Rejection of Sectarianism

METHODOLOGY FOR STUDY OF THE QUR'AN 

by Sheikh Imran Nazar Hosein

www.imranhosein.org

Rejection of Sectarianism

In the Pakistan in which Maulānā lived there were two major sects, Deobandis and Brelvis, who were locked in mortal and foolish sectarian combat with each other. Then there was the Ahl al-Hadīth sect, the Wahhabis, as well as Tablīgh Jamaat, and finally there were several groups within the Shia sect. He rejected all sects and refused to be identified with any of them, while steadfastly upholding the imperative of Muslim unity based on fidelity and adherence to the Qur’ān and, to the extent that it was in harmony with the Qur’ān, the Hadīth as well.    

He did identify himself as Sunni, but he did not recognize Sunni Islam as a sect. Rather, the term Sunni was coined in order that the main body of Muslims might respond to Shia sectarianism. He chose dynamic orthodoxy as the only road to salvation for the world of Islam: 

In the dynamic orthodoxy that has thus emerged lies, in the belief of the present writer,  the salvation of Muslims and of humanity at large. 

(QFSMS, Vol. 1, p. XXII) 

It must have taken an immense amount of courage for him to publicly declare, as he did on countless occasions: “I am not Deobandi, and I am not Brelvi, and I am not Ahles Hadīth, and I am not Wahhabi. I am Muslim!” The consequence was that all the sects rejected him, and he was left all alone in Pakistan to preach and to teach only those who would listen to him. Those, on the other hand, who brandished their Deobandi and Brelvi swords with relish, were adored by the masses. 

Maulānā rejected all divisions in the House of Islam based on Āhadīth, and was thus quite forthright in his rejection of the emergence of a Shia sect based on beliefs which largely depended on Āhadīth rather than the Qur’ān. For example, the main Shia belief which separated them from the rest of the Muslims, is the belief in the Imamate. They believe that Allah Most High designated the Ahl al-Bayt, i.e., the House of Muhammad (s) to succeed him in leadership of the community of Muslims. The first such successor was ‘Alī (r) himself. They therefore believe, with considerable pain and anger, that the over-whelming majority of Muslims chose, mysteriously so, to reject the appointment of ‘Alī (r) as the leaders, one after the other, as the leaders of the Muslim community. They were accused of being usurpers. 

Maulānā’s view was that the belief-system of Islam had to come from the Qur’ān: “… that it is not the function of the Hadīth literature – however valuable its role otherwise, but only of the Qur’ān, to lay down the constitutive factors of the Islamic Creed” (QFSMS, Vol. 1, p. xxvi).  

The belief in the Imamate was based entirely on alleged Āhadīth and could not be established from the Āyāt Muhkamāt of the Qur’ān. Hence it could not be admitted as part of the system of beliefs in Islam; rather, its claim to be a part of that belief-system had to be rejected. 

However Maulānā never considered the Shia to be outside of the House of Islam; rather, they were Muslims. In this matter of relationship with the Shia, he followed the way of his teacher and spiritual master, Maulānā Abdul Aleem Siddiqui (r), who maintained friendly ties with the Shia despite his rejection of their Imamate theory. 

Source: Sheikh Imran Nazar Hosein

to be continued .....

A Spiritual Bond with Nabi Muhammad (a)

METHODOLOGY FOR STUDY OF THE QUR'AN 

by Sheikh Imran Nazar Hosein

www.imranhosein.org

A Spiritual Bond with Nabī Muhammad (s)

Maulānā spent a great deal of time explaining that Nabī Muhammad (s) was not a postman whose function was simply to deliver the package of Islam and then to say goodbye and go on his way. Rather, he has an abiding role to play in the lives of believers, even after he died and left this world. The proof of this is to be found in the Qur’ān where all Muslims, for all times to come, are ordered to send salutations and greetings of peace on him, even after he is no longer in this world: 

“Lo!  Allah and His angels shower blessings on the Prophet. O ye who believe! Ask blessings on him and salute him with a worthy salutation.”  

(Qur’ān, al-Ahzāb, 33:56)  

The very clear implication of the above is that Nabī Muhammad (s) is alive in another world, and that he receives the salutations sent to him by the believers. But it has always been the belief of those who follow the religion of Nabī Ibrāhīm (Abraham (a), that there is life beyond death. If the Prophet (s) is alive in another world, and we are commanded to send salutations on him which he receives, then it is possible that he has abiding roles to play in the religious life of a believer even after his death and departure from this world. Does the Qur’ān offer any guidance on this subject? 

