Miscellaneous - 6
Islam
Critic:-
Show me just what Muhammad brought
that was new.
A Muslim:-
In the strict sense, the Prophet
Muhammad (SAW) did not bring anything "new". He was sent to restore
the primordial religion, Islam (submission to God) that God ordained from the
beginning for mankind and which had to a large extent been abandoned,
misunderstood and corrupted.
Critic:-
Interesting, but to me very
disappointing. I would have preferred the originator of a new religion to have
brought something unique, something of more immediate value.
Comment:-
Islam was not a new religion, but
a new dispensation of religion. As religion is essentially a "binding back
to origins" and the origin of all things is God, there can only be one
genuine religion, but it can have several dispensations just like any other
medicine. Each dispensation has the same universal message, but it is
formulated, adapted and presented differently to cater for the times, place and
people. Each brings something new in that sense. Muhammad was a Messenger of
God like others before him, a spiritual teacher that brought Truth and Truth is
the same everywhere.
The coming of Islam certainly
transformed the world. It converted a large percentage of the world's
population creating a new consciousness and ethics, a new civilisation and
culture and Empires.
(1) This dispensation of Religion
brought by the Prophet Muhammad is a completely new formulation of Islam. In
which other religion do you find a book like the Quran and so comprehensive a
description of God?
(2) It completed Religion that had
not yet reached maturity, thereby liberating human beings and making the
individuals responsible for their own salvation without the need for a priesthood
and organised church.
(3) It universalised religion
confirming the validity of the Prophets and their teachings that were sent
throughout the world.
(4) It rectified the
misinterpretations of past religions and brought reformation to them.
(5) It stimulated, awakened and
renewed the spiritual impulse in the world that had gone to sleep.
(6) Whereas Hebrewism put its
emphasis on Justice and ritual and hope, Jesus added the emphasis on Compassion
and Motives, Islam added an emphasis on Truth and on perception and faith.
(Note I said emphasis - this does not deny that all have these three aspects.
(7) The new consciousness that
informs the present civilisation is connected with the awareness of the Cosmos
and its laws, of Nature and of the objectivity, and therefore with Science and
technology based on it. This is a direct consequence of the impact of Islam.
(8) The
emphasis in Islam is on human development and spiritual evolution. This is
taken a step further both in concepts and techniques. Whereas the purpose of
past religions was to inculcate ethics and obedience and later to develop love
and devotion, the purpose of Islam is surrender to Allah, identification with
the ultimate Reality.
(9)
Islam brought a new set of religious techniques. Though they are like those of
other religions, such as prayer, charity, fasting, and pilgrimage, they are
different in form and purpose. The religious life includes the worldly life and
religious practices are fully integrated into the worldly life and have
spiritual, social as well as physical and environmental aspects.
(10) The main and central
contribution of Islam is the concept of Absolute Unity, Tawhid, and all its
implication, the construction of a fully comprehensive self-consistent
framework of reference that unifies all experience and facilitates inner
psychological integration, as well as social integration and harmony with the
cosmos.
Critic:-
(1)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the early Christian church require no
intermediaries? What was the situation at the time of Muhammad? Was it true
throughout Christendom? You appear to be arguing that Islam is a mere sect of
the Christian church, presaging
Protestantism.
Comment:-
As far
as I know, Christianity had a Church from the very beginning. I would say that Trinitarian
Christianity is a heresy of Universal Islam.
Critic:-
(2) Had
not Jesus already "universalized" Judaism, extending God's invitation to
all?
Comment:-
No.
Jesus was sent to the Jews, Matthew 15:24. He sent his disciples to the
gentiles, but they converted people to Christianity. Nothing was said about all
other religions, Prophets and Scriptures. The mission of Jesus, it seems to me,
was to create a transitional religion between the tribalism of Hebrewism and
Universalism of Islam.
Critic:-
(3) How
did Islam rectify misinterpretations? The Trinitarian debate again? Anything more?
Comment:-
Not just
that, but mainly the concept of God - that he was not a man, did not have a son
and that salvation or resurrection was not by his crucifixion but by deeds.
