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.
This book is devoted to a study of that
Jasad, and of Solomon’s response to the vision, and our primary
objective in writing this book is to demonstrate the application of proper methodology
for study of the Qur’an.
Proper methodology in this particular
matter concerning the Jasad requires us to ask the question: why did Solomon
pbuh respond to the vision in the manner in
which he did? Why did he make the prayer that none should inherit his
Kingdom after him? Since the Qur’an does not explain who that Jasad
was, nor is there any real explanation in the Hadith of Prophet
Muhammad pbuh,
and since these two primary sources do not truly explain why Solomon pbuh
responded to the vision in the manner that he did, commentators of the Qur’an,
including classical commentators, have constantly offered their own opinions on
the subject. They have also done so in the matter concerning Solomon’s death,
of which the Jinn were unaware, in consequence of which they continued
to work until Dabbat al-Ard consumed something connected to Solomon’s
staff, and only then did the Jinn realize that he was dead.
Our learned Assistant, Hasbullah
Shafi’iy, has kindly compiled for the benefit of our readers, a summary of
views on both subjects found in many of those commentaries. The summaries are
included in this book as Appendices 1 and 2.
We felt, however, that it would benefit
our readers if, in addition to the summaries provided in those two Appendices, we
were to provide the views of the Jasad, as well as of Dabbat al-Ard,
of four recent Islamic scholars, all of whom wrote commentaries of the Qur’an.
Three of those scholars, Abul ‘Ala Maududi, Amin Ahsan Islahi, and Muhammad
Ali, resided in the famous Pakistani city of Lahore, and the fourth, Muhammad
Asad, was a European Jew who joined the community of believers who followed
Prophet Muhammad pbuh.
We have included Muhammad Ali since the Ahmadiyah Movement of Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad, to which he belonged, presented a formidable eschatological challenge to
the entire world of Islam; hence it is important for readers to be exposed to
Ahmadiyah scholarship on these two supremely important subjects.
Proper methodology for study of the Qur’an
requires that when Allah and His Messenger have explained any verse of the Qur’an,
then such explanation must be recognized as the last word on that subject.
However when neither Allah nor His
Messenger have effectively explained a verse of the Qur’an, then
opinions expressed even in the classical commentaries of the Qur’an, can
never function as the last word in explanation of such a verse of the Holy
Book. Rather, each believer must exert himself and herself to study the Qur’an
with a view to eventually reach that stage of scholarly effort when he or she
can seek to penetrate and understand verses of the Qur’an. It is at that
stage of scholarly effort that verses—such as Sad, 38:34-35—can be studied on the basis of independent
effort.
It is not at all proper or correct that
a scholarly effort at understanding and explaining verses of the Qur’an
should be confined to a word-processing exercise in studying explanations in
the books of Tafsir.
We intend to demonstrate in this book Insha
Allah, that there is knowledge and explanations of the Qur’an which
are located beyond the commentaries, and only those who exert themselves to ‘think’
can be blessed to extend the frontiers of knowledge of the Qur’an.
The Salafi Muslim is therefore
obliged by his methodology of study of the Qur’an and Hadith—which
admits of no new interpretative explanation of either the Qur’an or Hadith—to
accept that he will never know who, or what, was that Jasad.
Our methodology for the study of the Qur’an
and Hadith is different. When there is no real explanation, the
implication is that we must exert ourselves to think, and to thus seek to penetrate
the subject in order to understand it.
We commence our study of the Jasad by
first reminding the gentle reader that the Qur’an declares of itself
that it has two kinds of verses. Indeed this must also be true of all other revealed
scriptures since they all came from the same Divine source:
(Qur’an,
Ale ‘Imran, 3:7)
[What appear below all verses of the
Qur’an quoted in this book are explanations and commentaries, rather than translations,
of the verses—since the miraculous Word of Allah Most High cannot be translated
to any other language.]
