Islam
Friday Sermon: Thoughts on Islam 1: Prejudices and Ideological Biases
Published
2 months agoon
By
Eric
By Babatunde Jose
The understanding of Islam as a religion and as the dominating principle of a major world civilization is of great significance because it makes for a better appreciation of the worldview of more than 1.9 billion people of different nationalities and races.
Today Islam constitutes the second largest religious community in Europe and has a population almost the size of Judaism’s in America. The largest Muslim population in a country is in Indonesia, a country home to 12.7% of the world’s Muslims, followed by Pakistan (11.1%), India (10.9%) and Bangladesh (9.2%). About 20% of Muslims live in the Arab world. But most of all, the study of Islam is significant because it concerns a message from God revealed within that very Abrahamic world from which Judaism and Christianity originated.
These days, the reality of Islam penetrates the consciousness of contemporary Westerners from nearly every direction. Whether it is consequences of the decades-old Middle Eastern conflict between Arabs and Jews, the aftershocks of the upheavals of the Iranian Revolution, the civil war in Yugoslavia, where Muslim Bosnians were caught between feuding Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats, the breakup of the Soviet Union and the sudden appearance of a number of Muslim republics, and the tragic events of September 11, 2001, it seems that the reality of Islam have come to constitute an important dimension of the life of humanity today.
And yet there is no major religion whose study is more distorted in the West than Islam.
It is significant because Islam and its civilization have played a far greater role than is usually admitted in the genesis and development of European (and American) civilization.
The Quran is the third and final revelation of the Abrahamic monotheistic cycle and is, therefore, a religion without whose study the knowledge of the whole religious family to which Jews and Christians belong would be incomplete.
Contrary to misconception, fallacy and misunderstanding in Western quarters, Islam is both a religion and a civilization, a historical truth that spans over fourteen centuries of human history and a geographical presence in vast areas stretching over the Asian and African continents and even parts of Europe.
It is also a spiritual and metahistorical reality that has transformed the inner and outer life of numerous human beings in very different temporal and spatial circumstances.
The study of Islam in the West which began in the tenth and eleventh centuries, has been one-sided, distorted and contaminated by errors and deviations, some deliberate and some out of ignorance. Much that is presented today as the study of Islam by so-called experts is strongly influenced by various biases and ideological prejudices. Because this was a time in Europe when Islam was seen as a Christian heresy, and its founder as an apostate.
The initial expansion of Islam into uncharted territories of old Palestine and Byzantium provoked imminent threat to Christendom and led many to call the Prophet of Islam the Antichrist, and the Quran itself translated by order of Peter the Venerable in order to be refuted and rejected as sacred scripture.
Islam was born in the 7th Century; the Middle Ages or Medieval period were marked by strong religious opposition to Islam. The Muslim conquest of Persia in the late 7th century led to the downfall of the Sasanian Empire. Also conquered during this period were Syria, Palestine, Armenia, Egypt, and North Africa. This rapid expansion was to lead to a confrontation with Christendom and eventually the Crusades between 1095 to 1291.
The Renaissance perpetuated religious opposition to Islam, with disdain for Islamic learning, although there were some exceptions. Furthermore, the emphasis on Eurocentrism during the Renaissance caused many European thinkers of that time to consider people of other civilizations and ethnic groups, including Muslims, inferior.
Islamic studies were distorted by a sense of Western superiority and even hubris, characteristics that were to continue into the modern period.
The Enlightenment (1685 to 1815) developed the idea that there was only one civilization, the Western one. Obviously in such a situation Islam and its civilization could only play an inferior and secondary role.
During the nineteenth century, historicism in its absolutist sense took the center of the philosophical stage and Islamic civilization had no place in the scheme.
And yet this was the period when many of the greatest spiritual masterpieces of Islamic literature, especially many of the Sufi classics, were translated into European languages and seriously attracted major Western writers.
This was also the period when the exotic image of the Islamic East developed, as reflected in nineteenth-century European art associated with “orientalism.”
Moreover, this period marked the beginning of official oriental studies and Islamic studies, in various Western universities, often supported by colonial governments.
Oriental studies, in fact, developed as an instrument for furthering the policy of colonial powers, whether they were carried out in Central Asia for use by the Russian colonial office or in India for the British government.
But there were among the orientalists in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century also a number of noble scholars who studied Islam both objectively and with sympathy.
