shall gather together his bones? Indeed, We are well able to produce even his index finger” (Qur’an 75:7)—–and mention in the same breath Ibn Sina’s denial of bodily resurrection and gathering of bones?” (Mu‘id al-ni‘am, 80). Imam Ghazali, despite his magisterial breadth of perspective in ‘aqida issues, held it obligatory to consider Ibn Sina a non-Muslim (kafir) for these three doctrines (al-Munqidh min al-dalal, 44–45, 50).
3 The “Great Master” Nasir al-Din al-Tusi was the traitor who betrayed Baghdad and its whole populace to their Mongol slaughterers out of sectarian malice against the Sunni caliphate. In tenets of faith, he introduced philosophy into Shiism, reviving Ibn Sina’s thought in a Twelver Shiite matrix, and authored Tajrid al-‘aqa’id, the preeminent work of Shiite dogma to this day, in which he describes man as “the creator of his works” (Encyclopedia of Religion, 6.324, 7.316, 13.265)—– while the Qur’an tells us that “Allah created you and what you do” (Qur’an 37:96).
4 The Associated Press on Thursday 9 December 2004 carried the story “Famous Atheist Now Believes in God,” in which religion writer Richard Ostling mentions that a British philosophy professor who has been a leading champion of atheism for more than a half-century has now changed his mind. “At age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake, Antony Flew has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. ‘A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature,’ Flew said in a telephone interview from England.” He also recently said that biologists’ investigation of DNA “has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce [life], that intelligence must have been involved” (U.S. National —–AP Website, 9 December 2004).

Nuh Ha Mim Keller is a writer and translator of the traditional Islamic sciences who lives in Jordan. He took the Shadhili tariqa from Sheikh ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri
in Damascus in 1982. He teaches a circle of students in Amman

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Fortællingen om Fadi og Louise

Sagen om Louise Freverts udtalelser, Jyllandspostens provokationer og de manglende reaktioner fra samfundets side har paany vist det hykleri der desvaerre hersker omkring nedgoerelse af muslimer.

Nedenstaaende er en analyse af de de to sager som medierne desvaerre ikke oenskede at trykke!



Omar Shah

14 Oktober 2005


Ovenstående kunne nemt være titlen på en komedie, tragedie eller sågar en tragikomedie, og efter de sidste ugers begivenheder er det svært at sige om farce eller tragedie er det adjektiv der beskriver den danske holdning til ytringsfrihed bedst, og hvis det ikke var på grund af alvoren i bagatelliseringen af at lægge andre mennesker for had, kunne man forledes til at grine over de skamløst fantasifulde forklaringer der blev fremsat i den seneste sag.

Hvad har Fadi Abdellatif og Louise Frevert egentligt tilfælles? Den ene er en yngre ”nydansker” mens den anden er en ikke helt ung ”gammeldansker”, dog gjorde begge sig bemærkede i forbindelse med partilitteratur der blev opfattet som racistisk og stødende og i begge tilfælde figurerede et website centralt i beskyldningerne. Men der hører ligheden så også op, den ene tilhører en del af Danmarks fredede klasse, den gruppe der ser ud til at besidde retten til ubegrænset at nedgøre andre og lægge dem for had, mens den anden tilhøre en klasse der er jaget vildt, den gruppe der tilsyneladende ikke har mange andre rettigheder end at blive nedgjort og retten til tavst at affinde sig med det.

Sagen om Louise Frevert handler ikke om en enkelt kvindes (eller mand hvis man skal tro hendes bortforklaringer) hadefulde udtalelser og generaliseringer, men om det debat klima der er opstået i Danmark og grænsen for ytringsfrihed der synes ikke eksisterende når det gælder at nedgøre islam, men samtidigt synes yderst snæver når det gælder kritik af de gældende normer i landet.

Fadi Abdellatif blev sigtet og dømt i sin sag, i kraft af at han var formand/talsmand for Hizb-ut-tahrir, ikke fordi det blev påstået han selv havde forfattet den, argumentet var at han måtte stå inde for det der blev delt ud og hvad der lå på hans hjemmeside, Pia Kjærsgaard, formanden for Louise Freverts parti (Fremskridtspartiet) er ikke engang kommet i rampelyset, hun er således ikke ansvarlig for hvad der foregår i hendes parti og hvad hendes medlemmer lufter af ideer. Webmasteren Talleruphuus er blevet ekskluderet af partiet i et forsøg på at lægge låg på sagen. Man kan undre sig over hvad dommeren (eller politiet) ville have sagt til at Fadi Abdellatif ekskluderede sin webmaster fra Hizb-ut-tahrir eller forsvarede sig med at (Koran) citatet i teksten egentligt ikke var skrevet af ham (eller nogen anden i Hizb-ut-tahrir for den sags skyld), men at han blot citerede, da det vel er de færreste der mener at hr Abdellatif er ophavsmand til Koranen?

Efter sagen mod Abdellatif stod muslimer traditionen tro i kø for at tage afstand, et ritual vi vender tilbage til med jævne mellemrum, en tradition der ligefrem er påkraevet af samtlige ”indflydelsesrige” muslimer hver gang en enkelt muslim siger noget der opfattes som forkert. Havde vi muslimer håbet på lignende klare udmeldinger og afstandstagen fra politikerne i folketinget, i forbindelse med Frevert sagen blev vi slemt skuffede. Toppen i DF prøvede ganske vist med nogen få slørede kommentarer at begrænse skaden, men kunne af gode grunde ikke udtale sig i mere generaliserede vendinger da de fleste af dem har deres egne skeletter i skabene, men mest skuffende var det dog manglen på fordømmelser fra andre partier i folketinget.

Hvad skal unge demokratisk sindetdemuslimer med stor respekt for den grundlovssikrede ytringsfrihed, demokratiet som instansen hvorpå vort samfund hviler , og Danmarks folkevalgte politikere som de mennesker der netop skal varetage vores interesser dog mene? Gælder det smukke ordsprog ”den der tier samtykker” også for folketingsmedlemmer? Eller er det en logik der kun gælder nar muslimer ikke står i kø for at nedgøre andre muslimer i medierne? Hvis det er tilfældet at det også gælder folketingspolitikere er det skræmmende konklusioner man må drage.

Og hvad med politiet den instans der skal beskytte borgerne i Danmark (også muslimske borgere), deres entusiasme har også været til at overse for det første i deres tøven med at tage sagen seriøst, og for det andet deres fokus på Talleruphuus istedet for Frevert på trods af hendes åbenlyse part i sagen. Var den farceagtige beslutning om ikke at sigte Frevert et tilfælde? eller opererer politiet også med to sæt regler? Et for den privilegerede klasse og et andet for den underprivilegerede klasse?

Sandheden er desværre at Frevert langt fra er et særtilfælde, og de tider hvor der var en klar forskel på den retorik man hørte fra DNSB, Den Danske Forening, Dansk Folkeparti, og mange af folketingets andre partier er fortid. . I takt med den stigende bekymring over indvandring er de højreorienterede partier blevet stadig mere stuerene, og deres ekstreme retorik blevet mere og mere mainstream. I et forsøg på at stoppe stemmeflugten kommer politikere fra Venstre, konservative og socialdemokraterne jævnligt med udtalelser man for ti år siden ikke engang kunnet have forestillet sig. Kulturkamp er blevet det nye buzzword, og islam og muslimsk kultur omtales systematisk som tilbagestående, middelalderlig og det der er værre.

Den manglendes afstandtagen fra de folkevalgte politikere og den manglende entusiasme fra politiets side i den konkrete sag er bestemt ikke betryggende og bestemt heller ikke en opførsel der får muslimer til at føle samhørighed, tværtimod er det skræmmende at det der skulle beskytte ens rettigheder ser ud til klart at have valgt side.

Forargede politikere og redaktører råber jævnligt op, som om ytringsfrihed var et absolut begreb, men begrebet ubegrænset ytringsfrihed eksisterer ikke nogen steder - heller ikke i Danmark, da straffeloven indeholder flere paragraffer, der skal regulere folks ytringer. Paradoksalt nok er politikerne og redaktørerne oftest noget mere højtråbende end de kunstnere hvis rettigheder de foregiver at beskytte. Provokation er blevet en hurtig genvej til opmærksomhed, og denne fremgangsmåde er ikke forbeholdt politikere og kunstnere. Store dele af pressen lader heller ikke til at have nogen moralske skrupler ved at kaste sig ud i meningsløs provokation sålænge det skaffer opmærksomhed. Denne form for selviscenesættelse er yderst skadelig og stiller dybere spørgsmål ved hvilken rolle pressen egentligt spiller i det danske samfund? Sandhedens vogtere? Kapitalistisk pengemaskine? Der er en vis opførsel man kunne forvente fra tabloidaviserne men desværre ser vi oftere og oftere at større dagblade tager disse midler i brug.

Den seneste sag omkring afbilledningen af profeten Muhammad (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) er nok det tydeligste eksempel på ovenstående man kunne forestille sig. I ytringsfrihedens navn træder man på andre folks følelser i håb om at det vil afstedkomme en reaktion, og helst en voldelig en af slagsen så man kan stille sig selv i offerrollen, og i rollen som den modige part der tager opgøret med islamismens mørke kræfter. Denne meningsløse provokation kan netop finde sted på grund af forråelsen i tonen i indvandrerdebatten det sidste årti, og i en sådan grad, at det skaber associationer til 1930′ernes Nazityskland, ogsaa med hensyn til den retorik der flittigt tages i brug. At lægge hele folkeslag eller en hel religion og dens udøvere for had er blevet en rutinesag og ikke længere noget, der kan få folk op af stolen

Debatten har bevæget sig ud på et skråplan, hvor grænserne for det tilladelige konstant rykkes, og hvor gårsdagens tabuer bliver ’saglige’ udsagn, blot de gentages tilpas mange gange. Protagonisterne og antagonisterne er defineret på forhånd, islamisterne (læs: enhver muslim, der ikke er ‘integreret nok’, uanset dennes uddannelsesniveau og eller beskæftigelse) er de onde, mens de højreorienterede provokatører og deres allierede i medierne er de gode. Desværre er det i forlængelse af dette blevet fast kutyme at opfatte muslimer som sarte, når disse føler sig forulempede, og på den anden side opfattes protagonisterne rutinemæssigt som ofre, selv hvor disse aktivt optræder som provokatører.

Vi har i Danmark sandelig ytringsfrihed, en frihed, som højreekstremister og provokatører ofte er de første til at påberåbe sig til at forsvare deres provokationer, men desværre også de første til at forsøge at fratage mennesker, de er uenige med, såsom såkaldte islamister. Der findes i den danske lovgivning både racisme- og injurieparagraffer, men i en situationen med en privilegeret og en underprivilegeret klasse, en situation med klart definerede antagonister og protagonister er det så godt som at opnå retfærdighed ad den vej. Det er blevet ikke blot acceptabelt og stuerent, men ligefrem prisværdigt at svine islam til. Politikere, forfattere og ‘debattører’, der nedgør islam, kaldes ikke ansvarsløse, men modige, og muslimer, der tager til genmæle, er enten uintegrerede eller demokratiske analfabeter der ikke har fattet ”danske værdier.”

Ordene ansvar og konsekvens er glemt, og ordet er frit, så længe man er islamkritisk vel at mærke. Denne stigmatisering og usaglige tone er ikke gavnlig for samfundet og ikke en der vil øge følelsen af samhørighed. I disse tider hvor der konstant tales om værdikamp og danske værdier kan man undre sig over hvem ”indvandrerne” egentligt skal tage som forbilleder skulle de bestræbe sig på at tilegne sig ”danske værdier”? Politikerne der varetager borgernes rettigheder? Redaktørerne og journalisterne på de frie aviser der værner om sandheden? Ytringsfrihed uden ansvar er tilsyneladende en vigtig dansk værdi, men er meningsløs provokation også en vigtig dansk værdi? Er mangel på respekt for andre mennesker også en dansk værdi? Eller manglende hensyn til andre menneskers følelser? Er accept af nedgørelse af andre så lange det ikke rammer en selv en dansk værdi? Og man kunne blive ved!

Hvis politikerne og redaktørerne bør være vores forbilleder må ovenstående per definition være vigtige danske værdier, så der er måske ikke så meget at sige at det har været svært at overbevise ”fremmede” om de danske værdiers overlegenhed.

Monday, October 10, 2005

Begrebet Bid'a i den Islamiske Shari’a



©Nuh Ha Mim Keller 1995

Oversat til dansk af Omar Sayyid Shah 2005

Det følgende er en tale, der blev holdt af Sheikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller på Nottingham and Trent University onsdag den 25. januar 1995.

I Allahs navn, den Nådige, den Barmhjertige

Der er få emner i Islam i dag der afføder ligeså meget kontrovers , som hvad henholdsvis Sunna og bid’a (eller en forkastelig innovation) er, muligvis på grund af den tid muslimer lever i og udfordringerne som de står overfor. En af de begivenheder der uden tvivl har haft allerstørst indflydelse på muslimerne i de sidste tusind år, er det islamiske kalifats ophør i begyndelsen af dette århundrede [det tyvende], en begivenhed der ikke blot markerede den verdslige og politiske autoritets ophør, men også i mange henseender den ortodokse Sunni Islams konsensus’ ophør. Ingen der er bekendt med den klassiske litteratur indenfor nogen af de Islamiske retsvidenskaber, hvad enten det er Koran fortolkning (tafsir), hadith eller retslaere (fiqh), kan undgå at opleve det faktum, at spørgsmål der i dag stilles om den Islamiske Hellige Lovs (Shari’ah) grundlæggende principper, og dens tilhørende discipliner, ikke ville være blevet stillet i den Islamiske periode. Ikke fordi Islamiske lærde ikke var begavede nok til at formulere spørgsmålene, men fordi muslimerne kendte svarene i forvejen.

Min tale i aften har til hensigt at udrede nogle mulige misforståelser omkring begrebet innovation (bid’a) i Islam, i lyset af den profetiske hadith,
”Vær på vagt overfor anliggender som er nyligt påbegyndt, for ethvert anliggende som er nyligt påbegyndt er en innovation, enhver innovation er vildledning, og enhver vildledning er i helvede.”

Kilderne som jeg gør brug af er traditionelle Islamiske kilder, og min diskussion vil dreje sig om tre punkter:

Det første punkt er at lærde siger, at ovenstående hadith ikke henviser til alle nye sager uden restriktion, men kun til de sager, som intet i den Hellige Lov bekræfter gyldigheden af. Bruget af ordet ”enhver” i hadithen, indikerer ikke en absolut generalisering, for der findes mange eksempler på lignende generaliseringer i Koranen og Sunnaen, som ikke er anvendelige uden restriktioner, men er snarere kvalificeret igennem restriktioner, der findes i andet primært tekstuelt bevismateriale.
Det andet punkt er, at Profetens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sunna og fremgangsmåde var at acceptere nye handlinger der indføres i Islam, så længe de var af god karakter og ikke var i modstrid med den Hellige Lovs fastlagte principper, og at afvise ting der var det (i modtrid med den helllige lovs principper).
Og vores tredje og sidste punkt er, at nye anliggender i Islam ikke kan afvises blot på baggrund af, at de ikke eksisterede i det første århundrede, men skal evalueres og dømmes i overensstemmelse med den Hellige Lovs særdeles omfattende metodologi, i kraft af hvilken den er og forbliver det endelige og universelle moralkodeks for alle folkeslag indtil tidens ophør.

Vores første punkt, at hadithen ikke henviser til alle nye ting uden begrænsning, men kun til dem hvis gyldighed ikke anerkendes af den Hellige Lov, kan til at begynde med virke underligt, i betragtning af hadithens formulering, som er, ”ethvert anliggende som er nyligt påbegyndt er en innovation, enhver innovation er vildledning, og enhver vildledning er i helvede.” Rent sprogligt betyder begrebet ”bid’a,” eller ”innovation,” alt nyt. Som følge heraf må vores første spørgsmål omhandle ordet ’enhver’s generaliseringsgrad i hadithen: betyder det bogstaveligt, at alt nyt i denne verden er haram, eller forbudt? Svaret er nej. Hvorfor?

