A Muslim Convert Once More

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is my answer to a Quora question: “ How do I make sure that Satan is not the author of Islam? ”   To understand any Scripture, we must be cognisant that the heart must also be clean.   Consider this: if the heart is like a bowl, and Scripture is the water we pour into that bowl, does it matter how pure the water is, when the bowl is filthy?   Whether it is the Qur’an or the Bible, if the heart is occluded, then whatever is read is never the Divine Intent.   That is why two people can read the same passage in the Qur’an, and one finds love, and another uses it to justify oppression. It is not the verses, but the heart.   Whether “Satan” is the author of “Islam” depends on two things: the one observing, and the one being observed.   And if only one of them has their heart occluded by fear and hate and love of other than God, they will find Satan.   And if the heart is purified, they will find tr...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is my answer to a Quora question: “ Why do Quranists believe that the hijab is not mandatory in Islam? ”   Why only Quranists?   I am a Sunni Muslim of the Hanafi tradition, and I do not believe that the hijab is mandatory.   It is not mentioned in the Qur’an.   It is an issue of ‘urf , culture, and that is relative to time and place.   It is an Arab fashion statement that was sacralised, nothing more.

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh ‘Utsman Nuri Tufbas wrote, in “Islam, Spirit & Form”, that the declaration of faith is the light of the heart.   It is again the light of the human face.   The Prophet ( s.a.w. ) said, “Make your children begin to talk with the words ‘There is no deity but Allah’.   Inspire them to say, ‘There is no deity but Allah’ at the last gasp; for whoever pronounces, ‘There is no deity but Allah’, as his first and final statement in this world, he is not held responsible for any sin even if he lives a thousand years.”   This is found in Sunan al-Bayhaqi .   However, having the declaration of faith conduct one’s life is so important; for the condition at the last gasp will take place according to their degree, and performance in this regard.   It is narrated that Abraham ( a.s. ) once asked the Angel of Death, Izra’il ( a.s. ), “O Izra’il!   How do you make yourself seen while taking someone’s life?   I wi...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   When Shaykh Ibrahim ibn ‘Abdullah Niyas al-Kawlakhi ( q.s. ) entered upon the Sufi path, he took the Thariqa’ Tijaniyyah from his father.   The step was momentous, for it was within this thariqa’ that he was to play a major role.   It was a role without parallel since Shaykh ‘Umar ibn Sa’id al-Futi Thal’s ( q.s. ) earlier role in the spread of the Tijaniyyah .   Beginning with his father, Shaykh Ibrahim ( q.s. ) received many appointments as a muqaddam in the Tijaniyyah .   Before he passed away, his father instructed Shaykh Muhammad Mahmud ash-Shinghity ( q.s. ) of Mauritania to appoint his son a muqaddam .   Shaykh ash-Shinghity ( q.s. ), however, told Shaykh Ibrahim ( q.s. ), “You have no need for an ijazah from a creature because you have your Appointment from the Creator.”   He had additional appointments from al- Imam ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Alawi al-Haddad ( q.s. ) of Mauritania and Shaykh Muhammad al-Ha...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Shaykha Camille Adams Helminski wrote, in her article, “Women & Sufism”, that the wife of the ninth-century Sufi, Shaykh Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad bin ‘Ali al-Hakim at-Tirmidzi ( q.s. ), was a mystic in her own right.   She used to dream for her husband as well as for herself.   Khidhr ( a.s. ), the mysterious one, would appear to her in her dreams.   One night, he told her to tell her husband to guard the purity of his house.   Concerned that perhaps Khidhr ( a.s. ) was referring to the lack of cleanliness that sometimes occurred because of their young children, she questioned him in her dream.   He responded by pointing to his tongue: she was to tell her husband to be mindful of the purity of his speech.

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is my answer to a Quora question: “ How do I know if Allah ( s.w.t. ) has Forgiven me? ”   You have to understand that since God is Absolute, and the Origin of everything, that He is also the Owner of every Attribute.   What you have that is good is a reflection of Divine Attributes, and what you have that is not is a deficit of the corresponding Attribute.   If an act of yours could move God, then God is no longer God, since that would imply He has a master.   It is not, therefore, your repentance that moves God to Forgive you, but His Forgiveness of you that has Caused you to repent.   If Allah ( s.w.t. ) did not Forgive, no one would repent. And were He to withhold that Rahmah from any person, that fasiq would remain unrepentant.