But the main product of the orientalist manner of studying Islam remained heavily biased not only as a result of the interests of those powers it was serving, but also through the absolutization of current Western concepts and methodologies that were applied to Islam with the sense of superiority and hubris going back to the Renaissance period.
The last half of the twentieth century witnessed a major transformation in Islamic studies in the West, at least in certain circles. First of all, spiritually aware Westerners who realized the spiritual poverty of modernism began to seek wisdom in other worlds. Some turned to the objective and unbiased study of the deepest teachings of Islam.
Furthermore, during this same period authentic representatives of the Islamic tradition, began to study Western thought and languages and gradually to produce works in European languages on Islam that were not simply apologetic but explained clearly and without compromise the teachings of Islam in a manner comprehensible to Westerners.
Finally, a younger generation of scholars have appeared on the scene during the past few years who are both Muslim and Western in orientation.
Despite the presence of such groups, however, the anti-Islamic approach to Islamic studies continues in many circles.
And then there are the political ideologues, who often have little knowledge of Islam yet are presented as experts on the subject; from them one hears the most egregious anti-Islamic statements touted in the media and in popular books as authentic knowledge of Islam.
They are joined in this chorus by a number of Christian voices from extremist groups who speak as if they were living in twelfth-century France at the time of the Crusades, but who are at the same time completely devoid of knowledge of traditional Christian theology, not to mention Christian humility and charity.
There is, in fact, no religion in the world about which Western authors have written so much and at the same time in such a pejorative way as Islam.
Islam is not only a religion; it is also the creator and living spirit of a major world civilization with a long history stretching over fourteen centuries. Islamic history concerns the historic existence of the peoples of many lands, from North Africa to Malaysia, over vast spans of time.
It has witnessed the creation of some of the greatest empires and the integration into a single social order of many diverse ethnic and linguistic groups. Islamic history has, moreover, directly affected the history of Europe for over a millennium and has been in turn deeply affected by the West since the advent of the colonial period.
Islamic civilization produced a very rich tradition in the aural arts of poetry and music. Islamic civilization created many musical instruments, such as the tār (from Persian: ‘string’) a long-necked, waisted lute family instrument, used by many cultures and countries including Iran, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Georgia, Tajikistan (Iranian Plateau), Turkey, and others near the Caucasus and Central Asia regions; and the ‘ūd (a pear-shaped stringed instrument.), which were to find their counterparts in the guitar and the lute in the West.
The contributions of Islamic science are so great and complex that they cannot even be summarized in a proper and meaningful way in a short essay like this. Suffice it to say, for some seven centuries Islamic science was, from the point of view of creativity, at the forefront of science globally.
Not only did Muslims synthesize Greco-Alexandrian, ancient Mesopotamian, Iranian, Indian, and to some extent Chinese science, but they created many new sciences or added new chapters to the ancient sciences. For example, in mathematics they expanded the study of the geometry of the Greeks and created the new disciplines of trigonometry and algebra.
Likewise, in medicine they furthered the studies of Hippocratic and Galenic medicine while diagnosing and distinguishing new diseases, discovering new remedies, and proposing new theories. The same can be said for numerous other sciences, from alchemy to astronomy, from physics to geology.
The global history of science has as one of its central chapter’s Islamic science, without which there would have been no Western science.
Finally, let it be said that Islam is not only a religion; it is also the creator and living spirit of a major world civilization with a long history stretching over fourteen centuries.
Today, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. According to the Pew Research projections, by 2050 there will be near parity between Muslims (2.8 billion, or 30% of the population) and Christians (2.9 billion, or 31%), possibly for the first time in history. Allahu Akbar!
Next, we shall examine Islam as the final revelation in the Abrahamic trilogy.
Barka Juma’at and happy weekend.
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Islam
Friday Sermon: Ramadan: Time for Religious and Divine Reflection 1
Published
3 days agoon
March 24, 2023By
Eric
By Babatunde Jose
Ramadan is the (month) in which was sent down the Koran, as a guide to mankind, also Clear (Signs) for guidance and judgement (between right and wrong). So every one of you who is present (at his home) during that month should spend it in fasting, but if any one is ill, or on a journey, the prescribed period (should be made up) by days later. Allah intends every facility for you; He does not want to put you to difficulties. (He wants you) to complete the prescribed period, and to glorify Him in that He has guided you; and perchance ye shall be grateful. (Surat Al-Baqarah 2:185)
Muslims welcome the holy month of Ramadan with simple and minimal decoration as the holy month does not stand as a celebration but as a time for religious and divine reflection. It is a time for spiritual stocktaking and moral revival. It is a time of rejuvenation of religious and moral piety and reaffirmation of faith. Even the diehard and titular Moslems undergo a behavioral and attitudinal change during this month.