Som svar på dette spørgsmål, bør vi bemærke at der er mange lignende generaliseringer i Koranen og sunnaen, hvor de dog alle er betingede af en eller anden form for restriktion såsom Allah den Højestes ord i Surat al-Najm,

". . . Et menneske får intet, undtagen det som det stræber efter" (Qur'an 53:39),

på trods af at der er en overvældende mængde bevismateriale der understøtter at en muslim får gavn af andres åndelige gerninger, eksempelvis fra hans muslimske fæller, englenes bønner for ham, begravelsesbønnen over ham, almisse givet af andre på hans vegne, og de troendes bønner for ham;
Eller overvej Allahs ord til de vantro i Surat al-Anbiya,
"Sandelig er I og det I tilbeder foruden Allah, brændsel til helvede" (Qur'an 21:98),

"det som I tilbeder" er et generelt udtryk, for der er ikke tvivl om at Jesus, hans moder og englene, alle blev tilbedt foruden Allah, men de er ikke ”brændsel til helvede,” og er ikke omfattet af hvad der menes med verset; Eller Allah den Højestes ord i Surat al-Anam om fortidens nationer, der ikke gav agt på de udsendinge som var sendt til dem for at formane dem,
”Men da de glemte det, de var blevet påmindet om, åbnede Vi portene til alle ting for dem” (Qur'an 6:44),

omend portene til barmhjertighed ikke blev åbnet for dem; og hadithen berettet af Muslim, at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sagde,

”Ingen der beder før solopgang og før solnedgang vil komme i helvede”,

som er et generelt udtryk, hvis betydning helt afgjort ikke er, hvad dets umiddelbare generelle karakter indikerer, for en person der beder morgenbønnen og solnedgangsbønnen, og som ellers forsømmer alle andre bønner og obligatoriske handlinger, er med stor sikkerhed ikke inkluderet. Snarere er det en generalisering, hvis tilsigtede henvisning er specifik, eller en generalisering, der kvalificeres af andre tekster, for når der findes fuld-autentificerede hadith, er det obligatorisk at opnå en overensstemmelse imellem dem, da de i realiteten er som én enkel hadith: de udsagn der forekommer uden yderligere forbehold, betinges af dem, der fastslår forbeholdene, så den kombinerede betydning af dem alle kan ibrugtages.

Lad os et øjeblik se nærmere på bid’a eller innovation, i lyset af Profetens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sunna hvad angår nye forhold. Sunna og innovation (bid’a) er to modstillede begreber på Lovgiverens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sprog, så ingen af dem kan defineres uden henvisning til den anden, hvilket betyder at de er modsatte, og ting belyses og gøres klare igennem deres modsætninger. Mange forfattere har forsøgt at definere innovation (bid’a) uden at definere sunna, selvom den er primær, og har derfor mødt svære vanskeligheder og stået i konflikt i forhold til de primære kildeteksters bevismateriale, som strider imod deres definition på innovation, hvorimod de, hvis de først havde defineret sunna, ville have fremstillet et kriterium, fri for mangler.

Sunna betyder sædvane, både på det arabiske og den Hellige Lovs sprog, hvilket klart illustreres ved Profetens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) ord,
”Den der indfører en god sunna i Islam [dis: Reliance of the Traveller p58.1(2)] ...Og den der introducerer en dårlig sunna i Islam...",
hvor sunna betyder handlemåde eller sædvane. Profetens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) handlemåde når det gælder vejledning, accept, afvisning: det er sunnaen. For ”god sunna” og ”dårlig sunna” betyder en ”god handlemåde” eller en ”dårlig handlemåde,” og kan umuligt betyde andet. Derfor er betydningen af ”sunna” ikke hvad de fleste studerende, for ikke at nævne almindelige mennesker, forstår ved det; navnlig at det er de Profetiske hadith (som når sunna stilles i kontrast til ”Kitab,” det vil sige Koranen, med hensyn tilnår der skelnes mellem kildetekster), eller det modsatte af det obligatoriske (som når sunna, det vil sige det anbefalede, stilles i kontrast til det obligatoriske i lovsammenhænge), da det førstnævnte er et teknisk begreb, dannet af Hadith lærde, mens det sidstnævnte er et teknisk begreb, dannet af retslærde og specialister i retslærens principper. Begge disse anvendelser er af senere oprindelse, som ikke er hvad der her menes med sunna. Snarere er Profetens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sunna, hans måde at handle, afgive ordrer, acceptere og afvise på, og hans Retledte Kaliffers sædvaner, der fulgte hans måde at handle, afgive ordrer, acceptere og afvise på. Så skikke og sædvaner, der er nyopståede, skal undersøges i lyset af Profetens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sunna, og hans måde og metode med hensyn til accept og afvisning.

Nuvel, forekommer der et stort antal hadith, de fleste af dem i de strengt autentificerede (sahih) hadith samlinger, der viser at mange af de profetiske Ledsagere indførte nye handlinger, påkaldelsesformer (dhikr), bønner (dua), osv., som Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) aldrig havde gjort tidligere eller givet ordre om at blive udført. Ledsagerne udførte dem snarere på basis af deres egen udledning og overbevisning om, at sådanne handlinger var en del af det gode, som Islam og Islams Profet kom med og generelt tilskyndede til at det der mindede om det blev udført, i henhold til ordene af Allah den Højeste i Surat al-Hajj,
”Og gør det gode, kan hænde at i vil opnå succes” (Koranen 22:77),

og Profetens hadith (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham),

”Den der indfører en god sunna i Islam opnår belønning for den og alle der udfører den efter ham, uden at formindske deres egen belønning i det mindste.”

Selvom hadithens oprindelige kontekst var at give almisse, er fortolkningsprincippet, fastsat ved lærdes konsensus (def: Reliance of the Traveller b7) af specialister i den Hellige Lovs principper det, at pointen i de primære kildetekster (Qur’an og hadith) ligger i almenegyldigheden af deres leksikalske betydning, ikke deres specifikke historiske kontekst, uden at dette medfører, at alle og enhver kan tilvejebringe nyt i den Hellige Lov, for Islam er defineret ved principper og kriterier, således at hvad man end introducerer som en sunna, skal det være med udgangspunkt i dens regler, restriktioner og primære kildeteksters bevismateriale.

Fra dette undersøgende udgangspunkt, kan man iagttage at mange af de Profetiske Ledsagere udførte forskellige handlinger, på baggrund af deres eget personlige ræsonnement (ijtihad), og at sunnaen og Profetens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) måde, var at acceptere både dem der var tilbedelseshandlinger og gode gerninger, der var i overensstemmelse med hvad den Hellige Lov havde fastlagt og ikke i konflikt med den; og at afvise dem, der ikke var det. Dette var hans sunna og vej, hvilken hans efterfølgere, kalifferne, og Ledsagere fortsatte med at benytte, og ved hvilken Islamiske lærde (Må Allah være tilfreds med dem) har fastsat reglen, at enhver ny sag skal dømmes i overensstemmelse med den Hellige Lovs principper og primære kildetekster: hvad der end er attesteret af loven som værende godt anerkendes som godt, og hvad der end er attesteret af loven som værende en overtrædelse og dårligt afvises som en forkastelig innovation (bid’a). Sommetider kalder de det førstnævnte en god innovation (bid’a hasana) i betragtning af at den leksikalt betegnes som en innovation, men juridisk set er den ikke en sand innovation, men snarere en sunna der kan udledes så længe den Hellige Lovs primære kildetekster bekræfter at den er acceptabel.

Vi vender os nu mod de primære kildeteksters bevismateriale tidligere alluderet til i relation til Ledsagernes handlinger og hvordan Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) reagerede på dem:

(1) Bukhari og Muslim beretter fra Abu Hurayra (må Allah være tilfreds med ham) at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) ved morgenbønnen sagde til Bilal, ”Bilal, fortæl mig, hvilken af dine handlinger i Islam nærer du allermest håb til, for jeg har hørt lyden af dine sandalers fodtrin i paradiset”, og han svarede, ”Intet af det jeg har gjort nærer jeg mere håb til, end det at jeg ikke udfører den rituelle afvaskning på noget tidspunkt om natten eller dagen, uden med denne afvaskning at bede hvad der end er blevet mig forudbestemt at bede.”
Ibn Hajar Asqalani siger i Fath al-Bari at hadithen viser at det er tilladt at bruge personlig ræsonnement (ijtihad) i valget af tidspunkter for trosgerninginger, da Bilal nåede frem til den konklusion han nævner igennem sin egen logiske slutning, og Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) bekræftede ham deri.
Lignende er Hadithen i Bukhari om Khubayb (der forlangte at bede to rak’aer før han blev henrettet af afgudsdyrkerne i Mekka) som var den første der grundlagde sunnaen med to raka’er for dem der standhaftigt går deres død i møde. Disse hadith er entydige beviser på, at Bilal og Khubayb brugte deres eget personlige ræsonnement (ijtihad) i valget af tilbedelsestidspunktet, uden nogen som helst tidligere påbud eller præcedens fra Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) udover det generelle krav: at udføre bønnen.

(2) Bukhari og Muslim beretter at Rifa'a ibn Rafi sagde, "Da vi var ved at bede bag Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) og han løftede sit hoved fra at have bukket og sagde, ”Allah hører enhver der lovpriser Ham,” sagde en mand, der var bag ham, ”Vor Herre, Dig tilkommer lovprisningen, i rigt mål, tjenligt og velsignet deri.” Da han rejste sig for at gå, spurgte Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham), ”hvem sagde dette,” og da manden svarede, at det var ham, sagde Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham), ”Jeg så over tredve engle, der hver stræbte efter at være den som nedskrev det.” Ibn Hajar siger i Fath al-Bari at hadithen viser tilladelsen til at indføre nye dhikr udtryk i bønnen, udover dem der er berettet om i hadith tekster, så længe de ikke modsiger dem der er overleveret i hadith [da overstående ord, blot var en forøgelse og supplement til det kendte, sunna dhikr].

(3) Bukhari beretter fra A’isha (må Allah være tilfreds med hende) at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sendte en mand i spidsen for en militær ekspedition, som reciterede Koranen for hans ledsagere i bønnen, og som afsluttede hver recitation med al-Ikhlas (Koranen 112). Da de vendte tilbage, nævnte de dette for Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham), som sagde, ”Spørg ham om hvorfor han gjorde dette”, og da de spurgte ham, svarede han, ”Fordi det beskriver den Barmhjertige, og jeg elsker at recitere det.” Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sagde til dem, ”Fortæl ham, at Allah elsker ham.” Ikke desto mindre, kender vi ingen lærde, der mener at det at handle i overensstemmelse med det ovenstående er anbefalet, da Profetens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) handlinger, som han plejede at udføre regelmæssigt er bedre, selvom hans bekræftelse af denne slags handlinger, belyser hans sunna angående accepten af forskellige former for tilbedelseshandlinger og lydighed, og viser at han ikke opfattede denne slags handlinger som en forkastelig innovation (bid’a), som [er tilfældet med] de fanatikere der konkurrerer med hinanden om at være de første til at kalde handlinger for innovation og vildledning. Endvidere er det værd at bemærke, at alle de foregående hadither omhandler bønnen, som er den allervigtigste fysiske trosgerning, og om hvilken Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sagde, ”Bed som I har set mig bede”, på trods af hvilket han accepterede de ovenstående eksempler på personligt ræsonnement, fordi de ikke afveg fra den udformning, der er defineret af Lovgiveren, for alle grænser skal overholdes, mens der er handlefrihed i alt udover dette, så længe det er indenfor den generelle kategori, af hvad der påkræves af den Hellige Lov. Dette er Profetens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sunna og metode, og er så klar som den overhovedet kan blive. Islamiske lærde udleder heraf, at enhver handling, for hvilken der er beviser i den Hellige Lov, er påkrævet og som ikke strider imod en entydig primær tekst eller medfører destruktive konsekvenser, ikke er inkluderet i kategorien forkastelig innovation (bid’a), men snarere sunna kategorien, selv hvis der skulle eksistere handlinger, hvis udførsel er dem overlegen.

(4) Bukhari beretter fra Abu Said al-Khudri at en gruppe af Profetens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) Ledsagere drog af sted på en af deres rejser, hvor de gjorde ophold ved nogle ørkenaraberes lejr, som de anmodede om at være deres værter, men ørkenaraberne nægtede dem gæstfrihed. Lejrens leder blev bidt af en skorpion, og hans tilhængere forsøgte alt hvad de kunne, for at kurere ham, men da det mislykkedes, sagde en af dem, ”Hvis du henvendte dig til gruppen, der slog lejr i nærheden af dig, kunne en af dem måske have noget.” Så de kom til dem og sagde, ”Oh gruppe af mænd, vores leder er blevet bidt og vi har forsøgt alt. Har nogen af jer noget der hjælper på det?” og en af dem svarede, ”Ja, ved Allah, jeg læser helbredende ord [ruqya, def: Reliance of the Traveller w17] over folk, men ved Allah, vi anmodede jer om at være vores værter og I nægtede, så jeg vil ikke recitere noget, medmindre I giver os en betaling.” De blev enige om en flok får, så manden tog derhen og begyndte at spytte og at recitere Fatiha over den tilskadekommen, indtil han stod op og gik rundt som om han var en kamel, der var blevet befriet fra sin halten, intet fejlede han. De betalte det aftalte honorar, som nogle af Ledsagerne ville fordele indbyrdes, men manden, der havde foretaget recitationen fortalte dem, ”Gør det ikke før vi når til Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham), og fortæller ham hvad der er sket, for at se hvad han beordrer os til at gøre”. De kom til Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) og fortalte ham, hvad der var hændt, og han sagde ”Hvordan vidste du at det var af de helbredende ord? Du havde ret. Del flokken og giv mig en andel.”
Denne hadith er utvetydig hvad angår det, at Ledsageren ikke på forhånd havde viden om at recitationen af Fatiha for at helbrede (ruqya) var godkendt af den Hellige Lov, men gjorde det snarere ud fra hans eget personlige ræsonnement (ijtihad), og siden det ikke var i strid med, hvad der er blevet lovgivet, bekræftede Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) det for ham, fordi det var en del af hans sunna og metodik at acceptere og bekræfte, hvad der indeholdt noget godt og ikke medførte skade, selv hvis det ikke stammede fra selve Profetens (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) handlinger som et bestemt fortilfælde.

(5) Bukhari beretter fra Abu Said al-Khudri, at en mand hørte en anden recitere al-Ikhlas (Koranen 112) om og om igen, så da det blev morgen tog han til Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) og nævnte det sarkastisk for ham. Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sagde, ”Ved Ham, i hvis hånd min sjæl ligger, det svarer til en tredjedel af Koranen.” Daraqutni nedskrev en anden version af denne hadith, hvori manden siger, ”Jeg har en nabo, der beder om natten og ikke reciterer andet end al-Ikhlas." Hadithen viser, at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) bekræftede personen, der holdt sig til denne sura, mens han bad om natten, på trods af at det ikke var, hvad Profeten selv gjorde (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham), for selvom Profetens praksis at recitere fra hele Koranen var bedre, var mandens handling indenfor sunnaens generelle parametre og der var slet intet dadelværdigt i det.

(6) Ahmad og Ibn Hibban beretter fra Abdullah ibn Burayda at hans fader sagde, Jeg trådte ind i moskeen med Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham), hvor en mand var ved at bede, bønfaldende: ”Oh Allah, jeg tigger dig med det faktum, at jeg bevidner at Du er Allah, der er ikke nogen gud foruden Allah, den Ene, den Sidste, der ikke avler og ikke blev avlet, og for hvem ingen er Hans Lige”, og Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sagde, ”Ved Ham i hvis hånd min sjæl ligger, han har påkaldt Allah ved Hans mægtigste navn, ved hvilket Han (Allah) giver, hvis Han spørges, og ved hvilket Han svarer, hvis påkaldt". Det er tydeligt at denne bøn (du’a) kom spontant fra Ledsageren, og da den var i overensstemmelse med, hvad den Hellige Lov opfordrer til, bekræftede Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) den med den højeste grad af godkendelse og accept, selvom det ikke er kendt at Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) nogensinde havde lært ham den (Adilla Ahl al-Sunna wa'al-Jama’a, 119-33).

