“ ‘O Adam, reside with your wife in the Garden. Eat of such of its fruits as you wish, but do not come near this tree and thus be guilty of injustice.’ Seeking to misguide them and to make them aware of their shame, Satan told them that God had forbidden them the fruit of that tree in order to prevent them from becoming angelic or eternal. He pledged to them that he only meant to give them good counsel. Thus, by deception he caused them to transgress. After they tasted of the fruit of the tree, their shame became manifest and they covered themselves with leaves. Their Lord called out to them: ‘Have I not forbidden you the fruit of this tree and warned you of Satan’s grave hostility to you?’ They answered, ‘O God, we have transgressed and thereby wronged ourselves. If You do not have mercy on us and forgive us, surely our fate will be that of the lost.’ God said, ‘Go forth! Some of you will henceforth be enemies of the others. On earth, you will have but a temporary abode. Therein you will spend your lives
you will die and will be raised again.’ O, Men, We have provided for you clothes and raiment with which to cover your bodies. But the raiment of piety and good deeds is far superior. This is another sign and evidence from your Lord that you might remember and observe. O Men, let not Satan deceive you anymore, as he succeeded in forcing your ancestors out of the Garden by seeking to show them their shame. Satan and his legion keep a constant eye upon you. You have no awareness of them. Their nature is to be the friends and guides of those who have no faith and no conviction.” [Qur’an, 7:19-27]
Adam and Eve departed from the Garden, and their progeny became hostile to one another. They strove and still strive the length of their lives. The powers and faculties with which God had endowed them help them in their effort, but they shall continue to struggle on earth until God’s purpose is fulfilled.
Cruelty and prejudice, strife and competition characterize the first attempts of human life on earth. God said
“And relate to them the true story of the two sons of Adam. Each one of them made an offering to God but only one was accepted. The son whose offering was not accepted said to the other, ‘I shall kill you.’ The other answered, ‘God accepts the offering only of those who are righteous. Should you attack and kill me, I shall not attack you because I fear God, the Lord of the Universe. If you do what you say, yours will be a double guilt-that of being unrighteous in the first place and that of killing me in the second. You will surely then deserve the right punishment as all other unjust men, namely the fire.’ Induced by his passion, the son of Adam killed his brother and reaped the fate of the lost. God then sent a raven which scratched into the ground, thereby showing him how to bury the corpse of his brother. As he interred his brother, remorse gripped him and he repented for what he had done, realizing that he was not even as worthy as the raven who had just taught him how to dispose of the dead. On this account We have prescribed, as We did for the Children of Israel, that whoever kills a man for a purpose other than self-defense or legitimate punishment for misdoing is as guilty as he who kills the whole of mankind; and, likewise, that whoever saves a life has saved the lives of all mankind. Repeatedly have Our messengers come to men with clear evidence of this, but many of them still perpetrate their injustice in the world.” [Qur’an, 6:27-32]
Jealousy, cruelty, resentment, and hostility are all amply evident in the story of this fratricide. The righteous victim, on the other hand, did not respond with forgiveness and pardon when his brother threatened to kill him. Rather, his response was that he wished to have him carry the double burden of his own misdeeds and of the murder he was contemplating and thus earn the punishment of hell. Undoubtedly, the man spoke in concert with human nature and its overwhelming inclination to seek to punish evil rather than magnanimously to forgive it.
The children of Adam multiplied and spread over the earth. God sent them prophets to remind and warn them of Him. But they persisted in going astray; their spiritual life was dead, and their minds utterly blocked to the truth. God sent Noah to call his people to the worship of the One God, and he warned them saying: “I fear for you the punishment of a painful death.” But his people paid him little heed. Following Noah, many prophets came and many divine messages were conveyed, all calling to the worship of God alone. Gradually stagnation became the rule, and men’s minds became utterly closed to the divine call. Indeed, they took the creatures of the world for Gods; and whenever a prophet was sent to them by their Lord, they either belied or killed him. Nonetheless, the stagnation of men was repeatedly shaken by prophets, sent from God, who planted good seeds. Although these were slow to grow, they were not without significant effects; for, is truth ever wholly lost? If men happen to be so vain as to avoid the message of truth or to ridicule its conveyor, they will still ponder that message when they are alone and consider what it says. At any rate, those who have apprehended the divine messages have always been few, and these few have often been guilty of false pride.