The mosques are filled to capacity and the whole community assumes an atmosphere of religiosity: A time when even the confirmed sinners seek the benevolence of Allah; a time when evil and vile men seek atonement for their iniquities. Such is the month of Ramadan.
Perchance, our leaders will take advantage of the promise of forgiveness from Allah to turn a new leaf and do the needful in making our life better and seek the path of righteousness. We have suffered enough as a people and this suffering does not need to continue.
With the resources with which we have been endowed, there is enough for everyone to bask in the prosperity of our God-given provisions. But when a few conspire to deny the majority their rightful share of the commonwealth, they sentence the people into penury, want, misery and poverty. Ramadan is therefore, an opportunity for sober reflection and a chance for meaningful and positive change.
Those who have perfected the ignoble art of cheating their fellowmen and converting the common patrimony into personal wealth have an opportunity to rethink and change. If only we know that the end is nearer than we think.
Abu Huraira narrated that Allah’s Messenger, said: “When the month of Ramadan starts, the gates of heaven are opened and the gates of Hell are closed and the devils are chained.” [Bukhari] Fasting in Ramadan is therefore a shield from Hell; fasting subdues sinful desires and reduces their severity: It is these desires and lusts that lead to Hell Fire.
The Quran talks about the reward of fasting and there are verses which general meaning infers that those who obey Allah will be saved from Hell, and fasting is a form of obeying Allah.
The Hadith of our beloved Prophet Mohammad, are clear in this regard; Abu Said al-Khudri reported that the Messenger of Allah, said: “No servant fasts on a day in the path of Allah except that Allah removes the Hell Fire seventy years further away from his face.” (Bukhari and Muslim) Abu Said al-Khudri also relates that the Messenger of Allah said: “Fasting is a shield with which a servant protects himself from the Fire” (Ahmad, Sahih)
`Uthman Ibn Abil-`Aas relates that the Messenger of Allah said: “Whoever fasts a day in the way of Allah, Allah places between him and the Fire a trench like that between heavens and the earth”. (At-Tirmidhi and at-Tabarani, sahih)
Ramadan: (also Romanized as Ramzan, Ramadhan, or Ramathan) is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting (Sawm) to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran.
The month of Ramadan traditionally begins with a new moon sighting, marking the start of the ninth month in the Islamic calendar. … This is considered as the holiest season in the Islamic year and commemorates the time when the Quran is said to have been revealed to Prophet Muhammad.
Ramadan is considered to be one of the Five Pillars of Islam. During the month of Ramadan, adult Muslims fast from dusk until dawn, unless they are ill, pregnant, or diabetic, breastfeeding, or traveling.
There is also a verse in the Quran (Quran 2:185) that prescribes fasting for all Muslims who are mature and healthy enough to fast for the full day. So, Muslims fast as an act of worship, a chance to get closer to God and a way to become more compassionate to those in need.
O you who believe! Guard your own souls: If you follow the right guidance, no harm can come to you from those who stray. The goal of you all is to Allah. It is He who will show you the truth of all that you do. (Quran 5:105)
A deep reflection on the institution of Fast reveals the various ways in which fasting helps in the mending of habits and development of character and God consciousness.
With the onset of Ramadan, it behooves each fasting person to open a page from the book of muhasabah (critical self-evaluation) and to reflect on what is being achieved through the month.
What benefits are derived, which behaviors are adjusted, what good practices are adopted, which bad habits are being relinquished? How does the prayers and fasting of Ramadan influence attitudes and perspectives; how is it improving relationships with families, friends and neighbors; how much has it increased consciousness of responsibility towards the destitute; how is it impacting on the body, the heart, the mind and the soul?
If there is a genuine effort towards the spiritualization of one’s being, the moralization of consciousness, empathy in attitude and goodness in conduct; then perchance a concerted effort is being made of treading on the pathway towards the objective of fasting – the attainment of taqwa (piety). Truly, the month of Ramadan is a season for spiritual stocktaking.