Vi er nu i stand til at vende tilbage til den hadith, som jeg indledte min tale med her til aften, hvori Profeten (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) sagde, ”… Vær på vagt overfor anliggender som er nyligt påbegyndt, for ethvert anliggende som er nyligt påbegyndt er en innovation,” og forstå den som redegjort af en klassisk Islamisk lærd, Sheikh Muhammad Jurdani, der sagde:
”Vær på vagt overfor anliggender som er nyligt påbegyndt,” tag afstand fra og vær på vagt over for anliggender, der er nyligt innoverede, som ikke fandtes tidligere”, det vil sige ting, der er nyopfundne i Islam, og som strider imod den Hellige Lov, ” for ethvert anliggende som er nyligt påbegyndt er en innovation”, hvilket betyder at enhver innovation er det modsatte af sandheden, det vil sige falskhed, en hadith der andetsteds er blevet berettet sådan: ”for ethvert nystartet anliggende er en innovation, enhver innovation er vildledning, og enhver vildledning er i helvede” der betyder at enhver der er vildledt, om det er igennem sig selv eller ved at følge en anden, kommer i helvedet, hadithen henviser til anliggender, der ikke er gode innovationer med et grundlag i den Hellige Lov. Det er blevet fastslået (af Izz ibn Abd al-Salam) at innovation (bid’a) falder ind under den Hellige Lovs fem kategorier (n: det vil sige det obligatoriske [fard], forbudte [haram], anbefalede [mustahabb], anstødelige [makruh] og det tilladte [mubah]):

(1) Den første kategori omfatter innovationer, der er obligatoriske, såsom skriftligt at nedfælde Koranen og Islams love, da det frygtedes at noget af det kunne gå tabt; studiet af de arabiske discipliner, der er nødvendige for at forstå Koranen og Sunna, såsom grammatik, ordbøjning og leksikografi; hadith klassificering for at skelne imellem ægte og falske profetiske overleveringer; og de filosofiske tilbagevisninger af argumenter, der er udviklet af Mu’taziliere og lignende.


(2) Den anden kategori er de forbudte innovationer, såsom ikke-islamiske skatte og afgifter; at overdrage autoritet i den Hellige Lov til dem, der ikke er egnede dertil: at hellige ens tid til studiet af kætterske sekters trosætninger, som strider imod Ahl al-Sunnas trosprincipper.

(3) Den tredje kategori består af anbefalede innovationer, såsom at bygge vandrehjem og skoler til undervisning i den Hellige Lov, at nedskrive de Islamiske retsskolers forskning, at skrive bøger om gavnlige emner, omfattende undersøgelser af grundlæggende og særlige anvendelser af den Hellige Lov, dybtgående studier af Arabisk lingvistik, recitation af awrad (def: Reliance of the Traveller w20) af dem der følger en Sufi vej, at ihukomme Profeten Muhammads (Allahs fred og velsignelser være med ham) fødsel (mawlid), og at iføre sig det bedste man har og at fryde sig over det.

(4) Den fjerde kategori inkluderer innovationer der er anstødelige, såsom at pynte moskeer, at dekorere Koranen og at have en anden mand (muballigh) der højlydt gentager imamens udtalte Allahu Akbar, når sidstnævntes stemme allerede tydeligt kan høres af dem, der beder bag ham.

(5) Den femte kategori består af tilladte innovationer, såsom at sigte mel, at bruge ske og at have mere nydelsesværdig mad, drikke og boliger. (al-Jawahir al-lu’lu’iyya fi sharh al-Arba’in al-nawawiyya, 220-21).
Jeg vil afslutte mine bemærkninger i aften med en oversættelse af Sheikh Abdullah al-Ghimari, som i hans al-Qawaid al-kubra siger, "Izz ibn Abd al-Salam klassificerer innovationer (bid’a) i overensstemmelse med deres gavn, skade og uvæsentlighed, i fem kategorier af bestemmelser: de obligatoriske, anbefalede, forbudte, anstødelige og de tilladte; giver eksempler på hver af dem og nævner den Hellige Lovs principper, der bekræfter rigtigheden af hans klassificering. Hans ord om emnet viser hans skarpe indsigt og omfattende kundskab til både retslærens principper og de menneskelige fordele og ulemper, i betragtning af hvilke, Lovgiveren har etableret den Hellige Lovs bestemmelser.

Fordi hans klassificering af innovation (bid’a) var etableret på et solidt grundlag af Islamisk jura og retslærens principper, blev den bekræftet af Imam Nawawi, Ibn Hajar Asqalani, og det altovervejende flertal af Islamiske lærde, der godtog og accepterede hans ord og anså det som værende obligatorisk at anvende dem i forbindelse med de nye begivenheder og uforudsete hændelser, der opstår med de foranderlige tider og menneskene der lever i dem. Man må ikke støtte benægtelsen af hans klassificering ved at klamre sig til hadithen ”enhver innovation er vildledning”, fordi den eneste form for innovation, der uden undtagelse er vildledning, er den der vedrører trossætningerne, såsom Mutaziliers, Qadariers) og Murjiiers innovationer, og så videre, der strider imod de tidligere muslimers tro. Dette er vildledningens innovation, fordi den er skadelig og helt uden gavn. Hvad angår innovation i trosgerninger, hvilket betyder fremkomsten af en handling, der har at gøre med tilbedelse eller noget andet som ikke eksisterede i det første århundrede af Islam, skal denne innovation dømmes i henhold til de fem kategorier der er nævnt af Izz ibn Abd al-Salam. At påstå, at sådanne innovationer er vildledning uden yderligere forbehold, er slet og ret uanvendeligt, for nye ting er iblandt de nødvendigheder, der opstår ved generationernes og tidens gang, og intet nyt mangler en bestemmelse vedrørende det fra Allah den Højeste, hvad enten den er udtrykkeligt nævnt i de primære kildetekster, eller kan udledes fra dem på en eller anden vis. Den eneste årsag til at Islamisk lov er i stand til at være gyldig for enhver tid og ethvert sted, og være den fuldendte og mest perfekte af alle guddommelige love, er at den omfatter metodologiske principper og universelle kriterier, samt den kunnen dens lærde er blevet udstyret med for at forstå dens primære kildetekster, viden om former for analogier og parallelisme, og de andre fortræffeligheder, der karakteriserer den. Skulle vi afgøre at enhver ny handling, der er opstået efter Islams første århundrede, er en vildledende innovation, uden at overveje hvorvidt denne medfører fordel eller skade, ville det ugydiggøre en stor del af den Hellige Lovs fundamentale grundlag såvel som de bestemmelser, der er grundlagt på basis af analogisk ræsonnement, og ville indsnævre og begrænse den Hellige Lovs umådelige og omfattende rækkevidde. (Adilla Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama’a, 145-47).

Wa Jazakum Allahu khayran, wal-hamdu lillahi Rabbil Alamin.

Friday, October 07, 2005

DALA'IL AL-KHAYRAT: THE STORY OF A TEXT

Fremragende artikel fra Islamica Magazine; kan ogsaa laeses paa deres site ved login (gratis medlemskab giver adgang til et udvalg af artiklerne). Artiklen vil vaere til nytte inshaallah for alle de enten er blevet paavirket af de modernistiske tanker der anser lovprisning af vores profet for vaerende bid'a, eller er blevet traumatiserede af den bid'a der rent faktisk forekommer specielt blandt visse sekter fra det indiske subkontinent hvad angaar lovprisning af vores elskede profet Muhammad(sws)

Dala'il Al-Khayrat: The story of a text

By Adam Larson

“God and his angels bless the Prophet.O believers bless him and pray him peace as well”— Qur’an 33:56

The eminent scholar and mystic of fifteenth century Egypt, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, tells the story of an early mystic:

One night I fulfilled a number of blessings on the Prophet and I fell asleep. I was dwelling in a room, and lo, the Prophet came to me through the door, and the whole room was lit up. Then he moved towards me and said: “Give me the mouth that has blessed me so often that I may kiss it.” And my modesty would not let him kiss my mouth; so I turned away my face, and he kissed my cheek. Then I woke trembling from sleep and my wife who was by my side awoke, and lo, the house was fragrant with his scent, and the scent of musk from his kiss remained on my cheek about eight days. My wife noticed the scent every day.


This story beautifully illustrates the centrality of the Prophet Muhammad (God bless him and give him peace) to Islamic piety. For hundreds of years Muslims have meditated on and lucidly expressed their deep love for the Chosen Prophet (God bless him and give him peace); they have collected and compiled every available account concerning him, produced immense commentaries detailing his every feature, from the length of his hair and the color of his complexion, to the way he walked, slept, and laughed, and have composed lyrical poetry giving voice to their immense longing for him.

The Prophet (God bless him and give him peace) said, “The person nearest to me is the one who asks for blessings upon me the most.” Throughout history Muslims have sought continual presence with the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace), manifesting their love for him by adhering to God’s command: “bless him and pray for peace upon him” (The Qur’an, Sura al-Ahzab :). In the spirit of this command, Muslim scholars have produced prayer manuals of the utmost beauty and eloquence. These manuals most frequently consist of collections of prayers, supplications, and praise from the Qur’an and hadith, as well as original compositions. Of these prayer manuals, perhaps none have been more successful and widespread than Muhammad b. Sulayman al-Jazuli’s masterwork Dala’il al- Khayrat wa Shawariq al-Anwar fi Dhikr al-Salat ‘ala al- Nabi al-Mukhtar (The Guide to Blessings and the Advent of Light in Blessing the Chosen Prophet). Composed in Morocco in the fifteenth century, Dala’il al-Khayrat quickly spread throughout the Muslim world, from Turkey, to East Africa, to Sumatra.

Who was al-Jazuli? Why was Dala’il al-Khayrat so popular? How have Muslims interacted with and experienced the text, both as a performative act and as a physical object? By exploring these questions, it is hoped that the reader may gain a fuller understanding and greater appreciation of this extraordinary text, its author, and its inspiration.

The Context and Formation of Dala’il al-Khayrat: The Life of Muhammad b. Sulayman al-Jazuli

At the dawn of the fifteenth century, the Marinid dynasty had ruled Morocco for over one hundred and fifty years. The early Marinid period was marked by military campaigns and vigorous architectural activity. They built a variety of structures: new urban centers, zawiyas, fortresses, and mosques. However, their most marvelous architectural contributions were madrasas: four at Fez and one at Salé. In the oldest of these madrasas, Madrasat al-Saffarin in Fez, young Muhammad b. Sulayman al-Jazuli received instruction in the religious sciences.

By the mid-fifteenth century, Moroccan society was in chaos. Corruption and immorality were rampant in both the cities and the countryside. Port cities along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts fell to the crusading Portuguese. Due to internal strife and foreign military pressure, the Marinid state began to fragment. Morocco was in need of religious reform and reorientation. It was precisely at this trying time that al-Jazuli introduced his remarkable work Dala’il al- Khayrat.

Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Rahman b. Abi Bakr b. Sulayman al-Jazuli al-Samlali was born to a sharif [a descendent of the Prophet Muhammad] family in the southern Moroccan village of Tankarat in the early fifteenth century. He belonged to the Simlala, an important subtribe of the Sanhaja Berbers that lived on the Sus River plain between the High Atlas and Anti-Atlas Mountains. Little detail is known about his life. However, his biographer, Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Fasi (d.), mentions in his work Mumti’ al-Asma’ a number of anecdotes and pithy expressions, giving a glimpse into the religious world of early modern Morocco.

As a young scholar al-Jazuli left his homeland of Jazula because inter-tribal conflicts made serious study impossible. He traveled to Fez and enrolled at Madrasat al-Saffarin, where his room is still shown to visitors. In Fez he memorized works of usul al-fiqh and Maliki law, such as Ibn al-Hajib’s Mukhtasr al-Far’i and Sahnun’s Al-Mudawwana al-Kubra. He also met the famous jurist and mystic Sheikh Ahmad Zarruq. As a youth he became known for his piety. Al-Fasi relates a stunning example of al-Jazuli’s detachment from worldly concerns:


While he was attending the madrasa, he secluded himself in a house and no one else would enter. This news reached his father who thought the youth’s persistence in barring others from entering was because he was hiding wealth, so he set out to visit his son. He requested permission to enter his son’s house and was given leave. When he entered he saw written all over the walls: “Death, Death, Death ...” He understood what his son was up to. He reproached himself, saying, “Look where he is and look where we are!” Then he left his son and returned home.

Several accounts detail al-Jazuli’s inspiration in writing Dala’il al-Khayrat. According to al-Fasi, he collected Dala’il al-Khayrat from books in the Qarwiyyin library in Fez after witnessing a woman perform miracles (kharq al-’ada). When he inquired as to how she had attained this ability, she replied, “By sending blessings on the Prophet, may God bless him and give him peace.” Thenceforth al- Jazuli devoted himself to sending blessings on the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace).Al-Manfaluti, Maliki mufti of nineteenth-century Medina, provides a different account in his work Manaqib Sidi al-Shaykh al-Jazuli:

The reason for al-Jazuli’s writing Dala’il al-Khayrat … was that one day he was late for his prayers, even though it was his custom to seek the approval of God the Exalted by not delaying a prayer beyond the earliest possible time for its performance. When he arose to make his ablutions, however, he was unable to find anything with which to take water out of the well. This preoccupied him greatly and he was very annoyed. While he was in this state a young girl caught sight of him from a high place and said, “Who are you, uncle?” The sheikh then told her about himself, hoping that she would give him a bucket and thus ease his cares and worries. Instead the girl exclaimed, “You are the one whom people praise greatly, yet you are unable to take water from a well in order to purify yourself !” Then she came down from that high place and spat into the well while reciting the Name of the Lord of Creation. No sooner had she done so than water tasting as sweet as the sweetest sugar poured forth from the well until it spilled over the face of the earth as a miracle from the One who rolls up the scroll of time. The sheikh made his ablution and marveled at this splendid miracle. When he finished, he swore by God Almighty that the girl should reveal to him how she had acquired this great rank. “By making constant prayers on the Best of Creation (may God bless and preserve him) to the number of breaths and heartbeats (bi-’adad al-anfas wa al-daqa’iq),” she replied. So al-Jazuli resolved at that moment to write a book about the excellence of prayers on behalf of the Chosen Prophet and to include in it many transmitted texts from the mine of prophecy and from those who have drowned in the sea of the effusion of God’s abundant generosity. All of this (which was due to what he perceived in this great miracle) would not have been possible had it not been for this girl, who was devoted to reciting prayers on the Adornment of the Last Day (zayn al-qiyama).

Al-Jazuli took the Shadhili tariqa from Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad Amghar al-Saghir (d.) of Ribat Tit-n- Fitr. After taking part in the resistance to the Portuguese at Tangier in , he went into seclusion (khalwa). Some historians claim that he worshiped in isolation for fourteen years; while others maintain that he traveled east for sometime, reciting Dala’il al-Khayrat twice each morning to the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace) in Medina.Upon his reemergence in , al-Jazuli established a zawiya at the Atlantic port city of Asafi. Al-Jazuli was “frequent in reciting litanies (awrad), observant of God most High in all his states, not exceeding the boundaries God established, and exerting himself in following the Book of God and the example of his Messenger (God bless him and give him peace).” He founded the Shadhiliyya Jazuliyya order, with Dala’il al-Khayrat at its core, and over ,disciples received spiritual training (tarbiya) at his hands.

