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Compiled by: Azeem Ayub |
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In the Name of Allah, |
Reason and Revelation
It is generally believed in our religious circles that the teachings and directives of Islam only appeal to our emotions and sentiments; they do not address our intellect and as such they have to be accepted and obeyed without question about the logic and philosophy behind them. The Asharites, the largest school of Muslim dialectics, also hold this view point.
This view seems to contradict the Qur’ān. The Qur’ān explicitly states that all Islamic beliefs and directives have sound reasons behind their inception and that they conform to the highest standard of rationality. Consequently, whenever the Qur’ān urges man to accept certain dogmas, it cites arguments to substantiate its claims. It warns those who evade and ignore its calls to use their faculty of reasoning instead of being a slave to emotions like hate and prejudice. In fact, a little deliberation shows that it wants us to obey certain religious commandments just because the Almighty has blessed us with the faculty of reasoning. Thus, a perfectly healthy person who is insane has been relieved from all religious responsibilities by Islam. In spite of being fit and healthy in all other respects, he has not been asked to say his prayer or fast, nor is he liable for punishment for any crime which he commits.
An important point which must be understood in this regard is that we are required to accept certain realities without observing them because their existence can logically be deduced. For example, we are not able to see God; the Day of Judgement too is as yet concealed from our eyes, nor have we witnessed Gabriel revealing the Divine Message to the Prophet (sws). Yet, we believe in all these because present in the Qur’ān, in our own intuition and in every phenomenon of nature are signs which testify that these realities are rationally proven facts. It is highly irrational on the part of man to demand a visual display of realities which though, unseen can be understood rationally. It is his misfortune that on the one hand when he delves deep in the domains of science he accepts certain realities which cannot be observed but the existence of which can be proven by other means, and on the other hand he adopts a completely different attitude when he comes across certain metaphysical realities of life.
In other words, some realities in which the Qur’ān asks us to believe are certainly beyond the perception of the senses but not beyond the perception of reason. Just as footsteps on sand testify beyond doubt that someone has gone past, likewise writ large on every object of this universe is that someone else also has just gone past and left an indelible expression of his own existence.
Author: Dr Shehzad Saleem
Topic URL: http://www.monthly-renaissance.com/issue/content.aspx?id=1238
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In this Issue |
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Reflections
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Read & Reflect * The Fast
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Debate & Discuss
Express & Explain
Pause & Ponder:
Announcements
* Successful
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The Fast
After the prayer and zakāh, the fast is the next important worship ritual of Islam. In the Arabic language, the word used for it is صَوْم (sawm), which literally means “to abstain from something” and “to give up something”. As a term of the Islamic sharī‘ah, it refers to the state of a person in which he is required to abstain from eating and drinking and from marital relations with certain limits and conditions. A person expresses himself through deeds and practices; hence when his emotions of worship for the Almighty relate to his deeds and practices then these emotions, besides manifesting in worshipping Him, also manifest in obeying His commands. Fasts are a symbolic expression of this obedience. While fasting, a person, at the behest of His Lord, gives up things which are originally allowed to him to win His pleasure; he thus becomes an embodiment of obedience and through his practice acknowledges the fact that there is nothing greater than the command of God. So if the Almighty forbids him things perfectly allowed by innate guidance, then it is only befitting for a person who is the servant of his Creator to obey Him without any hesitation whatsoever.
A little deliberation reveals that this state of a person in which he experiences and acknowledges the power, magnificence and exaltedness of the Almighty is also a true expression of gratitude from him. On this very basis, the Qur’ān says that the fast glorifies the Almighty and is a means through which gratitude can be shown to Him: The Qur’ān says that for this very purpose the month of Ramadān was set apart because in this month the Qur’ān was revealed as a guide for human intellect having clear arguments to distinguish right from wrong so that people could glorify God and express their gratitude to Him.
The excellence a person can attain in this ritual of worship is that while fasting he imposes certain other restrictions on himself and confines himself to a mosque for a few days to worship the Almighty as much as he can. In religious terminology, this is called اِعْتِكَاف (i‘tikāf). Though this worship ritual is not incumbent upon the believers like the fasts of Ramadān, it occupies great importance viz-a-viz purification of the soul. The cherished state which arises by combining the prayer and the fast with recitals of the Qur’ān and the feeling of being solely devoted to the Almighty having no one around helps achieve the objective of the fast in the very best way.
i. History of the Fast Like the prayer, the fast is also an ancient ritual of worship. The Qur’ān says that fasting has been made obligatory for the Muslims, just as it was made so for earlier peoples. Consequently, this is a reality that as a ritual of worship which trains and disciplines the soul, it has existed in various forms in all religions.
ii. Objective of the Fast The objective of the fast as delineated by the Qur’ān is that people adopt the taqwā of God. In the terminology of the Qur’ān, taqwā means that a person should spend his life within the limits set by Allah and should keep fearing Him from the depth of his heart that if ever he crosses these limits, there will be no one except God to save him from its punishment.
iii. Sharī‘ah of the Fast Following is the sharī‘ah of the fast:
a. The fast is abstention from eating and drinking and from having sexual intercourse with the wife with the intention that a person is going to fast.
b. This abstention is from fajr to nightfall; hence eating and drinking and having sexual intercourse with the wife during the night is permitted.
c. The month of Ramadān has been fixed for fasting; hence it is obligatory for every person who is present in this month to fast.
d. If owing to sickness, travel or any other compelling reason a person is not able to keep all the fasts of Ramadān, it is incumbent upon him to make up for this by keeping in other months an equal number of the fasts missed.
e. Fasting during the menstrual and puerperal cycles is forbidden. However, the fasts missed as a result must be kept later.
f. The pinnacle of the fast is the i‘tikāf. If a person is given this opportunity by God, he should seclude himself from the world for as many days as he can in a mosque to worship the Almighty and he should not leave the mosque except because of some compelling human need.
g. During i‘tikāf, a person is permitted to eat and drink during the night but he cannot have sexual intercourse with his wife. This has been prohibited by the Almighty.