In a world, increasingly amoral, perception is considered reality. How one appears to the world has overtaken the substance of who we really are. Taqwa is in reality character development coupled with God-consciousness. Character is not only the face in the mirror, but the real person behind the face.
The pursuance of piety begins by making our reputation a reflection of our character. Reputation may be reflected in what people write about you on your tombstone, character is what angels report about you to Allah; and that is the most important.
Ramadan is an ideal training period for filtering out bad habits and developing virtuous character. It is therefore a good time for our leaders to turn a new leaf, lest ‘we the people’ decide to chase them out like Oliver Cromwell did the ‘Long Parliament’ in 1653.
Cromwell’s speech aptly reflects the character of our leaders today: “It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.”
“Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you has not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth? Ye sordid prostitutes; have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation”.
If only they would change in the spirit of Ramadan! Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said: “Your practice of faith will not be correct unless your actions are correct, and your actions will not be considered correct unless your heart is correct.” Ramadan is therefore a period for spiritual rejuvenation as it offers the opportunity for a unique expression of worship.
From ethical and moral perspectives, we should contemplate the higher purpose and the deeper meaning of our lives, trying to live meaningfully, balancing our physicality with our spirituality.
While fasting, we are far more aware of the hunger of the poor and the suffering of the oppressed and are therefore instructed to be more generous this month. This promotes attentiveness to social responsibility, interest in the welfare of society and inspires a continued spirit of generosity. The Qur’an refers to the fasting ones as sa’ihin/spiritual wayfarers. So, the journey of Ramadan motivates each person to perpetuate the positive spirit being imbibed and to continue on the spiritual journey towards fulfilment and excellence.
It is easy to talk about the world’s problem of hunger. We can feel sorry that millions of people go to bed hungry each day. But not until one can actually feel it in one’s own body is the impact truly there.
Compassion based on empathy is much stronger and more consistent than compassion based on pity. This feeling must lead to action. Fasting is never an end in itself; that’s why it has so many different outcomes. But all the other outcomes are of no real moral value if compassion is not enlarged and extended through fasting.
It is therefore in the interest of our fasting leaders and those not fasting to shed the toga of iniquity, selfishness and corruption and for once think of the poor masses who are not only defenseless but also hungry. It is only by doing this that the fast can have spiritual reward and meaning.
As the prophet Isaiah said, “The kind of fasting I want is this: remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free. Share your food with the hungry and open your homes to the homeless poor” (Isaiah 58:3-7)
May Allah accept our fast, prayers and supplications, Ameen.
Ramadan Kareem and Barka Jumu’ah
CHARITY BRINGS PEACE TO THE GIVER:
Among the factors that contribute to one’s happiness are performing acts of kindness to others and giving charity. O ye who believe! Spend out of (the bounties) we have provided for you, before the Day comes when no bargaining (will avail), nor friendship, nor intercession. Those who reject Faith–they are the wrongdoers. (Quran 2: 254)
And the likeness of those who spend their substance, seeking to please Allah and to strengthen their souls, is as a garden, high and fertile: Heavy rain falls on it but makes it yield a double increase of harvest, and if it receives not heavy rain, light moisture sufficeth it. Allah seeth well whatever ye do. (Quran 2:265)
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Friday Sermon: The Soul: The Mystery of Life, Death and Resurrection
Published
1 week agoon
March 17, 2023By
Eric
By Babatunde Jose
The soul is a controversial concept that is defined from several perspectives. Since the soul is an immeasurable material, it is impossible to prove whether or not it actually exists. However, many people express their own viewpoints on the soul and argue they have indeed figured out the answer. The concept provides an abstract perspective on the notion of life, and who we are as individuals.
The human soul is a concept that has been accepted for a long period of time; however, the perspective on the human soul has evolved with time. Generally speaking, the human soul is the unphysical part of the human being. Various disciplines (religion, psychology, and neuroscience) use different terms to describe the human soul, but they are all referring to the same general concept.
“Soul” is a term that is most commonly used within the Christian context while academic disciplines and other religions may use the term interchangeably with other words.
Psychology uses words such as “consciousness”, or “mind” to describe the soul while neuroscience uses the term soul but do not fully believe in its existence.
Before modern science, humans defined the concept of the soul from a religious point of view. They portrayed the soul to be a mystical and divine non-visible entity that existed within the body. As science advanced, the concept has evolved into a physical/materialistic viewpoint.
For a long time, it was not socially acceptable or technologically possible to research the human soul. This would go against traditional religious views and would be looked down upon by society.