The Qur’ān does speak about the role and mission of the Prophet (s) in communicating the divine guidance and revelations to a non-Jewish people (i.e., the Arabs) who were hitherto living in manifest error, in purifying them, and in teaching them the Book (i.e., the revealed scripture) and wisdom. But then it went on to speak of a people who would come at a later time, who have as yet no contact with the Prophet (s), for whom he will also perform the same role and function: 

“He it is Who hath sent among the unlettered ones a messenger of their own, to recite unto them His revelations and to make them grow, and to teach them the Scripture and Wisdom, though heretofore they were indeed in error manifest, 

“Along with others of them who have not yet joined them. He is the Mighty, the Wise.”  

(Qur’ān, al-Jumu’āh, 62:2-3) 

There are two amazing implications which emerge from the above verses of the Qur’ān. The first is that, by divine planning, no one can by-pass either the Qur’ān or Nabī Muhammad (s) and yet penetrate ‘truth’ in its totality (i.e., the complete truth that is accessible to human beings). And it is for this reason that the Qur’ān has no direct mention in it of Dajjāl. It is by divine wisdom that the world has only one means of acquiring comprehensive knowledge of Dajjāl, and that is from the Āhadīth of the Nabī Muhammad (s). It is only through the Āhadīth on Dajjāl that we can recognize and identify the references to Dajjāl in the Qur’ān. 

The second implication is that Islamic scholarship (among others) in Ākhir al-Zamān (i.e., the End-time) is destined to receive from Nabī Muhammad (s), something of what those who lived at his time also received from him. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why he spoke about the End-time Muslims in the way that he did: 

›

“My Ummah (i.e., community) is like the rain. I do not know which (shower) is better – the first or the last.”  

(Jāmi’ al-Tirmīdhī) 

We do not claim that scholars will be the only ones who might qualify to be amongst such people, however since the Prophet (s) declared that the Ulamā (i.e., scholars) are “inheritors of the Prophets” (inheriting a special role in post-prophetic history and a status appropriate to that role), the implication is that they must be included amongst those who will have that special End-time blessing.  

Source: Sheikh Imran Nazar Hosein

to be continued .....

The Imperative of Islamic Spirituality

METHODOLOGY FOR STUDY OF THE QUR'AN 

by Sheikh Imran Nazar Hosein

www.imranhosein.org

The Imperative of Islamic Spirituality

Maulānā Ansārī identified himself as a Sufi Shaikh in the Aleemiyah-Qaderiyyah Spiritual Order. His spiritual mentor, Maulānā Muhammad (s) ‘Abdul ‘Aleem al-Siddiqui, was also a Sufi Shaikh in several Sufi Spiritual Orders. (I also identified myself with Sufism all my life until I found that I could not pursue my humble efforts in Islamic eschatology if I had to defend Sufi religious beliefs and practices which were not clearly based on the Qur’ān and Sunnah, or way of life of the Prophet  (s). 

Maulānā Ansārī recognized Sufism or Tasawwuf to be the very heart of the religion of Islam, but he preferred the term al-Ihsān, used in the Hadīth, for the spiritual quest, and the same Hadīth clearly depicted ‘internal vision’ to be the very heart of al-Ihsān. Hence the heart of Sufism was ‘internal vision’: 

In Islamic terminology the term that emerges for the religious quest is al-Ihsān,  as laid explicitly in Bukhāri’s Sahīh: “… he (the enquirer) asked: ‘What is al-Ihsān? (To that) he (the Holy Prophet) replied: ‘It is to pursue the System of Obedience to Allah as if you are seeing Him (i.e., with the inner vision of ‘ Divine Presence’); but if it is not possible for you to see Him (inside your consciousness), then (this reality should remain thoroughly in your mind that) He is seeing you’.” 

(Qur’anic Foundations, Vol. 1, p. 140) 

The goal or objective of the spiritual quest in Islam is al-Basīrah which becomes possible when the rational faculty is enriched by internal intuitive spiritual insight. That insight, in turn, becomes possible when Allah Most High bestows Nūr or light, to the heart of the believer.  