Author: Javed Ahmad Ghamidi (Tr. by Dr Shehzad Saleem)
Topic URL: http://www.monthly-renaissance.com/issue/content.aspx?id=1238 |
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| Debate and Discuss: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Discussion Forum: Understanding the Sunnah
Topic: Juz and Siparah
Leticia
Aslammir
Ibrahim (Moderator)
Yes Leticia! he's right. However, I would like to correct one thing here. The Persian word Siparah actually means 30 Paras as is means 30. Therefore the word equal to Juz is Parah.
Moreover, as this is not a Divine division of Quran, so there are some differences in its demarkation made in Arab countries and here in Indo-Pak. This difference is of no significance as Qur'an is same from the start till end.
maheen328
Ibrahim (Moderator) We have chosen the word of 'Para' & 'Sipara' just because these words are more common in our part of the world and 'Juz' is not.
I am not sure but I don't think that non-Arabs created the division of 30 Parts.
maheen328 Thank you for your prompt reply.
Just as a matter of curiosity, how many ayats are there in the Quran? The best answer I could find was "approximately 6300". Why an approximation(?), I wondered. Is there some disagreement among scholars as to the exact number?
Ibrahim (Moderator) Total verses in the Quran are more than 6000. Actually there are 7 famous counting of them & the number is different in all of them. Don't worry dear! Quran is common among all of them From Bismilah of Surah Fatihah to the last verse of Surah Naas. The difference is due to the demarkation of verses. For example:
Is bismillah an independent verse of each surah or verse of Surah Fatiha only or Not an independent verse and Like in Fatihah, the last verse is from "Siraat allazeena ... Zaalleen" or they are two verses and 1st ends at "un'amta 'laihim" etc.
maheen328 Yes, alhamdulillah the Quran is the same for all Muslims -- always has been and always will be. And for some questions, the only answer is Allahu a'alam.
Abdullah7 I read in the text provided for module one that Suyuti writes "the reason that the scholars have differed on the number of verses of the Qur'an is that the Prophet(sws)used to pause at the end of a certain verse. When the place of pause became known, he would read the next verse such that he would join the previous one with it without pausing. A person who happened to hear this reading would think that there is no pause between the two verses [and they are actually one]." Is this true?
Ibrahim (Moderator) You are right that for many questions only Allah knows better but however we should keep on searching to find answers of our questions and our total understanding must be based on strong reasoning and there's no harm on keep on changing views as far as you are getting convinced from the upcoming arguments. I would love to see you putting on and on your questions in search of getting the truth.
&
Yes Abdullah it looks true as it is quite natural. Do you have any question?
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General Discussion Forum:
aijaz47
Dear Mr. Hanif
Existence does not
necessarily have to be physical. As regards Mermaids, their existence is
imaginary or fictional. Thus if it has a name it exists.
Secondly, denial does
not mean that that particular thing does not exist. One shall have to
provide the prove for the denial. Physical existence is an attribute. So
far it seems Mermaids do not have that attribute. Their existence is
fictional. Can you deny the fictional existence of Mermaids?
Thirdly, Allah is The
Creator of Universe and Claims to be so. I have not heard of anyone
claiming to be the creator of The Creator. Answer shall be provided when
the question arises.
student1
This is your reply to
Mr. Hanif but I would like to present my comments on your reply and I hope
you wont mind.
quote:
Dear Mr. Hanif
aijaz47
So you agree that
denial does not mean that a particular thing does not exist. Thanks for
accepting my point.
aijaz47
aijaz47
This is in reply to
your question "who created Allah?"
aijaz47
Kindly go to Forums>
History of Quran> Collection under Abu Bakar ( may Allah be pleased with
him).
Jhangeer Hanif (modeator)
I think you want to
say that existence does not have to be 'actual'. Because we know that
mermaids do not actually exist; they are fictitious in contrast to
reality. We are not taking about the nature of God's existence -
spirirtual or physical; we are talking about whether it is actual or not.
Hence when we talk about mermaids, we know that their existence is not
actual or real. Is this the case with God?
In the second
response, you are again confusing 'actual or real' with 'physical'. I am
not talking about the nature of existence. I am talking about whether
something really exists? Hence the stress is on real. I had written
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Fasting on Behalf of Someone
Question:
Narrated by ‘A’ishah (rta): Allah’s Messenger (sws) said: “Whoever died and he ought to have fasted, then his guardians must fast on his behalf.” (Bukhari , Kitab al-Sawm)
More specifically: Why should the guardians be responsible?
Answer:
“Had she had an outstanding debt in her name, would you not have paid it.” She said “Yes”. At this the Prophet replied: “It is more befitting to fulfill what is outstanding to Allah.” (Muslim, Kitab al-Siyam)
wassalam
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