Later writers describe the nature of al-Jazuli’s relationship with the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace): there mixed, in his person, “the two loves”—the love one feels for the Prophet due to religion, and the love one feels for one’s kinsfolk (mahabba al-diniyya wa al-tiniyya).Al-Jazuli died in while prostrating during the morning prayer, the victim of poisoning. He was later buried at Riyadh al-’Arus in Marrakesh. Known in the local dialect as “Sidi Ben Sliman,” he is one of the seven patron saints of Marrakesh. He left Dala’il al-Khayrat as a testament to his immense love and longing for the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace):

O God, I believed in Muhammad but did not see him; do not deprive me in the Gardens of his vision. Bestow his company upon me and cause me to die in his religion. Let me drink from his pool a quenching, pleasant, delightful drink after which we shall never thirst again. You are powerful over everything. O God, convey to the soul of Muhammad my greetings and peace. O God, as I believed in Muhammad but did not see him, do not deprive me in the Gardens of his vision.

The Content and Religious Function
of Dala’il al-Khayrat

Few books have experienced the widespread fame and eminence of Dala’il al-Khayrat. It was the pivotal text of the Shadhiliyya Jazuliyya; the daily litany of his disciples which included two complete readings of Dala’il al-Khayrat.Al-Jazuli divided Dala’il al-Khayrat into sections corresponding to the days of the week. Each section contains diverse praises, invocations, and poetic references seamlessly bound into a flowing unity. Its melodic, rhythmic language aids the devotee in memorization and attaining presence of heart. Its phrases of exquisite beauty express love and devotion to the Chosen One (God bless him and give him peace).

Dala’il al-Khayrat soon became famous for its tremendous baraka, spreading well beyond the boundaries of Morocco and the Jazuliyya. The baraka of blessing the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace) extended to include the book itself; frequent reference is made to the baraka of the physical object. In one case, a Turkish calligrapher was commanded by the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace) in a dream to dedicate his life to copying Dala’il al-Khayrat, continually blessing the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace) through the loving strokes of his pen.

Beautifully illustrated manuscripts, lithographs, and print copies, from all over the Islamic world indicate Dala’il al-Khayrat’s renown. Manuscript artists produced detailed illustrations of Mecca and Medina. These illustrations were not merely decorations; rather they were “attempts to create an ideal symmetry,” indicating “the feeling of a divinely ordered universe, as if the artists were reflecting the perfection of the Almighty’s plan as revealed within the sacred scriptures.” Manuscript copies of Dala’il al-Khayrat were often pocket-sized and could be carried in pouches as amulets. These small books both facilitated daily recitation and distinguished the “Companions of the Dala’il ”from others.When in need, people could turn to Dala’il al-Khayrat.

Al-Fasi reports that whoever seeks to fulfill a need and alleviate sorrow should read Dala’il al-Khayrat forty times. If they strive to complete the proscribed number of readings within forty days, their need, be it great or small, will be fulfilled through the baraka of blessing the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace). If the text of Dala’il al- Khayrat was not handled properly the baraka would rectify the situation. In one instance, mentioned in Mumti’ al- Asma’, a man set a book on top of Dala’il al-Khayrat and left the room. When he returned he was amazed to find Dala’il al-Khayrat resting on top!In composing Dala’il al-Khayrat, al-Jazuli sought to teach the virtue of blessing the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace) and the best manner in which to do so. Importantly, Dala’il al-Khayrat mentions over two hundred of the Prophet’s names (God bless him and give him peace) bringing life to his many roles. One rhythmic sequence vividly portrays his names concerning the Day of Judgment: he is the “Prophet of Mercy”, the “Intercessor of the Community”, the “Possessor of the Pool”, and the “Possessor of the raised standard.” Another sequence inspires reverence and awe through depictions of the Prophet’s miracles:

O God! Bless him for whom the palm trunk wept and longed for when parted.
O God! Bless him whom the desert birds implored.
O God! Bless him from whose hand the pebbles glorified.
O God! Bless him from whom the gazelle sought intercession with the most eloquent speech.
O God! Bless him with whom the lizard spoke while in assembly with his distinguished companions.
O God! Bless him whom the stones greeted.
O God! Bless him to whom the trees prostrated.
O God! Bless him whose light brought forth the flowers.
O God! Bless him by whose baraka the fruits ripened.
O God! Bless him by whose wudu’ water the trees flourished green.
O God! Bless him to whose cloak the wild animals would cling when he walked the arid desert.

These remarkable scenes familiarize the reader with the life of the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace), fostering love and intimacy. Love and intimacy that inspire the reader to follow his way:

O God make me of those who hold fast to the religion of Muhammad; who exalt his sanctity, honor his word, preserve his covenant and inviolability, assist his party and call, increase his followers and group, deliver his troop, and do not contravene his way and sunna. O God, I ask You for holding fast to his sunna, and I seek refuge in You from turning from what he brought. O God, I ask You for the good that Your Prophet and Messenger asked for, and I seek refuge in You from the evil that Your Prophet and Messenger sought refuge from.

These scenes from the Prophet’s life could also inspire the reader to follow his way in a more literal sense: to walk where the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace) walked and to visit the places he frequented in Medina. The most frequently portrayed illustration in Dala’il al-Khayrat depicts the Prophet’s mosque in Medina. In Islamic devotional literature the image of Medina often symbolizes longing for the beloved Prophet (God bless him and give him peace). Medina is the object of immense nostalgia and longing for poets such as Jami, a contemporary of al-Jazuli:


It is we who, like the tulip in the desert of Medina,
Bear in our heart the scar of longing for Medina.
Passionate longing for Paradise may disappear from the wise
man’s head, but
It is not possible that the passionate longing for Medina
should leave him...
The Tuba tree that has lifted its head on the apex of the
Throne
Is only a branch from the garden-adorning palm tree of
Medina.
When you eat dates, kiss their kernels, for
The kernels of the dates of Medina are the beads of the
angels’ rosary!

Medina is the “City of the Prophet”, for in Medina lies the Prophet of Mercy (God bless him and give him peace) who is “more splendid than the full moon and more generous than the sent clouds and the vast seas.” In Dala’il al-Khayrat, a chapter entitled “A Description of the Noble Garden” lovingly describes the Prophet’s tomb. In this chapter, ‘Aisha (God be pleased with her) relates to her father Abu Bakr (God be pleased with him) a vision concerning the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace):

I saw three moons falling into my room. I told my vision to Abu Bakr (God be pleased with him). He told me, “O ‘Aisha, three will be buried in your house. They are the best people in all the earth.” When the Messenger of God (God bless him and give him peace) passed away and was buried in my house, Abu Bakr (God be pleased with him) said to me, “This is one of your moons and he is the best of them (God bless him and give him peace).”

A textual portrait of the Prophet’s tomb, based upon the hadith of ‘Urwa ibn al-Zubayr, appears in Dala’il al-Khayrat, visually representing the dimensions of the tomb. Abu
Bakr was buried behind the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace), while ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab was buried at the legs of Abu Bakr (God be pleased with them both):

‘The portrait of the Prophet’s tomb inspires the reader to be among those the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace) mentioned: “There will come to my Pool on the Day of Resurrection nations I will know only because of their frequent asking for blessings upon me.” Dala’il al-Khayrat, replete with beautiful devotional prayers in honor of the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace), provides an effective means to achieving this end.

Dala’il al-Khayrat stands witness to the tremendous baraka of blessing the Chosen Prophet (God bless him and give him peace). Its composer, Muhammad b. Sulayman al- Jazuli, devoted his life to this cause and, in the process, renewed the spiritual landscape of his native Morocco. Dala’il al-Khayrat spread from Morocco to all corners of the world, inspiring and inculcating love of the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace) in the hearts of Muslims everywhere:

Make us the best of those who bless him and pray for him, the best of those who draw near to him and come to him, the best of those who love him and are beloved with him, and gladden us with him in the Courtyards of the Resurrection. Make him a guide for us to the Garden of Felicity without trouble, difficulty or discussion of the account, make him accept us and do not make him angry towards us, and forgive us and our parents and all the Muslims, the living among them and the dead. The end of our prayer is, praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Approaching RamadanBy Imam Zaid Shakir

God artikel af Imam Zaid Shakir fra Zaytuna Institutet


As we eagerly anticipate the beginning of the Blessed Month of Ramadan, the staff of Zaytuna Institute wishes all of our volunteers, friends, and supporters an accepted and purifying fast. We pray that this blessed month is a time of spiritual renewal for all of you, a time when you are able to fully benefit from the many Divine Gifts that have been offered to the worshipper during this most special season.

Those who have failed to take advantage of the months of Rajab and Sha’ban to prepare for the blessed month of Ramadan should be especially careful to take full advantage of the latter month. Reflect on the poet’s words:



Harken! O you who was not content to sin throughout Rajab.

His rebellion against his Lord had to continue the duration of Sha’ban.

The month of fasting has now come to shade and shelter you,

Do not transform it also into a month of sinning.

Recite the Qur’an and glorify [God], with diligent assertion.

Indeed! It is a month for glorification and the Qur’an.

Deny your bodily appetites, seeking your soul’s salvation.

Eventually, the earth will consume the body.

How many deceased people have you known who fasted?

Amongst your family, neighbors, and brothers.

Death has erased them, leaving you behind.

Get serious [about your religion], for the living are quite close to the dead!

You take delight in the ‘Eid outfits being cut out now for the festival.

But soon they will be your burial shrouds.

How long will the person be happy with his worldly home?

Knowing that his ultimate home is the grave.[1]

We pray that this month is a means for our spiritual ascension. When our spirits are ascendant, and our carnal lusts retreat, we will be able to engage in the type of fast described by one of our righteous forebears when he advised:

Fast your entire lifetime. Make death your ‘Eid! Life itself is a fast for the righteous. Their fast is from all forbidden lusts. When death comes to them their fast has ended. At that time they find the new moon of ‘Eid.[2]

In order to assist you in maximizing the benefits of the blessed month of Ramadan, we offer the following advice:

One of the perennial issues plaguing our community is the issue of moon-sighting. This controversy revolves around determining what is the optimal criterion for establishing when our special occasions begin and end. As an institution committed to the revival and transmission of traditional Islamic knowledge, we at Zaytuna recognize the validity of both regional and universal moon-sightings. However, due to past confusion and contention caused by erroneous reports of crescent sightings originating from other countries, we are committed to following confirmed North American crescent sightings.

Our Prophet , has advised us, “Begin fasting with its sighting [the crescent moon], and end your fast with its sighting…” Al-Bukhari and Muslim

We also acknowledge that astronomical calculations cannot be used as valid means for determining our Islamic dates. However, we do feel that astronomical calculations can give us a very good indication as to when it is possible to sight the crescent moon. That being the case, we will not accept any claims that the moon has been sighted in North America on the evening of Monday, October 3, 2005. The new moon will be born early on that day, but it will be in the Southern Hemisphere, its age, and its angle at sunset will be too low to allow for a sighting anywhere in the world, with the possible exception of the South Pacific (this excludes Hawaii, which is in the North Pacific).

On the evening of Tuesday, October 4, 2005, the moon should be clearly visible throughout North America, Insha Allah. We will accept any verified crescent sighting on that night. Therefore, the first day of Ramadan in North America should be Wednesday, October 5, 2005 Insha Allah.

We are not trying to add our voice to a contentious issue. We are only taking this position to help all of our supporters and friends approach the month with clarity and a minimal amount of confusion.

On a more positive note, we encourage all of the believers to try to adhere to all of the Sunans of Ramadan. Even though the days are still relatively short and cool, everyone should attempt to take the pre-dawn meal (Sahur), no matter how small, and hasten to break the fast, once the sunset has been confirmed. The purpose of the month is to grow in obedience to the Lawgiver. This is facilitated by scrupulously adhering to all of the rulings related to the fast.

O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those who preceded you; that perhaps you will be mindful of God. Al-Qur’an 2:183

We encourage everyone to be especially generous during this blessed month. Our beloved Prophet , was normally exceedingly generous. In Ramadan, he was even more benevolent.

Ibn ‘Abbas, May Allah be pleased with him and his father, relates: “The Prophet , was the most generous of people. He was even more generous in Ramadan when Gabriel would meet him and review the Qur’an with him. Gabriel would come to him every night of Ramadan to review the Qur’an. During these times, the Messenger of Allah , was more generous than the freely blowing wind.” Al-Bukhari and Muslim

We encourage everyone to read through the Qur’an at least once. Those who can read the Arabic script should do so in Arabic, even if they do not fully understand what they are reading. They should also try to read through the English translation. Those who are unable to read Arabic, should try to read through the entire English translation. Ramadan is, among other things, a celebration of the Qur’an. We should join the celebration by reading the Book of God much during this blessed month. Our Imams, Abu Hanifa, Malik, al-Shafi’i, and others, May God have Mercy on them all, would cease teaching Hadith and Jurisprudence during Ramadan and devote themselves exclusively to the Qur’an.

God says, concerning His Majestic Book: The Month of Ramadan in which the Qur’an was revealed, a guidance for mankind, [containing] clear proofs of guidance, and the criterion of distinguishing right from wrong. Al-Qur’an 2:185

We encourage everyone to refrain from all of the ruinations of the tongue during Ramadan. In his seminal work, “Quickening the Religious Sciences,” Imam al-Ghazali mentions them as the following:

Speaking in matters that do not concern one.


Excessive speech.

Speaking about sinful matters.

Disputation and contestation.

Argumentation.

Excessively embellished speech.

Lewd, insulting, or crude speech.

Invoking the Curse of God on someone.

Singing indecent songs, or relating immoral poetry.

Excessive joking.

Sarcasm and ridicule.

Revealing secrets.

False promises.

Lying and false oaths.

Backbiting and slander.

Instigating tense relations between people.

Being two-faced.

Praising someone who is either undeserving, or unable to remain humble when praised.

Speaking about involved subjects and ideas one lacks the necessary knowledge or eloquence to adequately convey.

Ordinary folk speaking in subjects that are the domain of specialists.

May God spare us from these ruinations both during and after Ramadan.

The Prophet, Peace and Blessing of Almighty God be upon Him, said: “Whoever fails to leave off ruinous speech, and acting on it [during Ramadan], God does not need him to leave off eating and drinking.” Al-Bukahri

We encourage everyone to avoid all arguments, disputes, and unnecessary worldly entanglements during this blessed month. This is a time for deep devotion and dedication to Allah.

We encourage everyone to work to restore any severed relations or kinship ties they may be experiencing. This is a time when the gentle breezes of Divine Facilitation are blowing. Any good we endeavor during this blessed month will come to bear its proper fruits, Insha Allah.

We encourage everyone to eat simply during this month. One should try to make a vow to give up unnecessary, and generally unhealthy fare during this blessed month. Pizza, ice cream, fast food, pastries, and soda should all go. We should make our solidarity with our suffering brothers and sisters in other lands real, and not something confined to speeches and pamphlets.

If one is in the habit of watching television, or listening to commercial music, one should also try to give these things up for Ramadan. They are things that divert us from the remembrance of God in any case. During this special month when every letter we recite from the Majestic Qur’an is tremendously rewarded, we should busy ourselves with recitation, and drop frivolous pastimes.

Married couples should encourage each other to engage in spiritual pursuits during this month, i.e. reciting the Qur’an, attending Tarawih, etc. Those in the habit of hosting extravagant dinners in Ramadan should try to avoid doing so, especially if they involve burdening cooks with long hours in the kitchen at a time when everyone should be increasing acts of worship. Usually, the womenfolk are disadvantageously affected in this regard. While it is certainly virtuous to provide the wherewithal for the believers to break their fast, dates, water, and simple, easily prepared dishes suffice.

Everyone should endeavor to pray the Tarawih Prayers. This is practice that should not be left without an excuse. The Prophet , mentioned, “Whosoever stands for prayer during the nights of Ramadan will have his/her prior sins expiated.” Al-Bukhari and Muslim

The prayer is the symbol of our devotional life. Ramadan is a great time to rediscover the power of the prayer, and to renew our commitment to our Lord through the prayer.