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Isma’il al-Bukhari ( r.a. ) recorded that Sayyidina ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar ( r.a. ) said the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) once prayed for Sham and Yemen.   It is narrated that there were some people of Najd also present in the gathering, and they requested the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) make du’a for Najd as well.   The Prophet ( s.a.w. ) continued, saying, “O Allah!   Shower Blessings on Sham and Yemen,”   The people of Najd again requested the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) to offer prayers for Najd.   After the third time, the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) said, “It is a place of upheaval and fitan , and the Horn of Shaythan will rise from there.”   The Najd is a place deprived of Blessings.   From it arose the Khwarij , and the false prophet Musaylimah ibn Habib al-Kadzdzab.   And from it arose the Horn of Shaythan, Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab an-Najdi, the one cursed by the Prophet ( s.a.w. ). ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is my answer to a Quora question: “ Can there be compromise on the matter of religious people not wanting to provide services or products to gay people? ”   That is illogical.   The entire point of a secular state is that religion is relegated to the private sphere so that people of different faith values do not come into conflict because they impose their religious values on others.   Where would it end?   If today, some religious people refuse to provide goods and services gay people, would it be unmarried mothers next?   What about people of another faith or ethnicity?   What about people with a different theological opinion within the same faith?   It is a dangerous precedent.

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is my answer to a Quora question: “ Is it true that a Muslim cannot render anything as a drawing? ”   That is a very simplistic understanding by literalist Muslims.   Even at the height of Muslim civilisation, we had works of art, depictions of prophets and saints in hagiographies, and detailed drawings of the human body, plants and animals in scientific texts.   There is no real prohibition against drawing.   There is, however, a prohibition against creating icons, and statues for the purpose of worship.   When it comes to jurisprudential ruling, it is always important to consider the intent so that the real issue is addressed.

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is my answer to a Quora question: “ Why have some people taken such an extreme interpretation of the Qur’an?   How do they justify practices like hiding of women, the oral thalaq , and suicide bombing being implicit in Qur’an? ”   This is a feature of every faith tradition throughout history.   You can have two people read the Bible, or the Qur’an, or the Torah, or indeed, any form of religious Scripture and one will find God’s Mercy and the other will justify Divine Wrath.   But it is not these books. It is the heart.   To better understand this, imagine that the heart is like a glass bowl.   Our acts of worship purify the heart.   Our learning expands the bowl.   But the polishing is far more important.   If the bowl is dirty, filled with the detritus of the ego, of envy, oppression, hatred and violence, then even the purest water poured in becomes undrinkable.   And if t...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Imam Mahmud ibn ‘Ali al-Qashani ( q.s. ) wrote, in Miswbah al-Hidayah wa Miftah al-Kifayah , “The Lamp of Right Guidance & the Key to What is Sufficient,” that the murid should have the fixed decision to persevere in the obedience towards his shaykh .   We should know that the door of Divine Mercy will only open because of our constancy in obedience and service.   Either we give our life at his doorstep or we will reach our goal.   A sign hereof is that we do not turn away, when our shaykh says no to us and when he keeps us at a distance, because a shaykh often tests us when he scans our spiritual states.   Shaykh Abu ‘Utsman Sa’di ibn Isma’il al-Hiri ( q.s. ) had been of prime importance in the Sufism of Khurasan.   He came to Nishapur, obeying his shaykh , Sayyid Nur al-Haq Wa’ ad-Din Ni’matullah Shah al-Kirmani ( q.s. ).   Sayyid Shah al-Karmani ( q.s. ) was a murid of Shaykh Abu Turab Muhammad ibn...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is an adapted extract of Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali’s ( r.a. ) Ayyuha al-Walad .   When Shaykh Abu ‘Ali Shaqiq ibn Ibrahim al-Azdi al-Balkhi ( q.s. ) asked his student, Shaykh Hatim Ism ( q.s. ), who became a great spiritual master, about the benefits of associating with him, he named eight.   Of the fourth, he said, “O my teacher!   The fourth benefit is that I looked at the people of the world and saw that some of them think that grandeur and honour belong to the nation or tribe that is big and powerful; that is why they express pride in their tribe.   Some of them are such that they think that the grandeur is obtained through abundance of wealth, possessions, family, and relatives; that's why people express their pride in their wealth and children.   Some are such that they think that their grandeur and honour is in displaying anger, beating, killing, murder and pillage and th...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is my answer to a Quora question: “ What happens to Singaporean Muslims if they renounce Islam? ”   Singapore is a secular state.   Nothing would happen to them.   In fact, I know quite a few former Muslims.   Some were converts, and some were born into the faith.   They left Islam for various reasons, and this is their personal choice.   That being said, there would certainly be Muslims who react negatively to them, but this is a personal reaction.   These people can neither threaten violence, nor ostracise them because freedom of religion is enshrined in the Constitution, and there are legal consequences to these acts.

