The Deen of the Haneefs

Deen ul Fitra

Each of us feels a belonging to something far greater than ourselves, than our families, than our qawms (people), a connection to the whole Cosmos which worships, singularly and all together along with us, and surrenders itself to the Most Merciful, and that we too surrender ourselves to- Nahnu Muslimoon- in full submission to the Creator and Sustainer of all things.

But the system that defines the peculiar expression of who we are as a Nation, as different peoples with a common history, philosophy on life, with our institutions and norms, was only named as Deen ul Islam after it's culmination in the rites of Hajj shown to us by our Messenger (as) at his farewell Pilgrimmage. It was after that instant that God revealed- "This day I have perfected my favour upon you, and chosen for you Islam as your Deen (lit Deen ul- Islam)". 

Three months later our Messenger was called back to His Creator, his mission having been fulfilled. *1

Before that time we were aware that ours was not the Deen of the Disbelievers (Surah Kafiroon, early Meccan), that the Day when we are called back to life is tantalisingly called "Day of the Deen", that we follow a long history of Prophets, Messengers and People who have likewise surrendered their will to God, and yet never once was it termed Deen ul Islam until the point of it's completion.

This contrasts within the narrative of the Quran, in the order in which we are to approach it, where God first tell us and names for us an attribute to be sought- Taqwa- and only elaborates what He means by it much later within Baqara in the verse of "It is not righteousness that you turn your faces to the East and the West,,,,,,"

Here God names it, by way of encouragement towards it, and then much later defines it for us. Whereas with the religion of Islam, God first completed it for us and then named it.

We must then deliberate on the why of the difference in approaches.

Even more startling, when we search for that defining phrase, in which our religion is named Deen ul-Islam, we find that it is does not occur singly and by itself, and furthermore is not coupled with another verse, but actually is embedded within a narrative of halal and haraam in Surah Maedah (verse 3).

We know of the Hadith in which a man from amongst the Jewish Nation said if a similar verse had been revealed upon any of their Messengers then they would have made that day, a day of celebration, that even they and therefore all other Nations should recognise it's phenomenal import. 

And yet by God's own design, it lays tucked away within His Speech.

After the greatest verse of the Qur'an we have "There is no compulsion in your choice of Deen (religion/ way of life)", and yet once again the Deen advocated for us there lays unnamed and undefined except through negation "Right action is clear from error (going astray)". This is also late Meccan.

In Surah Nisaa' it occurs as a question:
"Who is better in Deen, other than one who surrenders his purpose to Allah, and does good, and follows the way of Ibrahim, the pure?" verse 125

The word at the end is Hanif- pure- keeping their religion for Allah to the exclusion of all else.

[Deliberating on the detail in the above verse is fully instructive, and I leave that for you to come back to later.]

Ibrahim (as) is unusual in many ways, we know that literally God calls him our father at the end of Surah Hajj, that he is the father of our Messengers Nation.

So many times God talks about the way of Ibrahim, millata Ibrahim.

And he is unusual amongst the Prophets and Messengers because he supplicated to God for him not to be made a trial for the people, and so God gave him a scripture without a people. 

We likewise know that his firstborn son, Ismail (as), is likewise called a Messenger in the Speech of the Quran, and that he received revelation and a scripture, but like unto Ibrahim the narrative stops there, that we know of no people who are his. 

It is as if he knew of his father's supplication to send the Umiyoon (unlettered people) a Messenger from amongst themselves, that therefore that person needed to be unlettered- without the ability to read, nor write- and so he respected that wish.

And over a thousand years later, God gave Ibrahim to us as the father of our Messengers Nation, the Nation of the Umiyoon Peoples, for whilst the Quran is written in a book format, and was clearly intended to have been so, it still remains to this day, a very much verbal recitation.

And one of the proofs of the authenticity of the authorship of the Qur'an belonging to the Most Merciful, is that our Messenger (saw) was unable to both read and write as is clearly evidenced by the contradictions present within the event occassioned by the treaty of Hudabiyyah.