In ancient Egypt, the priesthood knew and believed the monotheistic truth, but they taught the people something else and multiplied for them their gods. They regarded this practice as necessary for safeguarding their authority and glory. So attached were they to their own powers that they opposed Moses and his brother Aaron’s calling them to God and their seeking Pharaoh’s permission for the Children of Israel to follow them. Further, the Qur’an relates the stories of the prophets who followed one another across the centuries while the great majorities of their people persisted in their misguidance. In the Qur’anic accounts of the prophets of the past, one significant point ought to be underlined. First, however, we must recall the history of Moses and Jesus and the subsequent history of Muhammad-may God’s blessing be upon him.
The Judgment of Reason and Belief in Miracles
The point to be noted is the separation of, or what seems to be the discrepancy between, reason and its logique on one hand, and faith built upon acceptance of miracles and extraordinary events on the other. God confirmed every one of His prophets with some miracle in order to enable him to win the confidence of his people. However, only a few men believed in their prophets or took them seriously. Men’s minds were still too undeveloped to understand that God is the Creator of everything, that He is One, that He is the just Lord of the universe, and that there is no God but He. Before God chose to send Moses, the latter had run away from Egypt in fear and found security in the desert with the tribe of Midyan into which he also married. Before God permitted him to return, “He was called from the right side of the valley, from the blessed spot, out of the tree ‘O Moses, verily, I am God, Lord of the universe.’ Moses was told to lay down his staff ; but when he saw it move as if it were a serpent, he ran away without turning back. Again he was called to approach. He was ordered to search inside his garment, to shed away his fear, and compose himself. God then said to him: ‘This is the judgment of your Lord which you will convey to Pharaoh and his government; namely, they have become a truly corrupt people.’ [Qur’an, 28:30-32]
Pharaoh’s magician priests did not respond favorably to Moses’ call until his rod devoured all their rods. Only then did they prostrate themselves and declare their faith in God, the Lord of Aaron, and of Moses. Nonetheless, the Children of Israel persisted in their misguidance. Indeed, they even asked Moses to show them God with their own eyes; and as soon as he passed away, they returned to the worship of the calf. Following Moses, their prophets came to call them to God, but they killed them unjustly. When they did return to the worship of God, they expected a Messiah who would return to them a political kingdom and the material power with which to rule the world. This series of events is not so far removed from us that it remains lost in the darkness of early history. Barely twenty-five centuries old, this event clearly shows man’s preference of selfishness over reason and his desire for material things over the things of spirit.
A few centuries later, Jesus, confirmed by God’s holy spirit, came calling men to God. Since Jesus was a Jew, the Jews first thought of him as their Messiah and exp
ected him to return to the Jews their lost kingdom in the promised land. The hardships they suffered under Roman rule had made them all the more anxious to achieve such a political kingdom. They waited, however, in order to find out more precisely what Jesus was about. Did Jesus appeal to the logic of reason alone? No. Rather, it was a miracle that opened the road to his persuasion of them. If the Christian stories are not mistaken, it was the miracle of transforming the water into wine at the wedding of Cana that first drew public attention to Jesus. Thereafter came the miracles of the loaves of bread and fishes, of curing the sick, and of resurrecting the dead that made it possible for him to teach the public by appealing to their hearts, feelings, and emotions. Reason and its logic played a very minor role in his teaching. Nonetheless, Jesus proved more successful than his predecessors. He had combined his appeal to feeling, mercy, forgiveness, and love with a call to God, devoid of critical evidence and rational proof. Whenever people suspected his cause, God permitted him to perform a new miracle and thus regain their loyalty and appreciation. His miracles included the curing of the leper, giving sight to the blind and raising the dead. They produced such a strong appeal among his followers that some of them thought that he was the Son of God, and others that he was God incarnate coming to expiate the sins of men. This evidence clearly shows that men were not mature enough to comprehend by force of reason alone the supreme truth regarding the Creator-may He be adored-namely, that He is One, Eternal, Unbegotten and Unbegetting, and that nothing is like unto Him.