Critic:-
(4) The time of Muhammad in Arabia might have been particularly ungodly, but was that
true for the rest of the world?
Comment:-
Except
for pockets of light, usually in some monasteries, there was a general
spiritual darkness in a great part of the world. Islam brought the world out of
the Dark Ages.
Critic:-
(5) All
religions claim a monopoly on "Truth". One of my Jewish friends sees
a progression in revelation as do you.
Comment:-
Islam in
the restricted sense does not claim monopoly on Truth. I am not speaking about
claims but about teachings and practices. Christianity is a religion of Love
because that is what is emphasised in it. Islam is the religion of Truth
because that is how it is defined 9:29, 9:33, 61:9 and that is what it teaches.
Critic:-
(6) So
you claim that it is Islam that is responsible for the present, western
dominated civilization that you so abhor!
Comment:-
What
makes you think I abhor Civilisation? You have misunderstood. I abhor the
barbarism that the West and other parts of the world have sunk to. Are you
equating "civilisation" with materialism, greed, crime, decline of
morality, state terrorism, political hypocrisy and all the other social and
environmental malfunctions? I am speaking about the science, technology and
aspects of Democracy.
Critic:-
(7)
There is nothing special about Islam. All religions emphasize spiritual
development.
Comment:-
Not
really. Christianity talks about salvation - being saved from Hell. Islam
speaks about the growth of the soul (Quran 91:7-10) and moving from stage to
stage (Quran 84:19). The notion of spiritual evolution exists in Hinduism and
Buddhism where reincarnation and liberation are taught, but it is new in the
Abrahamic stream. However, the Islamic idea differs from these, it is not a
return to this world – The world does not stay the same, but is also a
stage.
Critic:-
(8)
Regarding the comprehensive of Islam, I have been meaning to ask you. Scholar
of formal logic as you hold yourself out as being, have you ever considered the implications of the works
of Godel on axiomatic systems such as Islam that claim to be self-consistent?
Comment:-
I do not
hold myself as being anything. But I have studied Logic and I am well aware of its
limitations. I also know, as Godel has shown that the whole cannot be described
by means of parameters that describe the parts. But I also know that when there
are parts then they belong to a whole that has its own characteristics and that
such wholes are apprehended directly through consciousness and not by logical
arguments.
Con=together,
sciousness= awareness.
Even in
science one has a Framework of Reference, a co-ordinate system which has an
Origin or centre and one plots points with respect to it and connects them in
order to get a comprehensive view.
The Islamic life system is similar to this.
----------<O>----------
Muslim and Non-Muslim
Critic:-
I think we can summarize the
Islamic position as "Muslim=Good, Non-Muslim=Bad". Such intolerant and
hateful ideologies have been the bane of human existence.
Comment:-
You ought to know that the words
"Islam" and "Muslim" are used in the Quran in a Universal
sense of Genuine Religions as revealed by God and those who follow them.
By definition "Islam" is
"Submission to God" and a "Muslim" is "one who submits
to God" and this implies that he submits to Truth, Virtue, Justice etc.
which are the attributes of God.
It is obvious that this does not
refer to labels and that people who are labelled "Muslim" or
"Non-Muslim" may submit to God, (or to truth or virtue etc.) to
various degrees and in different respects and contexts.
So people are Muslim or/and
non-Muslim in different ways and to different degrees.
Critic:-
I oppose the ideas of "Dar
al-Islam" and "Dar al-Kufr", "With us or against Us",
"Believer and Infidel" etc.
Comment:-
There is certainly a difference
between "Submission to God" and "Non-submission to God."
when it is a deliberate, conscious decision.
The realm of Islam could refer to
either or all:-
(1) The set of people who
undertake to submit to God.
(2) The set of ideas, values and
practices that submission to God implies.
(3) The inner psychological
states. Each person could be said to have a realm of Islam or a realm of kufr
within him.
----------<O>----------
Is God Capricious?
Critic:-
According to the Quran Allah is
capricious. He guides whom He will and sends astray whom He wills. So there are
bound to be believers and non-believers. Yet there is reward for believers and
punishment for non-believers. This is a contradiction.