DEEN of THE HANEEFS

Before the coming of Islam, Ibrahim (as) was much reverred amongst the Arabs, and more than a few of them eschewed the paganism of their fathers, and instead chose to follow the way of Ibrahim. 

They were known amongst the Arabs as the Hanifs. 

They were not organised, with no set rituals past probably what we know today of the religion of Ibrahim, but each of them sought to return back to the purity of that religion, and that of his son, Ismail (as).

So here we have the foundation stone of the religion of Islam, that it is the culmination of the religion of Ibrahim (as), who is called a Hanif:

Surah Rum (verse 30)

<< So set your face to the Deen of Haneefun. Allah t'ala had cleaved it, cleaved it from mankind. No altering will you find in that which Allah created. That is the upright Deen, although most men will not understand>>

At the finish of this verse we find the intriguing "although most men will not understand", as a direct invitation to deliberate on it, that potentially either it's true meaning is not clear, or maybe like much of the verses of the Quran that it's meaning is soo clear that it hides within plain sight.

When we look at most translations of this verse they look it at it differently from how I have protrayed it. 

They say that the Deen referred to here is not the Deen of the Hanifs, but refers to a natural relgion- "Deen ul Fitra" and they construct a hypothesis that equates Deen ul Islam with Deen ul-Fitra, a Deen which is naturally in tune with how man was created.

The basis of this hypothesis are two:

1- Hadith Anas, in which on the Messenger being carried to Jerusalem, on the Night Journey (Israa'), Angel Gibrael (as) offered the Messenger two vessels to drink from, one contained wine, and the other milk. The Messenger chose the latter and Angel Gibrael said, "you have been guided to the fitra" (at that time alcohol had yet to have been banned for our Nation).

2- Hadith Abu Hurayrah, in which the Messenger (saw) said that every child is born upon the fitra, and it is his parents that make him into a Christian or a Jew.

But when we examine Run 30, in the light of Nisaa' 125, and we recognise the historical significance of the term Hanif, that it had been applied before the coming of the Messenger to those people who sought to return back to the religion of Ibrahim (as), and was a recognised religious affilation amongst the Arabs akin with Judaism and Christianity, then those Hadith take on an entirely different perspective.

This is of course here a speculative argument, after all I am not an Arab well versed in Arabic. 

But it may be that the concept of Fitra, a natural inclination, has clouded the true meaning of Rum verse 30. 

For it if we look at the root word of Fitra it means cleaved or broken, and not created. The verse reads cleaved from Allah, cleaved from Mankind. No change will you find in what Allah has created. That is the upright religion.

When we approach it literally, then it says that te religion of the Haneefs was not natural to mankind, but created by Allah by cleaving it from Mankind.

DEEN UL ISLAM
If Islam is the culmination of the Deen of the Haneefs, and this our Deen is somehow different from more "natural religions" then we should expect to see some unusual difference within it. *5

Indeed Islam as a religion is incredibly different from other religions including Christianity and Judaism, in that we have no singular authority past Allah and His Messenger (saw), both of whom it could be argued are distant. *2

That God gave us in His speech a stimulation for our brains so that we could use reason to discern right from wrong action *3.

And this contrasts directly with other Deens that focus on authority, vis a vis Hadith Abu Huraryah... Every child is born upon the fitra, and it is their parents that make them into a Christian or a Jew. Here we have the concept of fitra, that it is mans natural inclination, but interestingly its nature is contrasted with Deens thats are fully based upon authoirty, that the Jews and Christains venerate their priests. 

And as Allah informs us in Baqara that they take them as gods other than God, because they make some things unlawful for them which God made lawful, and this in the main, and likewise but much lesser they make some things lawful for them which God made unlawful. 

And crucially "it is the parents" that impose that authority over their children. *4

Two verses after Rum 30, we have a verse that indirectly talks about the Jews and the Christians as splitting themselves off from one another, each forming sects. 

What causes the formation of sects, other than one man seeking to impress his authority on another man, to the exclusion of everyone?