In What Becomes of The Soul After Death, Sri Swami Sivananda, said Soul is spirit. “It is immaterial. It is intelligence or consciousness. It is this individual soul that departs from the body after its death and goes to heaven, with the senses, mind, Prana, impressions, desires, and tendencies. It is endowed with a subtle astral body when it proceeds to heaven.”
Oskar Ernst Bernhardt (1875-1841), that sage, author, and founder of the Grail Movement, in Resonances to the Grail Message, conjectured, “As soon as the heavy earthly body together with the astral body has fallen away, the spirit remains clad in the more delicate cloaks only. In this condition the spirit is called “the soul” in contradistinction to the earthman of flesh and blood! He went further to emphasize “only the animal has a soul that guides it. Man, however, has spirit!”
In retrospect therefore, we find that soul and spirit are interchanged in usage: The spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal.
What, therefore, is the perceived difference between soul and spirit? The Greek word for spirit is pneuma. It refers to the part of man that connects and communicates with God. Our spirit differs from our soul because our spirit is always pointed toward and exists exclusively for God, whereas our soul can be self-centered.
Where then is our soul located? The soul or atman, credited with the ability to enliven the body, was located by ancient anatomists and philosophers in the lungs or heart, and according to Descartes in the pineal gland, and generally in the brain.
When a person dies what happens to the soul? When we die, our spirit and body separate. Even though our body dies, our spirit—which is the essence of who we are—lives on. Our spirit goes to the spirit world. The spirit world is a waiting place until we receive the gift of resurrection, when our spirits will reunite with our bodies.
In the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible allusion is made to the spirit of man and beast: For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth? Ecc. 3: 19-21
In theology, the soul is further defined as that part of the individual which partakes of divinity and often is considered to survive the death of the body.
Many cultures have recognized some incorporeal principle of human life or existence corresponding to the soul, and many have attributed souls to all living things. There is evidence even among prehistoric peoples of a belief in an aspect distinct from the body and residing in it.
Despite widespread and longstanding belief in the existence of a soul, however, different religions and philosophers have developed a variety of theories as to its nature, its relationship to the body, and its origin and mortality.
The Qur’an talks about the Soul, but the meaning of Ruh in verse 85 of Surah Al-Isra has been translated in many places to mean spirit: “They ask you, Muhammad, about the Soul (Ruh). Tell them: ‘This is confined to the knowledge of God. Whatever knowledge you have been given about that is a very little portion.’”
When the ulama (religious scholars) talk about the Soul, they talk about its characteristics only; they do not talk about what it is. Some scholars say it is like the water in a rose or a flower, it gives it life. Others nowadays offer an analogy with electricity in a wire – if there is electricity flowing in the wire it is said to be alive, if not the wire is dead.
But the Soul, per se, no one has been able to define it and the field is wide open for more thinking; it is not closed. We are urged to seek knowledge about the Soul. We may not reach our goal, but we have to try.
And there is the other question: Where was the Soul before it entered the body? Nobody knows. All we know is that the Soul is the second stage in the creation of a human being. It is often regarded as the ‘breath’ that gives life to God’s creation in the womb.
In Sura Al Mu’minūn, Quran 23:14, Allah describes the process of the new creation.
Then comes the third question: When the Soul separates from the body upon death where does it go? And what happens to it?
Al mawt, or death, is a separation of the material element – the body – from the spiritual element – the Soul. The body goes back to the earth from where it came, and the Soul goes back from where it came. The Qur’an says: “From the earth We created you and to it We will return you.” (Quran 20:55) But the Soul, not even knowing what it is, and since it is a secret, we don’t know where it goes.
Some ulama think that the Soul in certain contexts continues to hear and to observe. The practice of visiting the grave, especially after ‘Asr on Thursday and on Friday morning is on the basis of this opinion because some ulama say that the Soul visits the grave in which its body was buried at those times. And those same ulama say that the Soul hears the greeting of “As Salaam” and it observes those visitors who offer the greetings.
But in the final analysis they say that the place of the Soul is with God and its position differs according to what that person did during his life. These are the ijtehad (research) of the ulama, but the Soul is shrouded in mystery and secrecy, and it is very hard to discover its secrets though we are urged to seek knowledge about it.