The Qur’ān refers to al-Basīrah in the following verse: 

Say [O Prophet]: “This is my way: Resting upon conscious insight accessible to reason, I am calling [you all] unto Allah - I and they who follow me.” And [say:] “Limitless is Allah in His glory; and I am not one of those who ascribe divinity to aught beside Him!”  

(Qur’ān, Yūsuf, 12:108) 

The above is Muhammad (s) Asad’s translation of the verse. Maulānā Ansari translates the verse slightly differently: 

Say (O Muhammad (s)!): This is my way: I do invite unto Allah, – on  evidence as clear as seeing with one’s eyes, – I and whoever follows me (practically). Glory to Allah! And I am not of those who join Gods with Allah”. (Yūsuf, 12:108) 

(Qur’anic Foundations, Vol. 1 p 139-40) 

Basīrah is thus something which is so evident, or is presented in such a way that it can be perceived ‘as plain as daylight’. The Sufi is thus someone who develops the capacity to present the ‘truth’ with Basīrah, or in such a manner that it would be as plain as daylight that it is ‘truth’. People who develop that capacity are referred to in the Qur’ān as Ulul absār, or the people of Basar. Nabī Ibrāhīm (Abraham), Nabī Ishāq (Isaac) and Nabī Y’aqūb (Jacob) (a) are described as people of Absār.  The Sufis are those who are described in the Qur’ān as Ulul absār or people with (spiritual) insight who see with both the external and the internal eyes: 

“And call to mind Our servants Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, [all of them] endowed with inner strength and inner vision.” 

(Qur’ān, Sād, 38:45) 

The Qur’ān invited mankind to ponder and reflect with ‘internal insight’ upon the fate of those who followed earlier revelation and who not only rejected the Qur’ān and Nabī Muhammad (s), but also waged war on Islam. They paid a price for their hostility:    

“He it is who turned out of their homes, at the time of [their] first gathering [for war], such of the followers of earlier revelation as were bent on denying the truth. You did not think [O believers] that they would depart [without resistance] – just as they thought that their strongholds would protect them against Allah: but Allah came upon them in a manner which they had not expected, and cast terror into their hearts; [and thus] they destroyed their homes by their own hands as well as the hands of the believers; learn a lesson, then, O you who are endowed with insight!”  

(Qur’ān, al-Hashr, 59:2) 

The Qur’ān again referred to Basīrah (in the sense of gaining insight) in an enigmatic verse in which a mysterious Sāmirī (that is his name) explained to Nabī Mūsa (Moses (a) his reason for forging a golden calf, and then getting the Israelites to worship it: 

He answered: “I have gained insight into something which they were unable to see (i.e., with the internal eye): and so I took hold of a handful of the Apostle’s teachings and cast it away: for thus has my mind prompted me [to act].”  

(Qur’ān, Tā Hā, 20:96)  

In another verse the Qur’ān used the word Basīrah in the sense of that which provokes someone to gain insight: 

Answered [Moses]: “You know well that none but the Lord God of the heavens and the earth has bestowed these [miraculous signs] from on high, as a means of [provoking] insight [for you]; and, verily, O Pharaoh, [since you have chosen to reject them;] I think that you art utterly lost! ”  

(Qur’ān, al-Isrā, 17:102)  

But the Qur’ān also uses the word Basīrah for actual physical vision, as in the following verse where Yūsuf (a) asked his brothers to place his shirt over his blind father’s eyes, and this would restore his vision:  

“[And now] go and take this tunic of mine and lay it over my father’s face, and he will recover his sight. And thereupon come [back] to me with all your family.” 

(Qur’ān, Yūsuf, 12:93) 

In the verses below, the Qur’ān refers to both internal and external sight at the same time: 

Say: “Can the blind and the seeing be deemed equal? Will you not, then, take thought?” 

(Qur’ān, al-An’ām, 6:50) 

[And so,  on Resurrection Day, the sinner] will ask:  “O my Lord-God!  Why have You raised me up blind,  whereas [on earth] I was endowed with sight?” 