These are some of the things we wanted to convey to you. Hopefully, they will prove of benefit. Please take this message in the spirit with which we have conveyed it, as sincere advice. Again, we wish you a very successful Ramadan and would like to thank all of you for past, present, and future support.

On behalf of the Zaytuna Staff,

Your Brother in Islam,

Imam Zaid Shakir




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, Lata’if al-Ma’arif [The Subtleties of Knowledge], (Damascus: Dar Ibn Kathir, 1997/1416) p. 282.

[2] Ibn Rajab, p. 278.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Ramadanen er her!

Ramadan Karim! hvadenten i startede Tirsdag, eller ventede til dagen efter Saudi, Onsdag.
Nedenstaaende er en artikel fra ramadanen 2002 der dog er lige relevant hvert aar.

Maa Allah swt acceptere vores faste og den ibadash vi udfoerer i denne hellige maaned.



Næste uge starter Ramadanen

Ramadan 2002

Af Omar Shah

Næste uge starter Ramadanen, den helligste måned i den islamiske kalender og måneden hvor Rasûlullah, sallallâhu ´alaihi wa sallam, for første gang modtog åbenbaring fra Allah, subhânahu wa ta´âlâ, i Hira-grotten på Nûr-bjerget. Med ordene ”Iqra’ bismi Rabbika” (læs i din Herres navn) tiltalte Allah for første gang vores ummah (Muhammad saw’s ummah) gennem Jibrîl ´alaihis-salâm.

For mange af os er Ramadanen først og fremmest måneden hvor vi faster, hvor vi afstår fra mad og drikke fra daggry til solnedgang, men Ramadanen er meget mere end faste. Allah (swt) har skænket os en måned, hvor shayâtîn er lænket og hvor vi kun har vores egen nafs at kæmpe imod. En måned hvor belønningerne for alle vores gode handlinger multipliceres og en måned som indeholder en nat, Laylat-ul-Qadr, der er mere værd end 1000 måneder. Med Koranens ord: “Skæbnens nat er bedre end tusinde nætter” (sûrah al-Qadr âyah 3). Ramadanens velsignelser er simpelthen for mange til at kunne opsummere her.

Dette er en unik periode vi enten kan gøre brug af eller forspilde. Vi har alle travlt i vores dagligdag og det er let at miste fokus. Ingen af os er fri for at fokusere på dunyâ og negligere âkhirah, men i denne måned har vi ikke andre end os selv at bebrejde. At afstå fra vores menneskelige behov og fokusere på tilbedelsen af Al-Khâliq, vores skaber, hjælper os til at sætte tingene i perspektiv, og forstå hvorfor vi er her. I den velsignede måned styrer vi og kontrollerer vi vores behov frem for at lade os blive styret af vores behov. Dette er selvsagt, hvordan det burde stå til året rundt. Desværre er mennesket dog ikke altid lige stærkt.

Ramadanen er også en måned der lærer os at sætte pris på den rizq Ar-Razzâq har skænket os. Når vi vågner til sahûr kan vi spise os mætte, og efter at have gået på tom mave mindre end et halvt døgn kan vi efter maghrib igen spise os mætte. Alt imens vi stiller vores sult faster millioner af vore brødre og søstre verden over bogstaveligt talt mere eller mindre døgnet rundt. Disse er også en del af vores ummah og et ansvar påhviler os. Allah har skænket os velstand og på Yawm al-Qiyâmah vil vi blive stillet til regnskab for denne velstand.

Allah (swt) har endvidere givet os vores tid som en ressource, og som enhver anden af Hans velsignelser er det en velsignelse vi bliver stillet til regnskab for. Lad os bruge vores kostbare tid produktivt denne Ramadan, idet ingen af os kan vide os sikre på, at vi vil opleve den næste. Lad os indlede denne Ramadan med en niyyah om at komme ud af den som bedre mennesker end da vi indledte den, og at komme ud af den med en større viden om vores dîn end da vi indledte den.

Tarâwîh-bønnen er trods alt vigtigere end den seneste episode af X-files, og tahajjud er vigtigere end søvn. Ibn Al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah siger i sin bog Al Wâbil Al-Sayyib min Al-Kalim al-Tayyib (oversat til engelsk som ”The Invocation of God”), at ingen handelsmand nogensinde ville afstå fra en handel, hvor han uden at forøge sin indsats eller rejse langt kunne forøge sin fortjeneste over 70 gange. Dette er situationen for os i den velsignede måned, en unik mulighed for at forbedre os selv, og komme tættere på vores Skaber, en mulighed vi ikke bør forspilde

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Sheikh Nuh Keller: This is Jihad?

Den fremragende tale holdt af Sheikh Nuh Keller 29 August i London om Jihad, kan findes paa www.deenport.com under lessons.

Jeg vil opfordre alle til at downloade og lytte til talen da den mashaallah indeholder dyb visdom.

Monday, September 12, 2005

Sha'ban: Merits, Do's, and Dont's

En nyttig artikel om den velsignede maaned vi befinder os i, der florerer mange paastande om at den ene og den anden sunnah folk foretager sig i Sha'ban er bid'a, inshaallah vil denne artikel belyse emnet og opklare en del af forvirringen.


By Mufti Taqi Usmani

- The Night of Bara'ah
- What Should be Done in this Night?
- What Should Not be Done in This Night
- Fast of the 15th Sha'ban

Sha'ban is one of the meritorious months for which we find some particular instructions in the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam. It is reported in the authentic ahadith that Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, used to fast most of the month in Sha'ban. These fasts were not obligatory on him but Sha'ban is the month immediately preceding the month of Ramadan. Therefore, some preparatory measures are suggested by Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam. Some of these are given below:

1. The blessed companion Anas, Radi-Allahu anhu, reports that Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, was asked, "Which fast is the most meritorious after the fasts of Ramadan?" He replied, "Fasts of Shaban in honor of Ramadan."

2. The blessed companion Usama ibn Zaid, Radi-Allahu anhu, reports that he asked Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam: "Messenger of Allah, I have seen you fasting in the month of Sha'ban so frequently that I have never seen you fasting in any other month." Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, replied: "That (Sha'ban) is a month between Rajab and Ramadan which is neglected by many people. And it is a month in which an account of the deeds (of human beings) is presented before the Lord of the universe, so, I wish that my deeds be presented at a time when I am in a state of fasting."

3. Ummul Mu'mineen 'Aishah, Radi-Allahu anha, says, "Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, used to fast the whole of Sha'ban. I said to him, 'Messenger of Allah, is Sha'ban your most favorite month for fasting?' He said, 'In this month Allah prescribes the list of the persons dying this year. Therefore, I like that my death comes when I am in a state of fasting."

4. In another Tradition she says, "Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, would sometimes begin to fast continuously until we thought he would not stop fasting, and sometimes he used to stop fasting until we thought he would never fast. I never saw the Messenger of Allah, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, fasting a complete month, except the month of Ramadan, and I have never seen him fasting in a month more frequently than he did in Sha'ban."

5. In another report she says, "I never saw the Messenger of Allah, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, fasting in a month so profusely as he did in the month of Sha'ban. He used to fast in that month leaving only a few days, rather, he used to fast almost the whole of the month."

6. Ummul-Mu'mineen Umm Salamah, Radi-Allahu anha, says: "I have never seen the Messenger of Allah fasting for two months continuously except in the months of Sha'ban and Ramadan."

These reports indicate that fasting in the month of Sha'ban, though not obligatory, is so meritorious that Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, did not like to miss it.

But it should be kept in mind that the fasts of Sha'ban are for those persons only who are capable of keeping them without causing deficiency in the obligatory fasts of Ramadan. Therefore, if one fears that after fasting in Sha'ban, he will lose strength or freshness for the fasts of Ramadan and will not be able to fast in it with freshness, he should not fast in Sha'ban, because the fasts of Ramadan, being obligatory, are more important than the optional fasts of Sha'ban. That is why Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, himself has forbidden the Muslims from fasting one or two days immediately before the commencement of Ramadan. The blessed Companion Abu Hurairah, Radi-Allahu anhu, reports Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, to have said, "Do not fast after the first half of the month of Sha'ban is gone."

According to another report Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam has said: "Do not precede the month of Ramadan with one or two fasts."

The essence of the above-quoted ahadith is that Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, himself used to fast most of the month of Sha'ban, because he had no fear of developing weakness or weariness before the commencement of Ramadan. As for others, he ordered them not to fast after the 15th of Sha'ban for the fear that they would lose their strength and freshness before Ramadan starts, and would not be able to welcome the month of Ramadan with enthusiasm.

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The Night of Bara'ah

Another significant feature of the month of Sha'ban is that it consists of a night which is termed in Shariah as "Laylatul-bara'ah" (The night of freedom from Fire). This is the night occurring between 14th and 15th day of Sha'ban. There are certain traditions of Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, to prove that it is a meritorious night in which the people of the earth are attended by special Divine mercy. Some of these traditions are quoted as follows:

1. Ummul-Mu'mineen 'Aishah, Radi-Allahu anha, is reported to have said, "Once Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, performed the Salah of the night (Tahajjud) and made a very long Sajdah until I feared that he had passed away. When I saw this, I rose (from my bed) and moved his thumb (to ascertain whether he is alive). The thumb moved, and I returned (to my place). Then I heard him saying in Sajdah: 'I seek refuge of Your forgiveness from Your punishment, and I seek refuge of Your pleasure from Your annoyance, and I seek Your refuge from Yourself. I cannot praise You as fully as You deserve. You are exactly as You have defined Yourself.' Thereafter, when he raised his head from Sajdah and finished his salah, he said to me: 'Aishah, did you think that the Prophet has betrayed you?' I said, 'No, O Prophet of Allah, but I was afraid that your soul has been taken away because your Sajdah was very long.' He asked me, 'Do you know which night is this?' I said, 'Allah and His Messenger know best.' He said, 'This is the night of the half of Sha'ban. Allah Almighty looks upon His slaves in this night and forgives those who seek forgiveness and bestows His mercy upon those who pray for mercy but keeps those who have malice (against a Muslim) as they were before, (and does not forgive them unless they relieve themselves from malice).'"

2. In another Tradition Sayyidah' Aishah, Radi-Allahu anha, has reported that Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, has said, "Allah Almighty descends (in a manner He best knows it) in the night occurring in the middle of Sha'ban and forgives a large number of people more than the number of the fibers on the sheep of the tribe, Kalb."

Kalb was a big tribe the members of which had a very large number of sheep. Therefore, the last sentence of the hadith indicates the big number of the people who are forgiven in this night by Allah Almighty.

3. In yet another Tradition, she has reported Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, to have said, "This is the middle Night of Sha'ban. Allah frees in it a large number of the people from Fire, more than the number of the hair growing on the sheep of the tribe, Kalb. But He does not even look at a person who associates partners with Allah, or at a person who nourishes malice in his heart (against someone), or at a person who cuts off the ties of kinship, or at a man who leaves his clothes extending beyond his ankles (as a sign of pride), or at a person who disobeys his parents, or at a person who has a habit of drinking wine."

4. Sayyidna Mu'adh ibn Jabal, Radi-Allahu anhu, reports that Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, has said: "Allah Almighty looks upon all those created by Him in the middle Night of Sha'ban and forgives all those created by Him, except the one who associates partners with Him or the one who has malice in his heart (against a Muslim)".

Although the chain of narrators of some of these traditions suffers with some minor technical defects, yet when all these traditions are combined together, it becomes clear that this night has some well founded merits, and observing this night as a sacred night is not a baseless concoction as envisaged by some modern scholars who, on the basis of these minor defects, have totally rejected to give any special importance to this night. In fact, some of these traditions have been held by some scholars of hadith as authentic and the defects in the chain of some others have been treated by them as minor technical defects which, according to the science of hadith, are curable by the variety of their ways of narration. That is why the elders of the ummah have constantly been observing this night as a night of special merits and have been spending it in worship and prayers.

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What Should be Done in this Night?

In order to observe the Night of Bara'ah, one should remain awakened in this night as much as he can. If someone has better opportunities, he should spend the whole night in worship and prayer. However, if one cannot do so for one reason or another, he can select a considerable portion of the night, preferably of the second half of it for this purpose, and should perform the following acts of worship:

(a) Salah. Salah is the most preferable act to be performed in this night. There is no particular number of Rak'at but preferably it should not be less than eight. It is also advisable that each part of the Salah like qiyam, rukoo' and sajdah should be longer than normal. The longest surahs of the Holy Qur'an one remembers by heart should be recited in the Salah of this night. If someone does not remember the long surahs, he can also recite several short surahs in one rak'ah.

(b) Tilawa. The recitation of the Holy Qur'an is another form of worship, very beneficent in this night. After performing Salah, or at any other time, one should recite as much of the Holy Qur'an as he can.

(c) Dhikr. One should also perform dhikr (recitation of the name of Allah) in this night. Particularly the following dhikr is very useful:

One should recite Salah (durood) on Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, as many times as he can. The dhikr can also be recited while walking, lying on bed and during other hours of work or leisure.

(d) Dua. The best benefit one can draw from the blessings of this night is prayers and supplications. It is hoped that all the prayers in this night will be accepted by our Lord, insha-Allah. Prayer itself is an 'Ibadah, and Allah Almighty gives reward on each prayer along with the fulfillment of the supplicator's need. Even if the purpose prayed for is not achieved, one cannot be deprived of the reward of the prayer which is sometimes more precious than the mundane benefits one strives for. The prayers and supplications also strengthen one's relation with Allah Almighty, which is the main purpose of all kinds and forms of worship.

One can pray for whatever purpose he wishes. But the best supplications are the ones made by Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam. These are so comprehensive and all-encompassing prayers that recitation of the Qur'an and dhikr should be performed in this night individually, not collectively. The Nafl Salah should not be performed in Jama'ah, nor should the Muslims arrange gatherings in the mosques in order to celebrate the night in a collective manner.

On the contrary, this night is meant for worshipping Allah in solitude. It is the time to enjoy the direct contact with the Lord of the Universe, and to devote one's attention to Him and Him alone. These are the precious hours of the night in which nobody should intervene between one and his Lord, and one should turn to Allah with total concentration, not disturbed or intermitted by any one else.

That is why Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, observed the acts of worship in this night in total seclusion, not accompanied by anyone, not even by his favorite life companion Sayyidah 'Aishah, Radi-Allahu anha, and that is why all forms of the optional worship (Nafl Ibadah), are advised by him to be done in individual, not in collective manner.

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Fast of the 15th Sha'ban

On the day immediately following the Night of Bara'ah, i.e. the 15th of Sha'ban, it is mustahabb (advisable) to keep fast. Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, is reported to have recommended this fast emphatically. Although the scholars of hadith have some doubts in the authenticity of this report, yet it is mentioned earlier that the fasts of the first half of Sha'ban have special merits and Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, used to fast most of the days in Sha'ban. Moreover, a large number of the elders (salaf) of the Ummah have been observing the fast of the 15th of Sha'ban. This constant practice indicates that they have accepted the relevant hadith as authentic.