Death is separation of the soul from the physical body. Death becomes the starting point of a new and better life. Death does not end your personality and self-consciousness. It merely opens the door to a higher form of life. Death is only the gateway to a fuller life.
According to the Hindus, birth and death are jugglery of Maya. He who is born begins to die. He who dies begins to live. Life is death and death is life. Birth and death are merely doors of entry and exist on the stage of this world. In reality no one comes, no one goes.
Just as you move from one house to another house, the soul passes from one body to another to gain experience. Just as a man casting off worn-out garments takes new ones, so the dweller in this body, casting off worn-out bodies, enters into others which are new.
Death is not the end of life. Life is one continuous never-ending process. Death is only a passing and necessary phenomenon, which every soul has to pass to gain experience for its further evolution.
Dissolution of the body is no more than sleep. Just as man sleeps and wakes up, so is death and birth. Death is like sleep. Birth is like waking up.
Resurrection is rising again from the dead. Resurrection, judgement by God, reward or punishment are the three important tenets of Islam, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism.
The Jews, who lent this doctrine to the Christians and Muslims, themselves borrowed it from the Persians. According to some writers the resurrection will be merely spiritual. The general opinion, however, is that both body and soul will be raised from the grave.
It may be asked how will the body which has been decomposed rise again? Prophet Mohammed says one part of the body is preserved to serve as a basis for future edifice, or rather a leaven for the mass which is to be joined to it. For he taught, that a man’s body was entirely consumed by the earth, except only the bone called al Ajib, which we name the coccygis, or rump-bone; and that as it was the first formed in the human body, it will also remain uncorrupted till the last day, as a seed from whence the whole is to be renewed: and this he said would be effected by a forty days rain which God would send, and which would cover the earth to the height of twelve cubits, and cause the bodies to sprout forth like plants.
The Jews also say the same thing of the bone Luz, but they say that the body would sprout by a dew impregnating the dust of the earth.
As to the answers to the many questions raised by the concept of Soul, Allah knows best.
It is therefore in this vein and with total submission to God that we commiserate with our brother Enitan Oshodi and his wife Bisola on the passing of their daughter Hameedat Olamide Oshodi. May Allah admit her to Jannatul Firdous. “Heaven has gained an Angel and Earth has lost a beautiful Soul.” Inna Lillah wa Ina Ilehi Rajiun.
Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend.
THE MEANING OF LIFE:
Robert Louis Stevenson said: “Every person is capable of performing his daily tasks, no matter how difficult they are, and every person is capable of living happily during his day until the sun sets: and this is the meaning of life.”
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Friday Sermon: Thoughts on Islam 5: Sufism and Islamic Mysticism
Published
2 weeks agoon
March 10, 2023By
Eric
By Babatunde Jose
Sufism also known as Tasawwuf, is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ritualism, asceticism, and esotericism.
Sufism originated after the death of Mohammed in 632, but it did not develop into orders until the 12th Century. The orders were formed around spiritual founders, who gained saint status. There are over 300 Sufi orders.
It has been variously defined as “Islamic mysticism”, “the mystical expression of Islamic faith”, “the inward dimension of Islam”, the “main manifestation and the most important and central crystallization” of mystical practice in Islam, and “the interiorization and intensification of Islamic faith and practice”.
According to the late medieval mystic, the Persian poet Jami, Abd-Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah (died c. 716) was the first person to be called a “Sufi”.
Sufis believe in intercession of saints which can provide solace from the travails of life. Away from the desires of the material world, Sufis believe a connection with a saint can build a connection with Allah.
Practitioners of Sufism typically belonged to “orders” known as tariqa – congregations formed around a grand wali (Wali is an Arabic word with a number of meanings, including, protector, helper, a man close to God, or holy man).
Among the Sufi tariqa, the two most prominent in West Africa are the Qadiriyyah and Tijaniyya.
The Qadiriyyah order is one of the oldest Sufi Orders. The tariqa got its name from Abd-al-Qadir al-Jilani, who was a Hanbali scholar from Gilan, Iran. The order relies strongly upon adherence to the fundamentals of Sunni Islamic law. The order is one of the most widespread of the Sufi orders in the Islamic world, and can be found in Central Asia, Turkey, Balkans and much of East and West Africa.
Qadiriyyah are adherents of the doctrine of free will (from qadar, “power”). The name was also applied to the Mu’tazila, the Muslim theological school that believed that humankind, through its free will, can choose between good and evil.