The Rational Sciences
Long before the times of Moses and Jesus, the science of ancient Egypt as well as its philosophy and law had passed to Greece and Rome, which had then spread their dominion. It was Egypt that contributed to Greek philosophy and literature their noblest ideas. The new rationalist awakening thus produced, warned and convinced the people that miracles constitute no argument at all. It was in consequence of this that Greek philosophy contributed to the multiplication of Christian doctrines and hence to sectarianism diversification in Egypt, Palestine and al Sham, as we had occasion to see earlier. But it was God’s pattern that reason shall constitute the apogee of human life, as long as it is not composed of empty logic, not devoid of feeling and spirit, and as long as it martials all these faculties in a synthesized effort to discover the secrets of the universe and achieve intimate knowledge of the cosmic pattern. Thus, it was decreed by God that soon the Prophet of Islam would rise to call men to the truth through reason, complemented by feeling and spirit, and that the one miracle of such a gnoseological synthesis should be the Holy Book revealed to His Prophet Muhammad. With Muhammad’s revelation and teaching, God completed for men their religion and granted them His blessings. With it, He climaxed all prophethood, concluded all revelation, and sealed it. But all this took place only after the prophets’ great and continuous effort and the messengers’ guiding of mankind in its spiritual deportment until it could reach the height of the Islamic call to faith and conviction in one God alone.
To complement and buttress this new conviction in the Divine “Unicity,” the duties discussed in the first part of this conclusion were instituted. All were designed to enable the believer to reach this pinnacle of vision. It is also man’s duty always to strive after a vision of God’s pattern in creation. That is what the Muslims strove to do in the early centuries of their history until they began to decline.
The arguments so far adduced refute the western Orientalists’ interpretation of Islamic determinism and the Qur’anic position on fate and the last hour. They prove without a shadow of doubt that Islam is a religion of striving and activism in all the theaters of life-the spiritual, the scientific, the religious, and the worldly. They prove that God’s immutable pattern in the cosmos is that man will get what his own deeds have earned for him and that God-may He be adored-will commit no injustice to anyone. Rather, it is men who commit injustice to themselves. Indeed, men do injustice to themselves when they think that they can achieve God’s blessing through stagnation and inactivity, through tawakul or lazy dependence, disguised as tawakkul or trust in God.
Material Wealth and Children
Although these arguments have proved this point without a doubt, I am unable to overlook one other argument that I consider extremely important. It is the argument implied in the divine statement:
“Wealth and children are the ornaments and joy of this life; but the good deeds, imperishable as they are, weigh more with your Lord. They are indeed better, and provide a sound basis for greater hopes.” [Qur’an, 18:46]
Nothing in the world incites us to greater exertion, striving, and work than the acquisition of wealth. In its pursuit, most men spend the greatest part of their energies. Indeed, they often outdo themselves. One look at our modern world is sufficient to perceive the strenuous persistence, the hardships, the wars, the revolutions, and the disturbances that occur all for the sake of wealth. For its sake monarchies become republics, blood is shed, and men lay down their lives. So much for wealth. As for children, they are pieces of our flesh groping the earth in front of us! What hardship will we not gladly bear for their sake! What bitterness will not taste sweet as long as it leads to their security, health and happiness! Every hardship we encounter on the road to their happiness becomes easy; every conflict becomes harmony. And there are men who for the sake of wealth and children would do that which would otherwise be impossible. Indeed, some people are so committed to such a pursuit that they would sacrifice their own happiness and even their lives.