Therefore, it is advisable to fast the 15th of Sha'ban as an optional (nafl) fast. One can also keep a fast of qada on this day and it is hoped that he can also benefit from the merits of this fast.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

The Concept of Bid'a in the Islamic Shari'a

En fyldestgoerende artikel om et meget vigtigt emne der ofte misforstaas nutildags


©Nuh Ha Mim Keller 1995

The following is the text of a talk given by Shaikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller at Nottingham and Trent University on Wednesday 25th January 1995.
In the name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate
There are few topics that generate as much controversy today in Islam as what is sunna and what is bida or reprehensible innovation, perhaps because of the times Muslims live in today and the challenges they face. Without a doubt, one of the greatest events in impact upon Muslims in the last thousand years is the end of the Islamic caliphate at the first of this century, an event that marked not only the passing of temporal, political authority, but in many respects the passing of the consensus of orthodox Sunni Islam as well. No one familiar with the classical literature in any of the Islamic legal sciences, whether Qur'anic exegesis (tafsir), hadith, or jurisprudence (fiqh), can fail to be struck by the fact that questions are asked today about basic fundamentals of Islamic Sacred Law (Sharia) and its ancillary disciplines that would not have been asked in the Islamic period not because Islamic scholars were not brilliant enough to produce the questions, but because they already knew the answers.
My talk tonight will aim to clarify some possible misunderstandings of the concept of innovation (bida) in Islam, in light of the prophetic hadith,
"Beware of matters newly begun, for every matter newly begun is innovation, every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in hell."
The sources I use are traditional Islamic sources, and my discussion will centre on three points:
The first point is that scholars say that the above hadith does not refer to all new things without restriction, but only to those which nothing in Sacred Law attests to the validity of. The use of the word "every" in the hadith does not indicate an absolute generalization, for there are many examples of similar generalizations in the Qur'an and sunna that are not applicable without restriction, but rather are qualified by restrictions found in other primary textual evidence.
The second point is that the sunna and way of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) was to accept new acts initiated in Islam that were of the good and did not conflict with established principles of Sacred Law, and to reject things that were otherwise.
And our third and last point is that new matters in Islam may not be rejected merely because they did not exist in the first century, but must be evaluated and judged according to the comprehensive methodology of Sacred Law, by virtue of which it is and remains the final and universal moral code for all peoples until the end of time.
Our first point, that the hadith does not refer to all new things without restriction, but only to those which nothing in Sacred Law attests to the validity of, may at first seem strange, in view of the wording of the hadith, which says, "every matter newly begun is innovation, every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in hell." Now the word "bida" or "innovation" linguistically means anything new, So our first question must be about the generalizability of the word every in the hadith: does it literally mean that everything new in the world is haram or unlawful? The answer is no. Why?
In answer to this question, we may note that there are many similar generalities in the Qur'an and sunna, all of them admitting of some qualification, such as the word of Allah Most High in Surat al-Najm,
". . . A man can have nothing, except what he strives for" (Qur'an 53:39),
despite there being an overwhelming amount of evidence that a Muslim benefits from the spiritual works of others, for example, from his fellow Muslims, the prayers of angels for him, the funeral prayer over him, charity given by others in his name, and the supplications of believers for him;
Or consider the words of Allah to unbelievers in Surat al-Anbiya,
"Verily you and what you worship apart from Allah are the fuel of hell" (Qur'an 21:98),
"what you worship" being a general expression, while there is no doubt that Jesus, his mother, and the angels were all worshipped apart from Allah, but are not "the fuel of hell", so are not what is meant by the verse; Or the word of Allah Most High in Surat al-Anam about past nations who paid no heed to the warners who were sent to them,
"But when they forgot what they had been reminded of, We opened unto them the doors of everything" (Qur'an 6:44),
though the doors of mercy were not opened unto them; And the hadith related by Muslim that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said,
"No one who prays before sunrise and before sunset will enter hell",
which is a generalised expression that definitely does not mean what its outward generality implies, for someone who prays the dawn and midafternoon prayers and neglects all other prayers and obligatory works is certainly not meant. It is rather a generalization whose intended referent is particular, or a generalization that is qualified by other texts, for when there are fully authenticated hadiths, it is obligatory to reach an accord between them, because they are in reality as a single hadith, the statements that appear without further qualification being qualified by those that furnish the qualification, that the combined implications of all of them may be utilized.
Let us look for a moment at bida or innovation in the light of the sunna of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) concerning new matters. Sunna and innovation (bida) are two opposed terms in the language of the Lawgiver (Allah bless him and give him peace), such that neither can be defined without reference to the other, meaning that they are opposites, and things are made clear by their opposites. Many writers have sought to define innovation (bida) without defining the sunna, while it is primary, and have thus fallen into inextricable difficulties and conflicts with the primary textual evidence that contradicts their definition of innovation, whereas if they had first defined the sunna, they would have produced a criterion free of shortcomings.
Sunna, in both the language of the Arabs and the Sacred Law, means way, as is illustrated by the words of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace),
"He who inaugurates a good sunna in Islam [dis: Reliance of the Traveller p58.1(2)] ...And he who introduces a bad sunna in Islam...", sunna meaning way or custom. The way of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) in giving guidance, accepting, and rejecting: this is the sunna. For "good sunna" and "bad sunna" mean a "good way" or "bad way", and cannot possibly mean anything else. Thus, the meaning of "sunna" is not what most students, let alone ordinary people, understand; namely, that it is the prophetic hadith (as when sunna is contrasted with "Kitab", i.e. Qur'an, in distinguishing textual sources), or the opposite of the obligatory (as when sunna, i.e. recommended, is contrasted with obligatory in legal contexts), since the former is a technical usage coined by hadith scholars, while the latter is a technical usage coined by legal scholars and specialists in fundamentals of jurisprudence. Both of these are usages of later origin that are not what is meant by sunna here. Rather, the sunna of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) is his way of acting, ordering, accepting, and rejecting, and the way of his Rightly Guided Caliphs who followed his way acting, ordering, accepting, and rejecting. So practices that are newly begun must be examined in light of the sunna of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and his way and path in acceptance or rejection.
Now, there are a great number of hadiths, most of them in the rigorously authenticated (sahih) collections, showing that many of the prophetic Companions initiated new acts, forms of invocation (dhikr), supplications (dua), and so on, that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) had never previously done or ordered to be done. Rather, the Companions did them because of their inference and conviction that such acts were of the good that Islam and the Prophet of Islam came with and in general terms urged the like of to be done, in accordance with the word of Allah Most High in Surat al-Hajj,
"And do the good, that haply you may succeed" (Qur'an 22:77),
and the hadith of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace),
"He who inaugurates a good sunna in Islam earns the reward of it and all who perform it after him without diminishing their own rewards in the slightest."
Though the original context of the hadith was giving charity, the interpretative principle established by the scholarly consensus (def: Reliance of the Traveller b7) of specialists in fundamentals of Sacred Law is that the point of primary texts lies in the generality of their lexical significance, not the specificity of their historical context, without this implying that just anyone may make provisions in the Sacred Law, for Islam is defined by principles and criteria, such that whatever one initiates as a sunna must be subject to its rules, strictures, and primary textual evidence.
From this investigative point of departure, one may observe that many of the prophetic Companions performed various acts through their own personal reasoning, (ijtihad), and that the sunna and way of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) was both to accept those that were acts of worship and good deeds conformable with what the Sacred Law had established and not in conflict with it; and to reject those which were otherwise. This was his sunna and way, upon which his caliphal successors and Companions proceeded, and from which Islamic scholars (Allah be well pleased with them) have established the rule that any new matter must be judged according to the principles and primary texts of Sacred Law: whatever is attested to by the law as being good is acknowledged as good, and whatever is attested to by the law as being a contravention and bad is rejected as a blameworthy innovation (bida). They sometimes term the former a good innovation (bida hasana) in view of it lexically being termed an innovation , but legally speaking it is not really an innovation but rather an inferable sunna as long as the primary texts of the Sacred Law attest to its being acceptable.
We now turn to the primary textual evidence previously alluded to concerning the acts of the Companions and how the Prophet, (Allah bless him and give him peace) responded to them:
(1) Bukhari and Muslim relate from Abu Hurayra (Allah be well pleased with him) that at the dawn prayer the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said to Bilal, "Bilal, tell me which of your acts in Islam you are most hopeful about, for I have heard the footfall of your sandals in paradise", and he replied, "I have done nothing I am more hopeful about than the fact that I do not perform ablution at any time of the night or day without praying with that ablution whatever has been destined for me to pray."
Ibn Hajar Asqalani says in Fath al-Bari that the hadith shows it is permissible to use personal reasoning (ijtihad) in choosing times for acts of worship, for Bilal reached the conclusions he mentioned by his own inference, and the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) confirmed him therein.
Similar to this is the hadith in Bukhari about Khubayb (who asked to pray two rakas before being executed by idolaters in Mecca) who was the first to establish the sunna of two rak'as for those who are steadfast in going to their death. These hadiths are explicit evidence that Bilal and Khubayb used their own personal reasoning (ijtihad) in choosing the times of acts of worship, without any previous command or precedent from the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) other than the general demand to perform the prayer.
(2) Bukhari and Muslim relate that Rifa'a ibn Rafi said, "When we were praying behind the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and he raised his head from bowing and said , "Allah hears whoever praises Him", a man behind him said, "Our Lord, Yours is the praise, abundantly, wholesomely, and blessedly therein." When he rose to leave, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) asked "who said it", and when the man replied that it was he, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "I saw thirty-odd angels each striving to be the one to write it." Ibn Hajar says in Fath al-Bari that the hadith indicates the permissibility of initiating new expressions of dhikr in the prayer other than the ones related through hadith texts, as long as they do not contradict those conveyed by the hadith [since the above words were a mere enhancement and addendum to the known, sunna dhikr].
(3) Bukhari relates from Aisha (Allah be well pleased with her) that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) dispatched a man at the head of a military expedition who recited the Qur'an for his companions at prayer, finishing each recital with al-Ikhlas (Qur'an 112). When they returned, they mentioned this to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), who told them, "Ask him why he does this", and when they asked him, the man replied, "because it describes the All-merciful, and I love to recite it." The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said to them, "Tell him Allah loves him." In spite of this, we do not know of any scholar who holds that doing the above is recommended, for the acts the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) used to do regularly are superior, though his confirming the like of this illustrates his sunna regarding his acceptance of various forms of obedience and acts of worship, and shows he did not consider the like of this to be a reprehensible innovation (bida), as do the bigots who vie with each other to be the first to brand acts as innovation and misguidance. Further, it will be noticed that all the preceding hadiths are about the prayer, which is the most important of bodily acts of worship, and of which the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "Pray as you have seen me pray", despite which he accepted the above examples of personal reasoning because they did not depart from the form defined by the Lawgiver, for every limit must be observed, while there is latitude in everything besides, as long as it is within the general category of being called for by Sacred Law. This is the sunna of the Prophet and his way (Allah bless him and give him peace) and is as clear as can be. Islamic scholars infer from it that every act for which there is evidence in Sacred Law that it is called for and which does not oppose an unequivocal primary text or entail harmful consequences is not included in the category of reprehensible innovation (bida), but rather is of the sunna, even if there should exist something whose performance is superior to it.
(4) Bukhari relates from Abu Said al-Khudri that a band of the Companions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) departed on one of their journeys, alighting at the encampment of some desert Arabs whom they asked to be their hosts, but who refused to have them as guests. The leader of the encampment was stung by a scorpion, and his followers tried everything to cure him, and when all had failed, one said, "If you would approach the group camped near you, one of them might have something". So they came to them and said, "O band of men, our leader has been stung and weve tried everything. Do any of you have something for it?" and one of them replied, "Yes, by Allah, I recite healing words [ruqya, def: Reliance of the Traveller w17] over people, but by Allah, we asked you to be our hosts and you refused, so I will not recite anything unless you give us a fee". They then agreed upon a herd of sheep, so the man went and began spitting and reciting the Fatiha over the victim until he got up and walked as if he were a camel released from its hobble, nothing the matter with him. They paid the agreed upon fee, which some of the Companions wanted to divide up, but the man who had done the reciting told them, "Do not do so until we reach the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and tell him what has happened, to see what he may order us to do". They came to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and told him what had occurred, and he said, "How did you know it was of the words which heal? You were right. Divide up the herd and give me a share."
The hadith is explicit that the Companion had no previous knowledge that reciting the Fatiha to heal (ruqya) was countenanced by Sacred Law, but rather did so because of his own personal reasoning (ijtihad), and since it did not contravene anything that had been legislated, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) confirmed him therein because it was of his sunna and way to accept and confirm what contained good and did not entail harm, even if it did not proceed from the acts of the Prophet himself (Allah bless him and give him peace) as a definitive precedent.
(5) Bukhari relates from Abu Said al-Khudri that one man heard another reciting al-Ikhlas (Qur'an 112) over and over again, so when morning came he went to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and sarcastically mentioned it to him. The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "By Him in whose hand is my soul, it equals one-third of the Qur'an." Daraqutni recorded another version of this hadith in which the man said, "I have a neighbor who prays at night and does not recite anything but al-Ikhlas." The hadith shows that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) confirmed the persons restricting himself to this sura while praying at night, despite its not being what the Prophet himself did (Allah bless him and give him peace), for though the Prophets practice of reciting from the whole Qur'an was superior, the mans act was within the general parameters of the sunna and there was nothing blameworthy about it in any case.
(6) Ahmad and Ibn Hibban relates from Abdullah ibn Burayda that his father said, I entered the mosque with the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), where a man was at prayer, supplicating: "O Allah, I ask You by the fact that I testify You are Allah, there is no god but You, the One, the Ultimate, who did not beget and was not begotten, and to whom none is equal", and the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "By Him in whose hand is my soul, he has asked Allah by His greatest name, which if He is asked by it He gives, and if supplicated He answers". It is plain that this supplication came spontaneously from the Companion, and since it conformed to what the Sacred Law calls for, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) confirmed it with the highest degree of approbation and acceptance, while it is not known that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) had ever taught it to him (Adilla Ahl al-Sunna wa'al-Jamaa, 119-33).
We are now able to return to the hadith with which I began my talk tonight, in which the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, ". . . Beware of matters newly begun, for every innovation is misguidance". And understand it as expounded by a classic scholar of Islam, Sheikh Muhammad Jurdani, who said:
"Beware of matters newly begun", distance yourselves and be wary of matters newly innovated that did not previously exist", i.e. things invented in Islam that contravene the Sacred Law, "for every innovation is misguidance" meaning that every innovation is the opposite of the truth, i.e. falsehood, a hadith that has been related elsewhere as: "for every newly begun matter is innovation, every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in hell" meaning that everyone who is misguided, whether through himself or by following another, is in hell, the hadith referring to matters that are not good innovations with a basis in Sacred Law. It has been stated (by Izz ibn Abd al-Salam) that innovations (bida) fall under the five headings of the Sacred Law (n: i.e. the obligatory, unlawful, recommended, offensive, and permissible):
(1) The first category comprises innovations that are obligatory , such as recording the Qur'an and the laws of Islam in writing when it was feared that something might be lost from them; the study of the disciplines of Arabic that are necessary to understand the Qur'an and sunna such as grammar, word declension, and lexicography; hadith classification to distinguish between genuine and spurious prophetic traditions; and the philosophical refutations of arguments advanced by the Mu'tazilites and the like.
(2) The second category is that of unlawful innovations such as non- Islamic taxes and levies, giving positions of authority in Sacred Law to those unfit for them, and devoting ones time to learning the beliefs of heretical sects that contravene the tenets of faith of Ahl al-Sunna.
(3) The third category consists of recommended innovations such as building hostels and schools of Sacred Law, recording the research of Islamic schools of legal thought, writing books on beneficial subjects, extensive research into fundamentals and particular applications of Sacred Law, in-depth studies of Arabic linguistics, the reciting of wirds (def: Reliance of the Traveller w20) by those with a Sufi path, and commemorating the birth (mawlid), of the Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) and wearing ones best and rejoicing at it.
(4) The fourth category includes innovations that are offensive, such as embellishing mosques, decorating the Qur'an and having a backup man (muballigh) loudly repeat the spoken Allahu Akbar of the imam when the latter's voice is already clearly audible to those who are praying behind him.
(5) the fifth category is that of innovations that are permissible, such as sifting flour, using spoons and having more enjoyable food, drink and housing. (al Jawahir al-luluiyya fi sharh al-Arbain al-nawawiyya, 220-21).
I will conclude my remarks tonight with a translation of Sheikh Abdullah al-Ghimari, who said: In his al-Qawaid al-kubra, "Izz ibn Abd al-Salam classifies innovations (bida), according to their benefit, harm, or indifference, into the five categories of rulings: the obligatory, recommended, unlawful, offensive, and permissible; giving examples of each and mentioning the principles of Sacred Law that verify his classification. His words on the subject display his keen insight and comprehensive knowledge of both the principles of jurisprudence and the human advantages and disadvantages in view of which the Lawgiver has established the rulings of Sacred Law.
Because his classification of innovation (bida) was established on a firm basis in Islamic jurisprudence and legal principles, it was confirmed by Imam Nawawi, Ibn Hajar Asqalani, and the vast majority of Islamic scholars, who received his words with acceptance and viewed it obligatory to apply them to the new events and contingencies that occur with the changing times and the peoples who live in them. One may not support the denial of his classification by clinging to the hadith "Every innovation is misguidance", because the only form of innovation that is without exception misguidance is that concerning tenets of faith, like the innovations of the Mutazilites, Qadarites, Murjiites, and so on, that contradicted the beliefs of the early Muslims. This is the innovation of misguidance because it is harmful and devoid of benefit. As for innovation in works, meaning the occurrence of an act connected with worship or something else that did not exist in the first century of Islam, it must necessarily be judged according to the five categories mentioned by Izz ibn Abd al-Salam. To claim that such innovation is misguidance without further qualification is simply not applicable to it, for new things are among the exigencies brought into being by the passage of time and generations, and nothing that is new lacks a ruling of Allah Most High that is applicable to it, whether explicitly mentioned in primary texts, or inferable from them in some way. The only reason that Islamic law can be valid for every time and place and be the consummate and most perfect of all divine laws is because it comprises general methodological principles and universal criteria, together with the ability its scholars have been endowed with to understand its primary texts, the knowledge of types of analogy and parallelism, and the other excellences that characterize it. Were we to rule that every new act that has come into being after the first century of Islam is an innovation of misguidance without considering whether it entails benefit or harm, it would invalidate a large share of the fundamental bases of Sacred Law as well as those rulings established by analogical reasoning, and would narrow and limit the Sacred Laws vast and comprehensive scope. (Adilla Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jamaa, 145-47).
Wa Jazakum Allahu khayran, wal-hamdu lillahi Rabbil Alamin.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Defending the Civilians: Mudafi' al-Mazlum

Nedenstaaende detaljerede gennemgang af ahkaam omkring drab paa civile af den malaysiske faqih Shaykh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti er tankevaekkende, der hersker indroemmet nogen ikhtilaaf paa omraadet men jeg haaber at enhver vil tage den tid det tager at laese den ret lange gennemgang igennem da den belyser mange af de vigtigste spoergsmaal ud fra en ikke bare shafee men traditionel islamisk vinkel.



