The Pillars of Freedom and the everyday fight against the Status Quo

*We are each very much determined by the choices that we make, even past the daily choice to believe and submit*. 

A man may know everything that there is to know about the religion, but if God does not bless him with belief then it will not profit him. This because he does not choose belief, and so God does not confer on him the honour of it. 

Indeed even those choices that determine who we are, do not stop once we choose belief over disbelief. 

Look for example at Az-Zumar v18, and then read how several of our English translators have chosen to relay its message. 

And then look at the bare bones of the Arabic and see if you can yourself decipher it:

Those that listen to the speech (in reference to the Quran being God’s words and speech) so following the best (of or within) it. They are the ones guided by God, they are the doors (to understanding). 

The connective here “so” indicates that listening infers following or obeying. 

But the question that is posed by this verse is what does the “best” refer to. 

Surely we believe that the whole of the Quran is the best of speeches, and that therefore we follow all of it. 

In Yusuf Ali’s version we find that he interprets it as meaning. That it refers here to the meaning contained within God’s speech. And not the part of God’s speech which is best. 

Interestingly here we can see how the verse once again refers to itself. 

That we have a choice as to how we interpret it, since there is a best meaning, better meanings and therefore not so good meanings. 

That those are guided who interpret it as referring to the meaning contained within the speech of God. 

But what is most incredible here is that God is informing us that we must deliberate and think and choose the meaning which means the best. 

And how do we know what the best is. 

Well that is exactly your choice of what you feel is best. 

That it is our choice of what is best that will determine who we are. 

And then it is those who teach you how to deliberate and think about these things, God calls them “the doors”, “the conduits” to better meanings. In similar reference to how the Messenger (saw) said of Ali (ra) on returning from the farewell pilgrimage;

“I am the city of knowledge and Ali is it’s door (gate)”. 

There are many choices that we must consider and make when we consider the religion:

1- Was Muhammed (saw) sent to make things clear? And what does this mean?

2- Did Muhammed (saw) withhold ought of what he (saw) knew of the hidden world? Or did he (saw) relate to us all of what he knew? And what does this mean for us?

AND...

3- Is the religion by construction naturally against the status quo, against the accumulation of power or even those who claim “the best meaning” of it?

Our scholars knew well the influence of power, and avoided it like the plague. 

Lest they became a vessel for oppression and wrong, as opposed to understanding and freedom. 

Lest they could be accused of towing the line of power, or of being accused of being sell-outs. 

And that even where they stood to gain nothing of monetary value, for they knew well that nothing is free and every favour has a cost. 

In our times being politically correct and forgetting our great heritage, and the basis of our civilisation that brought the World out from the Dark Ages. 

Such are the worries that governed them, such are the worries that should be ours. 

For was not Musa (as) sent against the oppressive ruler Firawn, and Isa (as) against the Pharisee, Scribes and Priests of the Children of Israel, and Muhammed (saw) against the mercantile and wealthy custodians of the Holy Kaba. 

And are we not warned in our book against being like those that took their priests as gods other than God?

At the height of our civilisation the Qadis (judges) were fully independent from power and the executive. And each gave their opinion according to their understanding of the Quran and Sunnah and the people were free to take one and leave another. 

There was no compulsion upon the people except what their own conscience dictated. And the executive were free to make laws for the benefit of all, and were advised by the Most Gracious to first consult the Qadis. (S An-Nissa). 

Ours was a society full of freedoms and full of innovation (in worldly matters). 

Consider that at the time of the Messenger (saw), that the hypocrites were not stopped from building their own Mosque. They did not have to apply to gain a permit from any central authority. 

And that it was only when it was clear that that Mosque was a den of intrigue that the Messenger (saw) was commanded to move against it, and destroy it. 

Recall that the perpetrators remained free even after that, and were not brought to account. 

That they were allowed to build it in the first place is instructive to what our society is supposed to look like. 

The people should be free. 

And the religion is necessarily grassroots, open to all, to both seek to understand the better meanings, and to bring them to fruition. 

Just as is our society. 

Necessarily grass-roots, where the people are free to organise, and remain under the radar of man-made institutions. 

Whereas our institutions are God-sent, as ideas that we are each free to build to fruition. 

Recall  that the Messenger (saw) informed us that the sanctity of one Muslim life is more sacred than the bricks and mortar that constitute the Kaba. And that when we stand before God we are commanded to face the Qibla. 

Our institutions are our ideas and ideals that stem from the best of meanings contained within that which was sent down : the Quran and the Sunnah of Muhammed (saw). 

Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation. Not lectures, nor talks, nor this above.