The Inquisitive Strangers

The creative mind finds inspiration in those things that others see as normal. 

As the management guru John Adair states, creativity is about “finding” the strange in the normal, and making the “strange” normal.

In S. Baqara God teaches Adam (as) the words and proceeds to ask him to name them. In the exchange we have there between the angels and the Most Gracious it’s clear that something special is being imparted to Adam. 

Something that will make him stand apart. 

From the first fire, to the first wheel, it’s clear that man has a burst of creative energy, and an innate curiosity, that caused Adam (as) to be sent down. 

In Christian theology this is The Fall, but in the Muslim text it reads as “anzala” - sent down- which is also used for the descent of revelation from on high, and for life giving pure water from the rain clouds above. 

As Adam (as) argued when Musa (as) [Moses of the Old Testament] confronted him, all had been written from before. (Please search for the Hadith). 

Aisha (as), the mother of the believers, when asked about the Messenger (saw) said that he was the living Quran.  

Indeed the Quran as a book of instruction takes on another life when we consider it in the light of the Seerah of the Messenger (saw) [his biography, life, actions, methods and sayings]. 

Whilst the scholars argued in the past about whether the Sunnah (the way of the Messenger) could abrogate the Mushaf (scriptures) that question becomes a moot point when you consider the revelation of the latter part of v3 of S Maida (chapter 5). 

Imam Shafee (rm) was of the considered opinion that it could. 

But another way of looking at the link between the Messenger (saw) and the Mushaf is in the words that they each used. 

A big part of Tafseer of the Quran (seeking to understand it) is with the Quranic text itself- not just the linguistic aspects of each part of text, but what another part of text can tell us in the light of the first part. It is as if the Most Gracious has spread knowledge throughout it as a means of making us search through it. And the very act of flicking through the pages and searching our memory is generative of understanding. 

If we consider as we should that the Mushaff framed the words of the Messenger (saw) then our search should extend beyond the Mushaff and into his Seerah (biography), the Sunnah (his way and method) and his Hadith (sayings and words). 

The Messenger (saw) famously said 

“Islam came as a Stranger, and will return as a Stranger, so give good tidings to the Strangers” (narrated by Abu Hurayrah). 

Traditionally this has been taken to mean that when Islam first appeared there were few who followed it, and it will return back to that state of a few following it.  

But when we read S Qaf (50) we see a different use of the word Ajeeb- strange. And the Quran affirms that it is a strange thing that the Most Gracious should send a Messenger, and that we should believe that when our bones and flesh have become dust that they should be reformed and made anew. 

But no less strange and wonderful are the skies and heavens, the earth and our place within it. And the Quran and it’s manifest unusualness. 

Indeed our religion is one that needs to be constantly rediscovered by each of us. Contemplated on, and found to be both wonderful and strange. 

Then give good tidings to those strangers, who contemplate the Qur’an, the life of the Messenger (saw) and what he brought and their own lives, as they unfold, in the light of that knowledge. 

For it is for them that Islam constantly returns with answers. 

What I have said here is my considered opinion, and it may be wrong; may we all be guided. 

Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation, not through lectures, nor speeches nor this above. 

the first struggle and the forgotten ijtihad

Last time I wrote about the tension within Islam that keeps it a balanced religion. 

This found expression very early on, even before the first public command to invite to the good, with the clause;

“Surely with difficulty comes ease. 

Surely with difficulty comes ease.”

(Surah Inshirah- the expansion);

that preempted the mission of the Messenger (saw), but also tells us all of a general rule. And probably it is for that reason that it was repeated twice, to emphasise it’s generality. 

That it is not wrong to seek ease, but that the true path to it lies through difficulty. That to be true and hold to a principle may present you with difficulties, but steady yourself and remember the reason that you do so- it’s not because of the ease that follows- but because it is the right thing to do. 

Islam means Peace, but it’s a special type of peace that is attained through struggle. 