Introduction by Gibril F Haddad

In the Name of God, the All-Beneficent, the Most Merciful.

Gentle reader, Peace upon those who follow right guidance!

I am honored to present the following fatwa or "response by a qualified
Muslim Scholar" against the killing of civilians by the Oxford-based Malaysian jurist of the Shafi`i School and my inestimable teacher, Shaykh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti, titled "Defending the Transgressed by Censuring the Reckless against the Killing of Civilians."

The Shaykh authored it in a few days, after I asked him to offer some guidance on the issue of targeting civilians and civilian centers by suicide bombing in response to a pseudo-fatwa by a deviant UK-based group which advocates such crimes.

Upon reading Shaykh Afifi's fatwa do not be surprised to find that you have probably never before seen such clarity of thought and expression together with breadth of knowledge of Islamic Law applied (by a non- native speaker) to define key Islamic concepts pertaining to the conduct of war and its jurisprudence, its arena and boundaries, suicide bombing, the reckless targeting of civilians, and more.

May it bode the best start to true education on the impeccable position of Islam squarely against terrorism in anticipation of the day all its culprits are brought to justice.

Dear Muslim reader, as-Salamu `alaykum wa-rahmatullah:

Read this luminous Fatwa by Shaykh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti carefully and learn it. Distribute it, publicize it, and teach it. Perhaps we will be counted among those who do something to redress wrong, not only with our hearts as we always do, but also with our tongues, in the fashion of the inspired teachers and preachers of truth.

I have tried to strike the keynote of this Fatwa in a few lines of free verse, mostly to express my thanks to our Teacher but also to seize the opportunity of such a long-expected response to remind myself of the reasons why I embraced Islam in the first place.


A TAQRIZ – HUMBLE COMMENDATION:

Praise to God Whose Law shines brighter than the sun!
Blessings and peace on him who leads to the abode of peace!
Truth restores honor to the Religion of goodness.
Patient endurance lifts the oppressed to the heights
While gnarling mayhem separates like with like:
The innocent victims on the one hand and, on the other,
Silver-tongued devils and wolves who try to pass for just!

My God, I thank You for a Teacher You inspired
With words of light to face down Dajjal's advocates.
Allah bless you, Ustadh Afifi, for _Defending the Transgressed
By Censuring the Reckless Against the Killing of Civilians_!
Let the powers that be and every actor-speaker high and low
Heed this unique Fatwa of knowledge and responsibility.

Let every lover of truth proclaim, with pride once more,
What the war-mongers try to bury under lies and bombs:
Islam is peace and truth, the Rule of Law, justice and right!
Murderous suicide is never martyrdom but rather perversion,
Just as no flag on earth can ever justify oppression.
And may God save us from all criminals, East and West!

By permission of Shaykh Afifi I have done some very light editing having
to do mostly with style, spelling, or punctuation such as standardizing
spacing between paragraphs, providing in-text translations of a couple
of Arabic supplications, adding quotation marks to mark out textual
citations, and so forth.

I also provided the following alphabetical glossary of arabic terms not
already glossed by the Shaykh directly in the text:


GLOSSARY

ahl = [1] people; [2] qualified adherents or practicioners
`aql = intellect, reason
`amal = deed
asl = see usul
bab = chapter
Banu Adam = human beings
dabit = see dawabit
darura = necessity
dawabit = pl. of dabit = standard or pricipal rule
Doctor Angelicus = Angel-like scholar or Scholar of the angels, a title
given to Thomas Aquinas, the great theologian of the Western Church.
da`i = summoner
dunya = this world
fa'ida = benefit
Faqih = see Fiqh
fard `ayn = personal categorical obligation
far`i = adj. from far`, see furu`
Fiqh = Islamic jurisprudence, the expertise of the Faqih
fitna = strife, temptation, seduction, delusion, chaos, trial and
tribulation
fitra = sane mind and soul, primordial disposition
Fuqaha' = pl. of Faqih (q.v.)
furu` = pl. of far`, [1] branches (of the Law), secondary legal texts;
[2] corollaries
hadith = saying of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him blessings and peace
halal = lawful, permitted
haram = categorically prohibited, unlawful
hukm shar`i = legal status
Iblis = Satan
Ihsan = Excellence, the pinnacle of religious practice
Ijma` = Consensus
insaf = fairness
Jama`a = congregation (of the Muslims)
Jamal al-Shuhada' = Beauty of Martyrs, the title of the murdered vizier
Nizam al-Mulk
Jihad = military or moral struggle by the Mujahid
khilaf = (juridical) disagreement
khilafiyya = fem. adjective from khilaf
= having to do with (juridical) disagreement
madhhab = school of law
makruh = detestable, abhorrent, abominable, disliked, legally offensive
maqasid = pl. of maqsad, objective
maqsad = see maqasid
masa'il = pl. of mas'ala = question
mas'ala = see masa'il
maslaha = welfare
mubah = indifferently permissible
mufassir = exegete
mufti = one who formulates fatwas or formal legal responses
mujahid = one who does jihad (q.v.)
mukallaf = legally-responsible Muslim
musharaka = mutual or reciprocal matter
nafs = ego, self
nasiha = faithful, sincere advice
qadaya = pl. of qadiyya = issue
qadi = judge in an Islamic court of law
qatil nafsahu = self-killer, suicide
qawl = saying, position
qital = warfare, battle
sabab al-wujud = raison d'etre
sabr = patient endurance and fortitude
shahid, pl. suhada' = self-sacrificing believer who dies for the sake of
God alone, "martyr"
shar`i = adj. legitimate in the eyes of the Shari`a (Islamic Law), lawful
siyar = military expeditions
sunna = way, path
tafakkur = reflexion
tafsil = detailed discussion
tahluka = self-destruction
thaghrir bi l-nafs = risking one's life
tawakkul = God-reliance
thawabit = pl. of thabit = axiom
Umma = Community (of the Prophet Muhammad )
usul = pl. of asl = foundational principle. Adj. usuli
wahm = imaginative faculty
wasa'il = pl. of wasila, means
wasila = see wasa'il

May Allah Subhan wa-Ta`ala save Shaykh Muhammad Afifi here and
hereafter, may He reward him and his teachers for this blessed work and
grant us its much-needed benefits, not least of which the redress of our
actions and beliefs for safety here and hereafter.

Blessings and peace on the Prophet, his Family, and all his Companions,
wal-Hamdu lillahi Rabb al-`Alamin.

G.F. Haddad
Day of Jumu`a after `Asr
1 Rajab al-Haram 1426
5 August 2005
Brunei Darussalam



SHAYKH AFIFI'S TEXT


Defending the Transgressed, by Censuring the Reckless against the Killing of Civilians
If you have time to address this delicate issue for the benefit of this mercied Umma which is reeling in fitna day in and day out, perhaps a few blessed words might use a refutation of the following text as a springboard?
I would like you to read the following article which highlights some of the problems we are facing, and why it is quite possible that young muslims turn to extremism. the article was issued by al-muhajiroun not long ago, headed by Omar Bakri Mohammed, and whatever our reservations about the man, it is the content I am more concerned about, and it is possibly these types of writings which need to be confronted head-on:


AQD UL AMAAN: THE COVENANT OF SECURITY

The Muslims living in the west are living under a covenant of security, it is not allowed for them to fight anyone with whom they have a covenant of security, abiding by the covenant of security is an important obligation upon all Muslims. However for those Muslims living abroad, they are not under any covenant with the kuffar in the west, so it is acceptable for them to attack the non-muslims in the west whether in retaliation for constant bombing and murder taking place all over the Muslim world at the hands of the non-muslims, or if it an offensive attack in order to release the Muslims from the captivity of the kuffar. For them, attacks such as the September 11th Hijackings is a viable option in Jihad, even though for the Muslims living in America who are under covenant, it is not allowed to do operations similar to those done by the magnificent 19 on the 9/11. This article speaks about the covenant and what the scholars have said regarding Al Aqd Al Amaan - the covenant of security. [...]

bismillahi r-rahman al-rahim

al-hamdulillah alladhi yahuddu l-harba wa-la yuhibbu l-mu'tadina wa s-salatu wa-s-salamu 'ala qa'idi l-ummah alladhi huwa asbaru 'ala adha l-a'da'i bi-futuwwatin kamilatin wa-muru'atin shamilatin wa-'ala alihi wa-ashabihi wa-jayshihi ajma'in!

{Praise be to God Who sets the boundaries of war and does not love transgressors! Blessings and peace on the Umma's leader, the most enduring of men in the face of the harm of enemies with perfect chivalry and complete manliness, and upon all his Family, Companions, and Army!}

This is a collection of masa'il, entitled:
Mudafi' al-Mazlum bi-Radd al-Muhamil 'ala Qital Man La Yuqatil
[Defending the Transgressed, by Censuring the Reckless against the Killing of Civilians]; written in response to the fitna reeling this mercied Umma, day in and day out, which is partly caused by those who, wilfully or not, misunderstand the legal discussions of the chapter on warfare outside their proper contexts [of which the technical Fiqh terminology varies with bab: Siyar, Jihad, or Qital], which have been used by them to justify their wrong actions. May Allah open our eyes to the true meaning [haqiqa] of sabr and to the fact that only through it can we successfully endure the struggles we face in this dunya, especially during our darkest hours; for indeed, He is with those who patiently endure tribulations!

There is no khilaf that all of the Shafi'i fuqaha' of today and other Sunni specialists in the Law from the Far East to the Middle East reject outright [mardud] the above opinion and consider it not only an anomaly [shadh] and very weak [wahin] but also completely wrong [batil] and a misguided innovation [bid'a dalala]: an 'amal that cannot at all be adopted by any mukallaf. It is regrettable too that the above was written in a legal style at which any doctor of the Law should be horrified and appalled (since it is an immature yet persuasive attempt to mask a misguided personal opinion with authority from Fiqh, and an effort to hijack our Fiqh by invoking one of its many qadaya of this bab while recklessly neglecting others). It should serve to remind the students of Fiqh of the importance of forming in one's mind and being aware throughout, of the thawabit and the dawabit when reading a furu' text, in order to ensure that those principal rules have not been breached in any given legal case.

The above opinion is problematic in three legal particulars: (1) the target [maqtul]: without doubt, civilians; (2) the authority for carrying out the killing [amir al-qital]: as no Muslim authority has declared war, or if there has been such a declaration there is at the time a ceasefire [hudna]; and (3) the way in which the killing is carried out [maqtul bih]: since it is either Haram and is also cursed as it is suicide [qatil nafsah], or at the very least doubtful [shubuhat] in a way such that it must be avoided by those who are religiously scrupulous [wara']. Any sane Muslim who would believe otherwise and think the above to be not a crime [jinaya] would be both reckless [muhmil] and deluded [maghrur]. Instead, whether he realizes it or not, by doing so he would be hijacking rules from our Sacred Law which are meant for the conventional (or authorized) army of a Muslim state and addressed to those with authority over it (such as the executive leader(s), the military commanders and so forth), but not to individuals who are not connected to the military or those without the political authority of the state [dawla].

The result in fiqh [Islamic jurisprudence] is: if a Muslim carries out such an attack voluntarily, he becomes a murderer and not a martyr or a hero, and he will be punished with that in the Next World.


I. The Target: Maqtul
The proposition: "so it is acceptable for them to attack the non-muslims in the west", where "non-Muslims" can be taken to mean, and indeed does mean in the document, non-combatants, civilians, or in the terminology of Fiqh: those who are not engaged in direct combat [man la yuqatilu].

This opinion violates a well known principal rule [Dabit] from our Law: "la yajUzu qatlu nisA'ihim wa-la SibyAnihim idhA lam yuqAtilU" [it is not permissible to kill their [i.e., the opponents'] women and children if they are not in (direct) combat], which is based on the Prophetic prohibition on soldiers from killing women and children, from the well known Hadith of Ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both!) related by Imams Malik, al-Shafi'i, Ahmad, al-Bukhari, Muslim, Ibn Majah, Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, al-Bayhaqi and al-Baghawi (may Allah be well pleased with them all!) and other Hadiths.

Imam al-Subki (may Allah be pleased with him!) made it unequivocally clear what scholars have understood from this prohibition in which the standard rule of engagement taken from it is that: "[a Muslim soldier] may not kill a woman nor a child soldier unless they are in combat directly, and they can only be killed in self-defence" [al-Nawawi, Majmu', 21:57].

It goes without saying that men and innocent bystanders who are not direct combatants are also included in this prohibition. The nature of this prohibition is so specific and well defined that there can be no legal justification, nor can there be a legitimate Shar'i excuse, for circumventing this convention of war by targeting non-combatants or civilians whatsoever, and that the Hukm Shar'i of killing them is not only Haram but also a Major Sin [kabira] and contravenes one of the principal commandments of our way of life.


II. The Authority: Amir al-Qital
The proposition: "so it is acceptable for them to attack the non-muslims in the west whether in retaliation for constant bombing and murder taking place all over the Muslim world at the hands of the non-muslims," where it implies that a state of war exist with this particular non-Muslim state on account of its being witnessed as the aggressor.

This opinion violates the most basic rules of engagement from our Law: "amru l-jihAdi mawkulun ila l-imAmi wa-ijtihAdihi wa-yalzamu r-ra'iyyata TA'atuhu fImA yarAhu min dhalika" [The question of declaring war [or not] is entrusted to the executive authority and to its decision: compliance with that decision is the subject's duty with respect to what the authority has deemed appropriate in that matter] and "wa-li-imamin aw amirin khiyarun bayna l-kaffi wa l-qitAli" [The executive or its subordinate authority has the option of whether to declare war or not].