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is my answer to a Quora question: “ Why is Islam not a religion of peace, Christianity is? ”   Christianity has a violent history, perhaps more so in that short period than many older religions.   And these events were predicated upon religious grounds, from the Crusades against the Muslims, the heretics and the pagans to the various inquisitions and pogroms, to the various religious wars throughout the Middle Ages that led to and resulted from the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, to colonialisation which was explicitly to bring Christianity to the heathens.   There is unfathomable levels of violence.   But it is not the religion, but the people.   Islam has a violent present.   And a violent history, particularly between various groups believing that they were true Islam and visited violence on the Muslims.   And then there were the wars against the colonial powers, and the current c...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is my answer to a Quora question: “ What methods do contemporary Muslims use to convert non-Muslims to Islam?   Also, what methods did the first Muslims use to convert non-Muslims to Islam?   Are the two methods the same? ”   In the early days of Islam, in the time of the Prophet ( s.a.w. ), people were attracted to him by his good character and beautiful manners.   The Arabs called him the best amongst them before he was Revealed to be the Prophet ( s.a.w. ).   And the people who followed, the first converts, all inherited those qualities.   The Muslims subscribed to a concept called futuwwah , which is what later evolved into what we now knows as the code of chivalry.   It came to the Christians through encounters with Muslim farisan , knights, in al-Andalus which is what Spain and Portugal; and of course, in interactions during the Crusades.   When the Muslims ruled the lands of t...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is my answer to a Quora question: “ Is wine good or bad?   The Qur’an States intoxicant are Satan’s handiwork.   Yet on the other hand, in Paradise are rivers of wine.   How does Satan’s handiwork get into Paradise? ”   Wine, and by extension, all intoxicants, is neither good nor bad.   What makes them haram is the intent of use.   By shari’ah , the consumption of wine and alcohol leads to intoxication and that is Proscribed.   There is an entire literature on the nuances of the ruling on alcohol, whether it is by itself najasah or not, and so forth.   I will not repeat that here.   Wine is not the handiwork of Satan.   Satan does not create anything.   The intent of getting intoxicated for the sake of pleasure is the influence of Satan.   That is his “handiwork”.   The rivers of wine in Paradise are not to be understood literally. Muslims believe, as per t...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Shaykh ‘Utsman Nuri Tufbas wrote, in “Islam, Spirit & Form”, that it is a simple observation to notice the reciprocity in the following examples: a man tends to punish even the smallest insect for a bite on his body.   On the other hand, a man tends to appreciate even the kindness of an offer of a cup of coffee and the memory of this appreciation can last for years.   Therefore, it is simply unacceptable blindness to expect that unlawful deeds and actions of a man throughout his lifetime will remain unreciprocated before Allah ( s.w.t. ).   There is the persecution of the oppressor; complaints of the oppressed; blasphemy of the unbeliever, and faith of the believer, in our life on this Earth.   Had there been no Rewards and Punishment for these events and behaviours, not only the Divine Programme that brought all beings under the control and command of men, but also the Creation of men, would have been meaningless. ...