METHODOLOGY FOR STUDY OF THE QUR'AN
by Sheikh Imran Nazar Hosein
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.
to be continued .....
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