Comment:-
Allah is above Laws as He is the
Creator of the Laws. So He can do as He will, but he creates through laws,
regularities that we can recognise. He could create many different sets of laws.
You are correct, there are verses
in the Quran which state that indeed, there will be those who submit to Allah
and those who do not.
It also tells you what it is that
pleases him or not. It tells you that He does not guide miscreants and that He
guides the sincere. So why do you think it is a contradiction? The
contradiction is in your mind owing to misunderstanding based prejudice.
Critic:-
With all due respect, I am
beginning to think that you are imprecise in your use of words. "Whom he
pleases" does NOT mean "who please him".
Comment:-
Where did I say that it does?
Do you think that "He guides
whom He pleases" refers to the object, the people whom He pleases or who
please Him, and not to God, the subject? I am trying to point out that "He
pleases to guide those who seek Him and He pleases not to guide
miscreants."
Critic:-
The contradictory thing about the
Quran is that there are literally hundreds of verses devoted to describing in
excruciating detail the punishment that awaits those who do not follow Allah,
as well as quite a number of verses instructing the reader to do dirty deeds
against unbelievers.
Here is one of quite a few verses
that state that God guides whom he pleases:
"And We did not send any
apostle but with the language of his people, so that he might explain to them
clearly; then Allah makes whom He pleases err and He guides whom He pleases and
He is the Mighty, the Wise." 14:4
The meaning of this verse, at
least the second half, is crystal clear: nothing about good deeds or good
spirit or good whatever. God makes his decision based on who-knows-what.
Comment:-
You are mistaken.
Knowledge is not enough. You must
also apply it.
"...He leads astray many
and He guides many;- but He leads astray only the evildoers;" 2:26
"Allah guides thereby
those who seek His pleasure, to the way of peace, and leads them out of
darkness into light by His decree, and guides them unto a Straight Way." 5:16
".. for Allah guides not
the misbelieving folk." 2:264
"Allah guides not the
unjust folk." 3:84
"Allah guides not an
unjust people." 5:51
"Allah guides not the
people who do evil." 5:108
However, if you cannot understand
the Quran or refuse to understand it, then I must presume that you are one of
those whom Allah has not guided.
Please quote the verses that
instruct the reader to do dirty deeds against unbelievers. I do not know them.
Are you telling me that you think that the punishment promised by God are
instructions to readers to do "dirty deeds" against unbelievers?
Critic:-
Are you joking? You had better
study your Quran. There are nearly 400 verses in the Koran that deal with
disbelief on some level. The majority of them deal with punishments to be
inflicted upon or awaiting the unbeliever. Here is a famous one. I am surprised
a man with your erudition has not heard of it:-
"So when the sacred months
have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them
captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if
they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to
them; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful." 9:5
Comment:-
If you have read that verse then
presumably you have read the context from which it came, 9:1-12. But you have ignored
the rest of the verses. We are well aware of the tricks of the hostile
misbelievers who take out verses from their context to support their
prejudices. There is nothing anyone can do about that, Allah guides who He
pleases. Obviously arguments are futile. I can only ask you to read the verses
in context.
Critic:-
We have this book written in
Arabic which states that there will be punishment for those who do not follow
correctly, yet obviously makes it easier for Arabic speakers to follow correctly
than for non-Arabic speakers. Does that not strike you as odd? Why wouldn't
Allah send his final word for all men for all time in every tongue on earth,
allowing all the equal chance to accept or reject? Did he just like Arabs more
than others?
Comment:-
He sent all people with His word
in their various languages. Did they all understand it? Why did they not read
it and apply it? Did they not have scholars to interpret it for them? Did God
like the people of the Middle East more than
others when He sent them the Old and New Testaments? Or the Indians when they
received their religion? It is up to the scholars of the Quran to teach others
in their various languages. But many, like you, will not accept that,
preferring their own misinterpretations.
You sound just like those who
wanted certain Miracles to take place as a condition of belief rather than
understanding the message. And of course when such a miracle was provided they
did not accept it as a miracle.
----------<O>----------
Contents