Wealth and children, therefore, do constitute “the joy and ornament” of this world. An ornament is nothing, however, by comparison to the essence. No one would sacrifice the essence for the sake of an ornament except the ignorant and the insane, vain women and deluded youths. Vain women would expose their health to danger that they might appear beautiful for a few hours or less; and deluded youths would squander their wealth that their companions may applaud and acclaim them as masters. Such people are no less mad than those who pursue wealth and children, the ornaments and joy of this life, at the cost of everything else. To repeat, wealth and children do constitute a joy and an ornament. But the essence of life is the doing of righteous deeds which are imperishable. It is for the sake of this imperishable righteousness that we ought to devote the greater part of our effort and striving.
The nobility of purpose served by the last quoted verse of Holy Scripture is truly arresting. What it purports to say is that if it is natural that man spend his effort and blood for the sake of an ornament, he should spend his whole soul and mind for the sake of the essence; that he should make the ornament subject to the essence and, finally, that he should dedicate his own life, his wealth, and his children to the pursuit of this essence which consists of righteous deeds. For the latter weigh more with God. Righteousness is the worthier ideal. Its merit is greater and its promise is nobler. It is the higher hope of mankind.
How did the thinking of Muslims change so radically from this sane, healthy, and clear logic to the very opposite? We referred to this question accidentally in the first part of this conclusion when we discussed the change that the Muslims underwent as result of being conquered by foreigners at the close of the ‘Abbasi regime.
Shaykh Muhammad ‘Abduh’s Views
In the preface to the second edition we also mentioned how the government changed from being based upon consultation in the earliest period to a sheer contest of power during the Umawi period, and finally to rule by divine right during the ‘Abbasi period. On this point, let us quote the late professor and leader, Shaykh Muhammad ‘Abduh, who wrote in his book, Al Islam al Nasraniyyah, the following passage
“The religion of Islam was once purely Arab. Science was once Greek and then became Arab too. Subsequently, one of the ‘Abbasi caliphs committed a political mistake when he abused the tolerance of Islamic political theory. Suspecting that an army composed largely of Arabs might readily lend its support to a caliphal contender supporting the cause of
‘Ali, he sought to build for himself an army of aliens, particularly of Turks and Daylams, whom he thought he could rule by his authority, win with his largesse, and keep loyal to him against all his enemies. Islamic law is tolerant enough to allow the Muslim ruler to take such measures, and it was on this account that Muslim society fell under dominion of foreign elements.
“Thus, an ‘Abbasi caliph sought to secure himself on the caliphal throne and secure that throne for his progeny. He may have done well for himself and his children, but woe to him for what he did to his people and his religion. He increased the number of aliens in his army and appointed aliens to command it. But no sooner had he done so than these soldiers and their captains seized the upper hand, monopolized the political power, and subjected caliph, people, and state to their whims. These were still brutes not yet disciplined by Islam. Their hearts had not yet been sensitized to religious value. Rather, these frontiersmen came to the world of Islam with crudeness, ignorance, and injustice. Islam was for them a cover; little of it penetrated their consciousness, and only the superficial aspects of it influenced their thinking. Many of them even carried their own gods around with them but prayed with the Muslim masses in order to consolidate their power over them. Later, the world of Islam fell prey to the Tatars who held it in subjection for generations and who saw no other impediment to their sovereignty and power than knowledge which would make the people aware of the state of their masters and expose the immorality of their conduct. As a result, they became openly hostile to knowledge and to Islam itself, which promotes knowledge and requires its cultivation as an act of worship. As for knowledge, science, and wisdom, their cultivators were maltreated and most of them denied any assistance or subsidy. They encouraged their own protagonists to introduce themselves into the ranks of the men of knowledge, to wear their gowns, and pretend to belong to their circles. From this position, these protagonists began to teach in the name of religion such doctrines as would make knowledge hateful to the people and cause men to avoid striving for it. Their propaganda posed as piety, for they claimed that their new doctrines were designed but to safeguard the religion. They claimed that the religion was incomplete and they had set out to complete it; that it was diseased and they had set out to cure it; that it was floundering and they had set out to consolidate it; that it was about to collapse, and they had set out to rescue and support it.
The Life of Muhammad Page 78
