We must think in order to penetrate the Qur’an

 

The Qur’an, Dajjal and the Jasad

 

We must think in order to penetrate the Qur’an

 

Our readers must be reminded that Allah Most High has sent the Qur’an to a people who would think in such a way as to seek to penetrate the inner meanings of the Qur’an:

(Qur’an, al-Hijr, 15:75)

Verily, in all this there is knowledge for those who can read the signs. 

 

Muhammad Asad comments on this verse as follows:

In its full significance, the term Mutawassim denotes “one who applies his mind to the study of the outward appearance of a thing with a view to understanding its real nature and its inner characteristics” (Zamakhshari and Razi).

 

It should be as plain as daylight to those who think, that Allah Most High sent the Ayat Mutashabihat of the Qur’an so that the believers would be forced to think in order to so penetrate them that they might be understood. The believers are obliged to do so even though Allah Most High has declared (see above) that He alone can confirm that an interpretation of the Qur’an is correct. 

 

There are several implications which emerge from the above verse of the Qur’an. The first, and most important, is that if the Ayat Mutashabihat are to be ever penetrated and correctly understood, the Qur’an must be studied as a harmonious and integrated whole—and not as disparate parts. Indeed, Allah Most High has specifically condemned those who break-up the Qur’an into disparate parts since such a methodology will never deliver the endless knowledge and wisdom that the Qur’an has to offer:

 

(Qur’an, al-Hijr, 15:90-3)

Previous revelations suffered the fate of being broken into parts, and now even with this Qur’an as well they seek to shred it into parts. But, by thy Lord-God! On the Day of Judgment We shall indeed call them to account, one and all, for whatever they have done!

 

The second implication is that the student must never approach the Ayat Mutashabihat of the Qur’an in search of interpretations which can be used to support his sectarian agenda. Not only would such a methodology fail to deliver the correct interpretation of such verses but, in addition, such a student would commit an act of disrespect to the Qur’an. This book advises those who identify with sectarian movements that they should desist from approaching the Qur’an in search of that which they can use to support their sectarian agenda. 

 

In other words, when a believer approaches the Qur’an in order to study it, he must shed his sectarian identity and study it as a plain and simple Muslim. Only such a student can successfully study the Qur’an.  

 

This writer offers a gentle challenge to those who defend that Salafi methodology and are hence obliged to look for an explanation of the Jasad in the Qur’an, who sits on Solomon’s throne pbuh, through a methodology that is different from that used in this book, to respond to the views herein expressed concerning the Jasad. 

 

This writer also asks: why has the Dar al-‘Ulum also abandoned the serious study of the Qur’an? Where is the evidence that graduates of the Dar al-‘Ulum are ever invited to think and ponder over the Qur’an in the process of truly studying the Book? The sad reality is that they graduate from the Dar al-‘Ulum bereft of knowledge of even the methodology for study of the Qur’an. 

 

This book is therefore written with the specific purpose of inviting—respectfully so—a scholarly response to our views expressed on this subject of the Jasad, from those who defend the Salafi methodology, as well as from those who defend the method by which the Qur’an is taught and studied in the Dar al-‘Ulum.

 

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