“Do not pray your Asr until you reach Bani Quraydha” so commanded the Messenger (saw) of the Most Merciful, after the Angel Jibreel (Gabriel) appeared to him clad in his robes of war, and informed him that the angels had gone there in advance of him.
One group of Muslims sought the meaning within the command and surmised that the Messenger had said so as a means of encouraging them to make haste.
The other group took what the Messenger (saw) had said at face value and withheld offering their Asr until they had reached Bani Quraydha, even that is when the time for Maghreb had set it.
Afterwards, at Bani Quraydha, they each asked the Messenger (saw) who was right and he said both.
Every once in a while I revisit the question of who I am with respect to this question, and every time I come back with the answer that I’m with the group that withheld their Asr.
And yet I’m as far as I can think of from being a literalist, and I hold that the Speech of God was sent as a blessing to stimulate our thought and make us think and contemplate.
That the Most Gracious has tasked each one of us with finding the better meanings within it.
So this is the reason why I continually revisit that question because there be an anomaly.
I am a man who loves to explore the meanings, and yet here in respect to this question it is as if I continually reject that search in favour of a literalist approach.
I don’t even ever go so far as to deliberate on how praying Asr before the arrival at Bani Quraydha would inevitably slow my arrival there. Rather for me it is simply that the Messenger (saw) commanded it so, so therefore be it must.
Once again we come back to the difference between the religion and what it commands, and the belief and what it entails.
For the two are different as I have explained in a video (*1) that deliberate upon Hadith Jibreel (as), narrated by Umar (ra)(about whom the Messenger (saw) said that if he had not been sent as a Messenger then Umar would have been in his stead).
Islam is the five and what they entail. And here as I have explained previously the principles of parsimony should hold. (*2)
That you should not overcomplicate the religion, and should leave off the superfluous in favour of the agreed upon.
And here the command of the Messenger (saw) is exactly equivalent to that.
However Imaan - belief- is something much deeper.
For whilst the Muslims are guaranteed Paradise by virtue of Hadith Bitaka (narrated by Muad (ra)).
It is the Mumin - the believers- that are brought close to the Most Gracious.
And the manner of them being brought close is through the journey of their lives, in which a time will come when they remember that to Allah is their eventual return. And it is the Quran replete with similitudes, signs for contemplation, and admonishments that is their guide on that journey.
For God’s speech will come alive for you in your journey, if you allow it to speak to you.
As I explained in the video, belief is internal and the journey is internal.
Ihsan (perfection) comes when that belief is manifest in your actions.
And true belief can only come when you contemplate the Quran, and read it alongside the story of your life.
For we each have a story, and the Most Gracious, He is the owner of mighty Grace.
It is at those instances of connection that the miracle of the Speech becomes all the more clear. *3
Now let us return to the famous saying of the Messenger (saw) in which he said that belief has seventy branches and the least of it is removing harm from the paths that people take.
If belief is essentially internal then what can this mean?
Here we see the Messenger (saw) encouraging you to start your journey in a way that encompasses several beautiful ideas
1- that it is easy to start the journey, as easy as removing harm from the paths of people
2- that there is so much more that will happen on that path of your journey
3- and that the tantalising seventy are a ready invitation to contemplate and seek for.
That even that internal journey begins with an act.
And the act before that act is nothing other than fully aware and complete submission to the Most Gracious, for He knows you better than you could ever know yourself.
Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation, but more importantly contemplating your life in the light of Wahiy.
*1 see my Instagram- Shafi Bachelani
*2 the prescriptive parsimony of the Messenger (saw) see blog “Legitimacy and Authority” 5th June 2022
*3 And Umar (ra) said that it was as if it had been revealed just for me. See blog post on S Taha published 25th December 2020.
1 comment:
MashaAllah how relevant the Messenger’s (saw) words on the seventy branches of belief or faith.
The smallest to remove obstructions from the paths that people take.
The greatest path being that of belief and approaching closer to the Most Gracious.
Then that if you want to do that, then make it your life long endeavour to make that path easy for others and God will make it easy for you.
To teach and talk about God’s good grace, to remember Him and to make it easy for others to remember Him as well.
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