He it is Who has
bestowed upon you O Muhammad, from on high, this Book or scripture containing Ayat
Muhkamat, i.e., verses that are clear, in and by themselves, and these verses
constitute the heart or essence of the Book—as well as other verses known as Ayat
Mutashabihat, which are allegorical, and hence have to be interpreted in
order to be understood.Those whose hearts
are crooked and corrupted go after that part of the Book which has been expressed
in allegory while seeking to misguide and to confuse. In the process they
create sectarian movements with which they corrupt the beliefs of the
believers. It is because of the crookedness in their hearts that they seek to locate
the interpretation of the allegorical verses in an arbitrary manner. Since none
but Allah knows their meaning, it follows that only Allah can confirm that an interpretation
of such verses is correct. Those who are deeply rooted in knowledge behave
differently. They do not engage these verses in an arbitrary manner; rather,
they say: “We believe in the allegorical verses and we study them with a
methodology which recognizes that all verses in the Qur’an—both those
which are allegorical as well as those which are plain and clear—have come from
the Divine presence. Hence if the allegorical verses are to be interpreted, the
Qur’an has to be studied as a harmonious integrated whole and not in
disparate disjointed parts. But none will study the allegorical verses in the
proper way save those who are endowed with clarity of thought and with insight.
Since neither the Qur’an nor the
Hadith has clearly explained who or what is the Jasad, the
implication is that we have to recognize these verses of the Qur’an as Ayat
Mutashabihat, or verses which have to be studied and interpreted in order
to be understood.
Our readers are reminded that Allah
Most High has repeatedly declared that He sent the Qur’an to people who think,
ponder and reflect:
(Qur’an,
al-Baqarah, 2:219)
In this way does
Allah make clear unto you His verses, so that you might think and reflect over
them.
(Qur’an,
al-Nisa’, 4:82)
Will they not,
then, think, ponder and reflect over this Qur’an? Had it issued from any
but Allah, they would surely have found in it many an inner contradiction!
(Qur’an,
Yunus,10:24)
Thus clearly do We
spell out these messages of knowledge and of guidance unto people who think!
(Qur’an,
Sad, 38:29)
All this have We
expounded in this blessed divine writ which We have revealed unto thee, O
Muhammad, so that men may ponder and reflect over its verses, and that those who
are endowed with insight may so penetrate their meaning that they may take them
to heart.
(Qur’an,
Muhammad, 47:24)
What is wrong with
them? Why do they not ponder and reflect over this Qur’an?—or are there
locks upon their hearts?
The Qur’an warns that those who
do not think have a terrible status with Allah:
(Qur’an,
al-Anfal, 8:22)
Verily, the most
despicable of all creatures in the sight of Allah are those deaf and dumb ones
who do not use their rational faculty.
People have to think in order to
study the Qur’an precisely because there is knowledge in the Qur’an which
cannot be accessed by any except those who think. The art of thinking requires
that both the rational faculty, as well as internal intuitive insight, must be
employed, harmoniously so, to reach what the Qur’an describes as Majma’ul
Bahrain, i.e., the place where the two oceans of knowledge (i.e.,
the internal and the external) meet. Only thus can the Ayat
Mutashabihat of the Qur’an be penetrated and understood.
It is precisely because today’s Dar
al-‘Ulum no longer invites students to think and ponder over
the Qur’an, while studying it, that the graduates of the Dar al-‘Ulum
do not have a clue of what the Qur’an has offered that explains the
strange and mysterious reality of the world today. In fact, if a student
dares to think, he might be expelled from the Dar al-‘Ulum!
This dangerous Dar al-‘Ulum
defect in the methodology for the study of the Qur’an must be recognized
as the greatest obstacle that now prevents the world of Islamic scholarship from
emerging from the stagnant intellectual abyss into which it fell many moons
ago.
The Salafi Methodology, on the
other hand, insists that all knowledge of the Qur’an has already been
explained by the blessed Prophet and the early Muslims (i.e., the Aslaf)
and that no new knowledge from the Qur’an is possible. Why then, we ask
our Salafi brothers, should Allah Most High declare that He sent the Qur’an
to people who think? How then, we ask, will we ever be able to find in
the Qur’an, that which explains the reality of a modern world
dominated by a mysterious and godless modern Western civilization which emerged
from the corrupted bosom of that part of the Christian world which broke away
from Constantinople?
Those Christians who headed westwards,
were tested by Allah Most High and they failed the test when they abandoned the
Sacred Law and went fishing on the Sabbath Day in violation of the Law of the
Sabbath! Allah Most High then sent against them both Dajjal the false
Messiah, as well as Gog and Magog:
(Qur’an, al-‘Araf, 7:167)
And lo! Your Lord-God has declared that
He is now going to send against them, i.e., a people who abandon the
Sacred Law in the Torah, those who will afflict them, continuously until the
Last Day with cruel suffering: verily, your Lord God is swift in retribution—yet,
verily, He is also much forgiving, a dispenser of grace.