And whilst it is common currency amongst Muslims to believe that the greater struggle, that is talked of here, concerns the struggle against the lower self (nafs) of desire, this does not find resonance within our scriptures. 

Islam at outset has always been a physical struggle, that finds expression in our greatest worship- the Hajj- which is in essence a walk, and rites performed in their correct order and at the right times. 

And just so, the first revelation in regards to Jihad, or struggle, we find in Surah Furqan- the Criterion (between right and wrong);

“So obey them not, rather struggle against them with it; (that is) a great struggle”  verse 52; 

which was sent down before the establishment of the Muslim polity, and before fighting against injustice was enjoined upon us. 

Here we can clearly see a command and an inference that to be silent against people, who do wrong by denying the message or the Messenger (saw), is to obey them. 

The Quranic injunction here stops short of civil disobedience. 

The conundrums of this verse are several. 

First- it appears in S. Furqan in which God declares that He sent down the criterion (between good and bad, right and wrong) and so you might reasonably expect a rule or a command to be delineated here. In the whole of Furqan this is the only verse that could be interpreted as a command. 

Second- the pronoun “it” in this verse is usually translated as the Quran itself. 

This seems entirely reasonable but breaks a logical rule that many commentators often pay heed to- that “it” normally should refer to the thing that precedes the “it”. 

Therefore, we should at least see if following this rule, here, generates a different meaning?

Third- what is the “a great struggle” referring to? 

In the above translation I had inserted “(that is)” before “a great struggle”, to make the verse more readable. 

What is clear, here, is that the struggle mentioned here is not a struggle against self. The obvious answer is the struggle against the arguments of the disbelievers. However due to the ambiguity that is lent by the missing (that is) we owe it to ourselves to consider if it could also refer to something else?

Might it also be a self referential sentence? For one unusual characteristic of the Quran is the amount of verses in it that refer to itself. 

Fourth- the verse when we look at it in it’s bare bones is cryptic and disjointed, when it could have been clarified. 

Was it therefore left cryptic for a reason?

We know from the Seerah of the Messenger (saw) that the companions at that time hoarded the Qur’an like it was gold dust... and during the persecution that was meted out to them in Mecca it was a light in a dark place. 

And there they were known to commit 5-10 verses of it, into their personalities, before moving to the next 5-10 verses. 

In their own words they said that they implemented those few before moving to the next few. And they were known as the Quranic generation, that were moulded by it’s direct revelation that concerned them all deeply. 

The conundrum that that presents us with, now, is that we know that practically all of the implementation, of all that is Islam “now”, occurred in Medina after this fact. 

So what and how were they implementing, when there was so little to implement, there in Mecca?

There was a time when the believers knew the mother of all sciences to be the Qur’an and our struggle with trying to understand it, that is called tafseer. 

And that Allah t’ala revealed both it and the wisdom. The Seerah is key to understanding the Quran, where they should both be read and struggled with together. 

I write here to stimulate thought and to cause you to see that the Quran is not the purview of the Scholars, for if that were the case then woe unto us who have become like the First Nation that are rebuked in the Quran. For they left the knowledge to the Pharisee and their scribes. 

I have my considered opinions on the above verse and I have chosen to leave them unexpressed here, so that you might have cause to deliberate yourself. 

The Quran has always been an open book and Muttuwatta- known to everyone- accessible and available to everyone. And it’s study should not be left to a class of people, but should belong to all of the people. 

This is the forgotten ijitihad, which no less needs checks, and balances, in its approach so that those that try do not fall into error. 

The like of which I have done in writing here. 

InshaAllah both myself and Ahmed Rawi are committed to bringing together a group of brothers who will benefit from the study of the Quran in the light of the Seerah of the Messenger (saw). And we will act as checks and balances one for another. 

What I have said here is my considered opinion, and it may be wrong; may we all be guided. 

Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation, not through lectures, nor speeches nor this above.