SIGNS OF AUTHORITY
Indee when Allah t'ala sent his Messengers, He sent them in general with clear authority by way of incredible miracles- the miracles of Musa (as) and even those of Jesus (as).

But when we contrast this with the Deen of the Haneefs that became with Ibrahim (as), then we know of no miracles of authority.

The fire became cool, not by way of Ibrahim's asking. Nor in all likehood was it cool for anyone other than Ibrahim (as). There were no other outstanding miracles for him, nor do we know of any for Ismail (as) even though he too was a Messenger who received scripture.

For our Messenger, Muhammed (saw), the outstanding miracles were:

1- the splitting of the moon, but when you read the historical account in the Seerah, he did not point at the moon, nor did he in anyway indicate that it would be split. It occured solely in response to the disbelievers asking for a sign at that point in time.

2- Israa and Miraj were not witnessed by anyone, and were therefore not miracles sent to prove his authority.

In fact he (saw) has many miracles, but none of them were there as authority miracles, they cannot be said to be in the same calibre of Jesus (as) and his waking the dead, or curing the blind and lepers, or blowing into clay moulded doves only for them to come alive.

This because the Jewish people wanted signs of authority. Indeed in Baqara they disputed with their prophet and would not fight unless he gave them a King. They already had evident authority by way of their prophet, but wanted still more. 

GOD IS SUFFICIENT
But for the Deen of the Haneefs, Allah is sufficient for us.

And He gave us a book full of light, dispelling darkness.

That stimulates us intellectually and is a guide book on our journey returning back to Him.

And the Believers, whilst God adorns them with miracles, they are not in need of them. For they follow the path of Ibrahim (as), the pure. 

Whose religion lays culminated in the Deen of Islam.

KNOWLEDGE IS THROUGH STUDY AND CONTEMPLATION
NOT LECTURES, NOR THIS ABOVE

NOTES:

1- Compare with Aal-e-Imran verse 83.
Hadith Jibreel, narrated by Umar (ra) can therefore be placed as having occured within that 3 month period prior to our Messenger (saw) being recalled to His Maker.

2- Of course God for the believer is ever present and close, to our supplications and our endeavours, and He declares as much in Baqara.

3- After the Verse of the Kursi. God does not say here as He could have "truth is clear from falsehood", because the Muslim is aware of his frailties and that everything is about the journey of return, and that then God makes good the end.

4- I have a problem with most of the Hadith quoted by Abu Hurayrah predominately becuase of his version of Hadith Jibreel which can be found in Baqara, deliberate well.

5- Indeed we know that we will be raised uncircumsized. And therefore the idea that the Deen of Ibrahim the pure is natural, is at odds. Rather it is not natural, but is a special creation of the Most Merciful that He cleaved from Mankind, and yet sustains.

ADDENDUM
What this means is that whilst the other Nations Prophets and Messengers were Muslims, surrendering themselves to God, they were not followers of the Deen ul Islam. God sent them with miracles of authority.

And we know that Jesus (as) when he returns, he will return as a follower of Muhammed (saw), and he will come on the path of the Deen of Islam, and using this logic gone will be his signs of authority. Then we must futher speculate, how will the Christians know and recognise him? Maybe the one miracle of his that yet remains will be his miraculous descent.

The Cosmic Computer

The Cosmic Computer

Mankind has progressed through many centuries that have been termed chronologically as different ages: Stone, Iron, Industrial, Scientific and today in our era they are all crowned by the Information Age.

But here, and now, in this age we have a conflict in World views between the old and the new, which is rarely ever referred to. 

That most people think that there be a natural progression from the Scientific World View to the Information World View.

Einstein famously said that "God does not play dice" when confronted by the essential "indeterminacy" of the Quantum World. It is often thought that Einstein's view was outdated, and that it had been superceded by a new generation of Scientists drawn from a Darwinian perspective, that was gaining credence in the life sciences, that essentially random processes could account for much of the complexity that we find in our World.