Decisions of this kind for each Muslim state, such as those questions dealing with ceasefire ['aqd al-hudna], peace settlement ['aqd al-aman] and the judgment on prisoners of war [al-ikhtar fi asir] can only be dealt with by the executive or political authority [imam] or by a subordinate authority appointed by the former authority [amir mansubin min jihati l-imam]. This is something Muslims take for granted from the authority of our naql [scriptures] such that none will reject it except those who betray their 'aql [intellect]. The most basic legal reason ['illa asliyya] is that this is a matter involving the public interest in which only the authority has jurisdiction in considering it [li-anna hadhA l-amra mina l-masAliHi l-'Ammati allati yakhtassu l-imAmi bi-n-naZari fI-hA].

All of this is based on the well known legal principle:

taSarrufu l-imAmi 'ala r-ra'iyyati manUTun bi l-maSlaHati [the decisions of the authority on behalf of the subjects are dependent upon the public good].

And:

fa-yaf'alu l-imAmu wujUban al-aHaZZa li-l-muslimIna li-ijtihAdihi [So the authority must act for the greatest advantage of (the rest of) the Muslims in making his judgement].

!!!Nasiha!!! Uppermost in the minds of our authority during their deliberation over whether to wage war or not should be the awareness that war is only a means and not the end. Hence, if there are other ways of achieving the aim, and the highest aim is the right to practice our religion openly (as is indeed the case in modern day Spain, for example, unlike in medieval Reconquista Spain), then it is better [awla] not to go to war. This has been expressed in a few words by Imam al-Zarkashi (may Allah be pleased with him!) as:

wujUbuhu wujUbu l-wasA'ili lA l-maqASidi
[Its necessity is the necessity of means, not ends]

The upshot is, whether one likes it or not, that the decision and the discretion and the right to declare war or jihad for Muslims lies solely with the various authorities today represented by the respective Muslim states - and not with any individual, even if he is a scholar or a soldier – and not just anyone is a soldier or a scholar – in the same way that only an authority (such as the Qadi in a court of law: mahkamah) is the only one with the right to excommunicate or declare someone an apostate [murtad]. Otherwise, the killing would be extra-judicial and unauthorized.

Even during the period of the Ottoman caliphate, for example, another Muslim authority elsewhere such as in the Indian subcontinent could have been engaged in a war when at the same time the Khalifa's army was at peace with the same enemy. This is how it has been throughout our long history and this is how it will always be and this is what the reality is on the ground.


III. The Method: Maqtul bih
The proposition: "attacks such as the September 11th Hijackings is a viable option in Jihad," where such attacks employ a tactic – analogous to the Japanese "Kamikaze" missions during the Second World War – that have been described variously as self-sacrificing/martyrdom/suicide missions.

There is no question among scholars and there is no khilaf on this question by any Qadi, Mufti or Faqih, that this proposition and those who accept it are without doubt breaching the scholarly consensus [mukhalifun li-l-ijma'] of the Muslims since it resulted in the killing of non-combatants, and moreover, the proposition is an attempt to legitimize the killing of indisputable non-combatants.

As for the Kamikaze method and tactic in which it was carried out, there is a difference of opinion among some jurists as to whether it constitutes suicide, which is not only Haram but also cursed, or whether it does not. In this, there are further details. (Note that in all of the following cases, the target is assumed to be already legitimate – i.e., a valid military target – and that the action is carried out during a valid war when there is no ceasefire [fi hal al-harb wa-la l-hudna fihi], just as with the actual circumstance of the Japanese Kamikaze attacks.)

Tafsil I: If the attack involves a bomb* placed on the body or placed so close to the bomber that when the bomber detonates it the bomber is certain [yaqin] to die, then the More Correct Position [Qawl Asahh] according to us is that it does constitute suicide. This is because the bomber, being also the Maqtul [the one killed], is unquestionably the same Qatil [the immediate/active agent that kills] = Qatil Nafsahu.

##Furu'## If the attack involves a bomb (such as the lobbing of a grenade and the like) but when it is detonated, the attacker thinks that it is uncertain [zann] whether he may die in the process or survive the attack, then the Correct Position [Qawl Sahih] is that this does not constitute suicide, and were he to die in this selfless act, he becomes what we call a martyr or hero [shahid]. This is because the attacker, were he to die, is not the active, willing agent of his own death, since the Qatil is probably someone else.

An example [sura] of this is: when in its right place and circumstance, such as in the midst of an ongoing fierce battle against an opponent's military unit, whether ordered by his commanding officer or whether owing to his own initiative, the soldier makes a lone charge and as a result of that initiative manages to turn the tide of the day's battle but dies in the process (and not intentionally at his own hand): that soldier died as a hero (and this circumstance is precisely the context of becoming a shahid – in Islamic terminology – as he died selflessly). If he survives, he wins a Medal of Honour and becomes an honoured war hero and is remembered as a famous patriot (in our terminology, becoming a true mujahid).

This is precisely the context of the mas'ala concerning the "lone charger" [al-hajim al-wahid] and the meaning of putting one's life in danger [al-taghrir bi-l-nafs] found in all of the Fiqh chapters concerning warfare. The Umma's Doctor Angelicus, Imam al-Ghazali (may Allah be pleased with him!) provides the best impartial summation:

"If it is said: What is the meaning of the words of the Most High:
"wa-lA tulqU bi-aydIkum ila t-tahlukati"
[and do not throw into destruction by your own hands!]
(al-Baqara, 2:195) ?

"We say: There is no difference [of opinion amongst scholars] that regarding the lone Muslim [soldier] who charges into the battle-lines of the [opposing] non-Muslim [army that is presently in a state of war with his army and is facing them in a battle] and fights [them] even if he knows that he will almost certainly be killed – a case misconstruable to be against the requirements of the Verse, that it is not so. Indeed, Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be well pleased with both of them!) says: [the meaning of] "destruction" is not that [incident]. Instead, [its meaning] is to neglect providing [adequate] supplies [nafaqa: for the military campaign; and in the modern context, the state should provide for the arms and equipment, for example, for which all of this is done] in obedience to God [as in the first part of the Verse which says: "wa-anfiqU fI sabIli LlAhi" [And spend for the sake of God] (al-Baqara, 2:195)]. That is, those who fail to do that will destroy themselves. [In another Sahabi authority:] al-Bara' Ibn 'Azib [al-Ansari (may Allah be well pleased with them both!)] says: [the meaning of] "destruction" is [a Muslim] committing a sin and then saying: 'my repentance will not be accepted'. [A Tabi'i authority] Abu 'Ubayda says: it [the meaning of "destruction"] is to commit a sin and then not perform a good deed after it before he perishes. [Ponder over this!]

"In the same way that it is permissible [for the Muslim soldier in the incident above] to fight the non-Muslim [army] until he is killed [in the process], that [extent and consequence] is also permissible for him [i.e., the enforcer of the Law, since the 'a'id (antecedent) here goes back to the original pronoun [damir al-asl] for this bab: the muhtasib or enforcer, such as the police] in [matters of] law enforcement [hisba].

"However, [note the following qualification (qayd):] were he to know [zanni] that his charge will not cause harm to the non-Muslim [army], such as the blind or the weak throwing himself into the [hostile] battle-lines, then it is prohibited [Haram] and [this latter incident] is included under the general meaning ['umum] of "destruction" from the Verse [for in this case, he will be literally throwing himself into destruction].

"It would only be permissible for him to advance [and suffer the consequences] if he knows that he will be able to fight [effectively] until he is killed, or knows that he will be able to demoralize the hearts and minds of the non-Muslim [army]: by their witnessing his courage and by their conviction that the rest of the Muslim [army] are [also] selfless [qilla al-mubala] in their loyalty to sacrifice for the sake of God. By this, their will to fight [shawka] will become demoralized [and so this may cause panic and rout them and thereby be the cause of their battle-lines to collapse]."

[al-Ghazali, Ihya', 2:354].


It is clear that this selfless deed which any modern soldier, Muslim or non-Muslim, might perform in battle today is not suicide. It may hyperbolically be described as a 'suicidal' attack, but to endanger one's life is one thing and to commit suicide during the attack is obviously another. And as the passage shows, it is possible to have both situations: an attack that is taghrir bi-l-nafs, which is not prohibited; and an attack that is of the tahluka-type, which is prohibited.

Tafsil II: If the attack involves ramming a vehicle into a military target and the attacker is certain to die, precisely like the historical Japanese Kamikaze missions, then our jurists have disagreed whether it does or does not constitute suicide.

Qawl A: Those who consider it a suicide argue that there is the possibility [zanni] that the Maqtul is the same as the Qatil (as in Tafsil I above) and would therefore not allow for any other qualification whatsoever since suicide is a cursed sin.

Qawl B: Whereas those who consider otherwise, even with the possibility that the Maqtul is the same Qatil, will allow some other qualification such as the possibility that by carrying it out the battle of the day could be won. There are further details in this alternative position, such as that the commanding officer does not have the right to command anyone under him to perform this dangerous mission so that were it to be sanctioned, it could only be when it is not under anyone else's orders other than the lone initiative of the concerned soldier (such as in defiance of the standing orders of his commanding officer).

The first of the two positions is the Preferred Position [Muttajih] among our jurists, as the second is the rarer because of the vagueness of a precedent, and its legal details are fraught with further difficulties and ambiguities, and its opposing position [muqabil] carries such a weighty consequence (namely, that of suicide, for which there is Ijma' that the one who commits suicide will be damned to committing it eternally forever).

In addition to this juristic preference, the first position is also preferable and better since it is the original or starting state [Asl], and by invoking the well known and accepted legal principle: al-khurUju mina l-khilAfi mustaHabbun [to avoid the controversy is preferable].

Finally, the first position is religiously safer, since owing to the ambiguity itself of the legal status of the person performing the act – whether it will result in the Maqtul being also the Qatil – and since there is doubt and uncertainty over the possibility of it either being or not being the case, then this position falls under the type of doubtful matters [shubuhat] of the kind [naw'] that should be avoided by those who are religiously scrupulous [wara']. And here, the wisdom of our wise Prophet may Allah's blessings and peace be upon him! is illuminated from the Hadith of al-Nu'man may Allah be well pleased with him!):

"fa-mani ttaqA sh-shubuhAti istabra'a li-dInihi wa 'irDihi"
[He who saves himself from doubtful matters will save his religion and his honour] (Related by Ahmad, al-Bukhari, Muslim, al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, al-Tabarani, and al-Bayhaqi with variants.)

wallahu a'lam bi-s-sawab!

*Fa'ida* The original ruling [al-Asl] for using a bomb (the medieval precedents: Greek fire [qital bi l-nar or ramy al-naft] and catapults [manjaniq]) as a weapon is that it is Makruh [offensive] because it kills indiscriminately [ya'ummu man yuqatilu wa-man la yuqatilu], as opposed to using rifles (medieval example: a single bow and arrow). If the indiscriminate weapon is used in a place where there are civilians, it becomes Haram except when used as a last resort [min darura] (and of course, by those military personnel authorised to do so).

From the consideration of the foregoing three legal particulars, it is evident that the opinion expressed regarding the 'amal in the above article is untenable by the standards of our Sacred Law.

As to those who may still be persuaded by it and suppose that the 'amal is something that can be excused on the pretext that there is scholarly khilaf on the details of Tafsil II from the third particular (and that therefore, the 'amal itself could at the end of the day be accommodated by invoking the guiding principle that one should be flexible with regards to legal controversies [masa'il khilafiyya] and to agree to disagree); know then there is no khilaf among scholars that that rationale does not stand, since it is well known that:

lA yunkaru l-mukhtalafu fIhi wa-innamA yunkaru l-mujma'u 'alayhi
[The controversial cannot be denied; only {breach of} the unanimous can be denied]

Since at the very least, it is agreed upon by all that killing non-combatants is prohibited, there is no question whatsoever that the 'amal overall is outlawed.

???Masa'il Mufassala??? If it is said: "I have heard that Islam says the killing of civilians is allowed if they are non-Muslims."

We say: On a joking note (but ponder over this so your hearts may be opened!): the authority is not with what Islam says but with what Allah (Exalted is He) and His Messenger may His blessings and peace be upon him! - have said!

But seriously: the answer is absolutely NO, for even a novice student of Fiqh would be able to see that the first Dabit above concerns already a non-Muslim opponent in the case of a state of war having been validly declared by a Muslim authority against a particular non-Muslim enemy even when that civilian is a subject or in the care [dhimma] of the hostile non-Muslim state [Dar al-Harb]. If this is the extent of the limitation to be observed with regards to non-Muslim civilians associated with a declared enemy force, what higher standards will it be in cases if it is not a valid war or when the status of war becomes ambiguous? Keep in mind that there are more than 100 Verses in the Qur'an commanding us at all times to be patient in the face of humiliation and to turn away from violence [al-i'rad 'ani l-mushrikin wa l-sabr 'ala adha l-a'da'], while there is only one famous Verse in which war (which does not last forever) becomes an option (in our modern context: for a particular Muslim authority and not an individual), when a particular non-Muslim force has drawn first blood.

If it is said: "What about the verse of the Qur'an which says 'kill the unbelievers wherever you find them' and the Sahih Hadith which says 'I have been ordered to fight against the people until they testify ... '?"

We say: It is well known among scholars that the following verse, "fa-qtulU l-mushrikIna Haythu wajad-tumUhum" [kill the idolaters wherever you find them] (al-Tawba, 9:5) is in reference to a historical episode: those among the Meccan Confederates who breached the Treaty of Hudaybiyya [Sulh al-Hudaybiyya] which led to the Conquest of Mecca, and that therefore, no legal rulings, or in other words, no practical or particular implications can be derived from this Verse on its own. The Divine Irony and indeed Providence from the last part of the Verse, "wherever you find them" – which many of our Mufassirs understood in reference to place (i.e., attack them whether inside the Sacred Precinct or not) – is that the victory against the Meccans happened without a single battle taking place, whether inside the Sacred Precinct or otherwise, rather, there was a general amnesty [wa-mannun 'alayhi bi-takhliyati sabilihi or naha 'an safki d-dima'] for the Jahili Arabs there. Had the Verse not been subject to a historical context, then you should know that it is of the general type ['amm] and that it will therefore be subject to specification [takhsis] by some other indication [dalil]. Its effect in lay terms, were it not related to the Jahili Arabs, is that it can only refer to a case during a valid war when there is no ceasefire.

Among the well known exegeses of "al-mushrikin" from this verse are: "al-nakithina khassatan" [specifically, those who have breached (the Treaty)] [al-Nawawi al-Jawi, Tafsir, 1:331]; "alladhina yuharibunakum" [those who have declared war against you] [Qadi Ibn 'Arabi, Ahkam al-Qur'an, 2:889]; and "khassan fi mushkriki l-'arabi duna ghayrihim" [specifically, the Jahili Arabs and not anyone else] [al-Jassas, Ahkam al-Qur'an, 3:81].

As for the meaning of "people" [al-nas] in the above well related Hadith, it is confirmed by Ijma', that it refers to the same "mushrikin" as in the Verse of Sura al-Tawba above and therefore what is meant there is only the Jahili Arabs [muskhriku l-'arab] during the closing days of the Final Messenger and the early years of the Righteous Caliphs and not even to any other non-Muslims.

In sum, we are not in a perpetual state of war with non-Muslims. On the contrary, the original legal status [al-Asl] is a state of peace, and making a decision to change this status belongs only to a Muslim authority who will in the Next World answer for their ijtihad and decision, and this decision is not divinely charged to any individuals – not even soldiers or scholars (and to believe otherwise would go against the well known rule in our Law that a Muslim authority could seek help from a non-Muslim with certain conditions, including for example that the non-Muslim allies are of goodwill towards the Muslims [la-yast'Inu bi-mushkrikin illA bi-shurUTin ka-an takUna niyyatuhu Hasanatan li-l-muslimIna]).

If it is said: "I have heard a scholar say that 'Israeli women are not like women in our society because they are militarised'. By implication, this means that they fall into the category of women who fight and that this makes them legitimate targets but only in the case of Palestine."

We say: No properly schooled jurists from any of the four schools would s