(Qur’ān, Tā Hā, 20:125)

Our conclusion is that the Qur’ān has used the term Basīrah to mean both external and internal sight; and since the Qur’ān goes on in the verses below to describe the totality of divine revelation as Basāir, which is the plural of Basīrah, the implication is that one of the primary functions of Islamic spirituality is to deliver the internal intuitive spiritual insight which, in conjunction with the rational faculty, delivers that capacity with which a believer can penetrate and understand the Qur’ān:   

Means of insight have now come unto you from your Lord God [through this divine writ]. Whoever, therefore, chooses to see,  does so for his own good; and whoever chooses to remain blind, does so to his own hurt. And [say unto the blind of heart]: “I am not your keeper.”  

(Qur’ān, al-An’ām, 6:104) 

And yet, when you [O Prophet] do not produce any miracle for  them, some [people] say, “Why do you not seek to obtain it [from Allah]? Say: “I only follow whatever is being revealed to me by my Lord-God: this [revelation] is a means of insight from your Lord-God, and a guidance and grace unto people who will believe.  

(Qur’ān, al-’Arāf, 7:203) 

What is the precise role that Basīrah plays in the study of the Qur’ān, and hence how important is Sufism/Tasawwuf/al-Ihsān for the study of the Qur’ān and for penetrating the greatest of all Fitnah, i.e., the Fitnah of Dajjāl? Maulānā’s response was to quote the Hadīth in which the blessed Prophet (s) warned as follows: 

“Fear the Firāsah (or wisdom that comes from that spiritual insight) of the one who has faith, for he surely sees with Allah’s Light.” 

(Narrated by Abū Saīd al-Khudrī and recorded in Tirmīdhi’s Jāmi’, Hadīth number 3419. Book of Tafsīr al-Qur’ān). 

The specific role that Basīrah plays in delivering the Firāsah with which to penetrate the Qur’ān and to thus respond to Dajjāl, is located in Maulānā’s methodology for the study of the Qur’ān. Having directed attention to the supreme epistemological importance of al-Ihsān and the Basīrah and Firāsah which it delivers, and disposed of all challenges to the status and integrity of the Qur’ān, Maulānā was able to deliver his greatest contribution to Islamic thought, i.e., methodology for the study of the Qur’ān, and we have written a book to explain that methodology in as comprehensive a way as is possible. Basīrah plays a very important role in that methodology. 

Source: Sheikh Imran Nazar Hosein

to be continued .....

Gog and Magog

METHODOLOGY FOR STUDY OF THE QUR'AN 

by Sheikh Imran Nazar Hosein

www.imranhosein.org

Gog and Magog

It was in the early 90’s when I was still based in New York, that I arrived at an interpretation of a crucially important verse of the Qur’ān concerning the identity of Gog and Magog, and I was quietly confident that my interpretation was correct. But since I could not find any other scholar who had interpreted the verse the way that I did, I found myself in a unique and precarious position.

My view was that the Qur’ān referred to Jerusalem when it declared, in Verses 95 and 96 of Sūrah al-Anbiyāh, that Allah Most High had destroyed a ‘town’, had expelled its people, and had banned their return (to the town to reclaim it as their own) until Gog and Magog were released, and they had spread out in all directions, or descended from every height: 

“We have prohibited the return of a people to a town which we have destroyed, 

(21:95) 

Until Gog and Magog are released, and they spread out in all directions (or descend from every height).” 

(Qur’ān, al-Anbiyāh, 21:95-6) 

This interpretation of the Qur’ān, in which I identified the ‘town’ as Jerusalem, allowed me to go on to recognize the presence of Gog and Magog in the Judeo Christian Zionist alliance in modern western civilization, since they were the ones responsible for bringing the Jews back to Jerusalem to reclaim it as their own some 2000 years after Allah had expelled them from that town and had banned such return.  

It was only after I had interpreted the ‘town’ as Jerusalem, was the road opened for me to write my bestselling book entitled ‘Jerusalem in the Qur’ān’.

A few months after I had identified the ‘town’ as Jerusalem, I picked up a booklet from the books of Maulānā’s personal library which had been gifted to me after I married his daughter. It was written by Ebrahīm Ahmad Bāwāny, a Pakistani businessman (r), and was entitled ‘Gog Magog and the State of Israel’. I was absolutely astonished to find at the very beginning of the booklet that Bāwāny had not only quoted the two verses of Sūrah al-Anbiyāh which made mention of Gog and Magog, but had also identified the ‘town’ as Jerusalem. Bāwāny went on to explain in the Preface to the booklet that he was indebted to the Islamic scholar, Maulānā Dr. Muhammad (s) Fazlur Rahmān Ansārī, who not only explained the subject of Gog and Magog to him, but also, and of crucial importance to us, he identified the ‘town’ in Sūrah al-Anbiyāh: 95-96, as Jerusalem.  