But the greatest achievement of our New World is not the splitting of the Atom, where the hopes of limitless tapable energy have been continually dashed, but it is the Internet, the Interconnected Web of Computers and the impact that these have had, and continue to develop and have, on each our lives.

When we look at the developments within that technology, its timeline does not give way to an inspirational way of explaining what happened.

Many people would mark out the development of the transistor as the defining breakthrough.

But it is not the computability of things that really defines the power of what you hold in your hand on a daily, if not hourly basis. 

It is the fact that it can efficiently store and retrieve information.

This is not to say that the computer is simply a glorified filing cabinet, but the internet's capacity to share has made all of us producers and manufacturers of content, and consequently also its consumers.

Is that not where the true power of the computer, and even the internet belongs?

Even when we get down to the nuts and bolts of computability, we come across a startling realisation.

Knowledge progresses in the direction of known to unknown, and not in the reverse direction.

And so when we look at the computability of computers, that they have the ability to compute, then we should know that they simply mimic what we do, except a billion times more efficiently.

So for example when I calculate a simple sum, the defining characteristic is that I must hold two numbers in my memory at the same time and then follow a set procedural rule, called for argument sake an algorithm. 

The algorithm itself is also stored within my memory accessed when required in response to cues that I look for.

This is simply what a computer does: it stores many algorithms within its memory and searches for cues about which to use.

But the essential characteristic of matter that allows all of this to happen, actually has an origin, in our understanding of the World, before the invention of the transistor. 

And it is for this reason that its incredible impact on our future is completely underrated.

Thomas Eddison around the 1870s conducted an experiment that most people dismissed because it was not concerned with the nature of reality, as is most of science, but was directed towards a specific commercial ends.

Eddison was an inventor whose work with the telegraph and telephony led him to explore the possibilty of not just transmitting information but of storing it as well, unusally his experiment dealt directly with sound and not with it's symbols. 

Even more unusally whilst he used a solid brass cylinder wrapped in tinfoil to record sound vibrations, he then found that he could reproduce them. This lead to the development of Phonography, and by extension it could be argued film and video imagery. 

That matter has this ability to store and then retrieve information appears to be even more fundamental than the quantum idea of indetminancy.

And that in a nutshell is the burgeoning information age, that even Shrodinger's cat has to do obeisance to, irrespective that is of whether it lives or dies.

In the revelation sent to Muhammad (saw) we find that most Muslim's focus on the Surah of Purity, because it describes that Oneness of God, and the fact that He has neither son, nor is He the son of any, and that there is None like the One, incomparable. 

And that we know from a Prophetic tradition that it is like a third of the Quran.

But a tradition, possibly weak in transmission, but strong in content has is it that Zalzalah, a Chapter of the Quran, is like half of it.

Zalzalah is named after the convulsions that will happen to the Earth at the hour. Here the imagery is of the Earth having to bear the burdens of the crimes committed by man whilst they resided on her, and when belief disappears and the hour approaches, she convulses giving them up.

And in the last two verses God relates upon the nature of this World, that whoso does an atoms weight of good will see it, and who does any atoms weight of evil will see it.

That our actions are recorded, and that information is not lost, but will be retreived.

Now in this age of Men, we know that that is not so outlandish as many would have before presumed.

That the essential characteristic of nature is memory.

That God is moral, high above all, the One that loves to do good, and loves for you to do good too.

Knowledge is through study and contemplation.
And I write to encourage you towards those ends.

Addendum. 

If the essential nature of reality is the storage of information, then the analogy of a cosmic computer is not so far fetched. And then we must ask ourselves the pertinent question - what message is contained witihn it, if not that God is the Originator, the Most Merciful?

ADDENDUM ^ 2

The Messenger of God (saw) informed us in regards to the greatest verse, sign of God, contained within the Quran:

The Ayah of the Kursi is not concerned with God being the Fatir, the Originator of the Heavens and the Earth. Nor with His Power, but essentially with Him being the keeper of knowledge, and He gives it to whom He wills and blesses them with a belief which is true and sure.