Commenting on the two verses of Sūrah al-Anbiyāh’ and to the ‘town’, Bāwāny declared as follows: “we firmly believe (and for which we have advanced solid arguments in the following pages) that this Ayah refers in particular to the city of Jerusalem …” (p. 2). He went on to declare: “Thus the Ayah of the Holy Qur’ān (i.e. al-Anbiyāh’: 95-96), beyond doubt, relates to the establishment of the State of Israel by the connivance and support of the powers of Gog and Magog.” (p. 3). He also acknowledged his debt to Maulānā Muhammad (s) Fazlur Rahman Ansari, “whose interpretation and explanation of the Ayāt relating to the return of the people to the city which was destroyed, referred to in the preceding pages, inspired me to make research and to write on the subject” (p. iii).  

The  booklet was published in August 1967 by the Begum Aisha Bāwāny Wakf in Karachi, Pakistan, and so Maulānā must have arrived at the interpretation of the ‘town’ as Jerusalem, a few decades before I did. We do not know how he arrived at his interpretation, but we can assume that it was his methodology for the study of the Qur’ān which delivered this astonishing fruit to him.  

Since he (correctly) identified the ‘town’ as Jerusalem, the implication must be that Maulānā had also easily identified the presence of Gog and Magog in the Judeo-Christian Zionist alliance in the modern world, and was thus well-placed to pioneer Islamic eschatology as a new branch of knowledge in Islam. It will forever remain an agonizing mystery why he chose not to do so.  

I remained his student for seven years, and it may perhaps be true to say that he had a high regard for me as his student. It remains an enigma that even though Maulānā clearly had the knowledge to do so, never during my seven years with him did he ever attempt to teach and explain to me, or to any of his other students, the subjects of Dajjāl and of Gog and Magog in Ākhir alZamān (i.e., the last age). I am left to wonder in amazement and disbelief whether he deliberately maintained that silence since his plan was for someone other than himself to pioneer Islamic eschatology.  

The mystery that is evident in Maulānā’s silence on the subject of Gog and Magog finds an uncanny echo in the even more mysterious silence of the poet-philosopher, Dr. Muhammad (s) Iqbal, who responded to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 and the subsequent European crusader conquest of Jerusalem one month later, with an amazing couplet of Urdu poetry in which he declared that Gog and Magog had been released: 

Khul gayay Yajooj aur Majooj kay lashkar tamam

Chashmay Muslim dekh lay tafseer-e harf-e-yansil oon.

“Set loose are all the hordes of Gog and Magog; 
To the Muslim eye manifest is the meaning of the word Yansilūn”, 

(i.e. the two verses of the Qur’ān, al-Anbiyāh’, 21: 95-96, which end with the word ‘Yansilūn’). 

[Bang-e-Dara – Zarifana: 23] 

Having made this amazing statement in Urdu poetry confirming that Gog and Magog had been released, and having linked the event of the British liberation of Jerusalem (for the Jews) with the release of Gog and Magog,  Iqbal then proceeded to maintain a mysterious total silence on the subject for the rest of his life. He never wrote or spoke a single word on the subject subsequent to that amazingly accurate penetration of the verses of the Qur’ān concerning the release of Gog and Magog into the world.  

This mysterious silence on the subject of Gog and Magog from the world of Islamic scholarship cannot continue for much longer since it appears that the world is now poised on the brink of another world war. In the same way that the First World War was used to bring down the curtain on the Islamic Caliphate, so too it appears that this coming world war will bring down the curtain on the Hajj or pilgrimage to the Ka’aba in Makkah. When that happens, it would no longer be possible for any Muslim to remain in a state of denial concerning the release of Gog and Magog in the world since the Prophet prophesied, in a Hadīth recorded in Sahīh Bukhārī, that: 

“People would continue to perform the Hajj and ‘Umrah even after Gog and Magog have been released.” 

But then he went on to declare:  

“The Last Hour would not come before the Hajj no longer takes place.” 

(Sahīh Bukhārī) 

Source: Sheikh Imran Nazar Hosein

to be continued .....