The Tijaniyya order attaches a large importance to culture. Ahmad al-Tijani (1737–1815) was born in Aïn Madhi in Algeria and died in Fes, Morocco. He founded the Tijani order in the 1780s.
Tijanis established Centers in Medina Munawwarah, Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, Mauritania, and Algeria. It also expanded into West Africa and grew to become the largest Sufi order in that region.
The two dominant Sufi orders in Nigeria are also Qadiriyyah and Tijaniyya. In the late ’70s there emerged a group popularly known as Izalatul-Bid’a wa-iqamatus Sunnah (Movement for the removal of innovation and establishment of the tradition), inspired by late Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, the former grand Qadi of the defunct northern region.
The Izala group differed in a number of fundamental aspects. They primarily attacked Sufi groups, accusing them of innovations, apostasy, intercession, celebrating maulud, and Salat al-fatih. This critique resulted in fostering unity between the two prominent Sufi orders who joined forces to defend Sufism against the criticisms of Izala
One contentious issue is the view with regard to the death of Jesus which the Izalas firmly believe that he will not return to earth. But the Sufi orders argue contrary to this view.
Sufis believe that Jesus did not die and will one day return as clearly stated by the prophet. For example, they said that God had raised prophet Idris to heaven in the same way he raised Jesus. The Sufi followers also argue that God also made it possible for Jonah to supplicate in the womb of a whale without any harm, and later continued with his life in this world.
In the Qur’an, Surah al-Kahf, God also made it possible for the “People of the Cave” to remain in their cave for 309 years without eating or drinking anything and they later continued with their normal life in this world (Quran 18:10-25).
Another point of departure is the issue of Tawassul (intercession). It is translated as “a means that can be used to gain nearness to God”. Therefore, the typical meaning of tawassul or tawassulanis is use of wasilat to obtain nearness to God. Requesting assistance from a spiritual intermediary when seeking divine help has also become a central issue in the Middle East and beyond. Scholars disagree on the validity or otherwise of intercession; some argued that it is valid in Islam, while others disagree.
Tawassul means a fervent plea. There are the permitted and the prohibited. The permitted is by means of faith and righteous deeds, and use of the glorious names of God, and his attributes.
The prohibited one is entreaty using the name of the messenger, pious people and the awliya. The Izala assert that it is shirk (idolatry) to perform such worship as it breaks the belief in the oneness of God. They support their argument with the following verse: “O you who believe, be mindful of your duty towards God and seek the means of approach and strive in His cause as much as you can, so that you may be successful” (Quran 5:35). But incidentally, the same Ayat in Surah al-Ma’idah is used by the Sufis to counter this claim.
Sufis argued that intercession through the prophet Muhammad and the saints is permissible in Islam. “O you who believe! Fear Allah and seek a ‘wasila’ to him” (5:35). In Arabic ‘wasila’ stands for a link, a means to an end or an intermediary.
The major conflicting areas as far as Salat al-fatih is concerned includes the authenticity of its origin, its form of revelation, the reward ascribed to it, its content and when it was discovered. The Izala group, stressed that God only reveals himself to his prophets and messengers, and prophet Muhammad is the last of them and therefore the seal of revelation. The following verse of the Qur’an was often used to substantiate such a position: This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion. (Quran 5:3)
Specifically on this issue, the adherents of tariqah (Tijjaniyya, Qadiriyyah) argued that the above verse did not mark the end of revelation. They maintained that prophet Muhammad lived for 81 days after the revelation of the above verse. Between the times when the above verse in Ma’idah was revealed and his death the following verses were revealed:
Ayat 176 of Surah al-Nisa’. The prophet lived 50 days after its revelation.
Ayat 128 of Surah al-Tawbah. Muhammad lived 35 days after its revelation.
Ayat 281 of Surah al-Baqarah. Prophet Muhammad lived 21 days after its revelation.
The above explanation clearly shows that, many verses were revealed after the verse of Ma’ida, and according to many scholars several hadith qudsiyyah were recorded few days before he died.
Prominent Sufi leaders in history were Emir Abdelkader al-Qadir al-Jazairi (1808-1883) a venerated Algerian Islamic scholar and a military leader who led a collective resistance against the mid-nineteenth century French colonial invasion of Algeria.
Omar al-Mukhtar Muḥammad bin Farhat al-Manifī, called The Lion of the Desert, known among the colonial Italians as Matari of the Mnifa, was the leader of native resistance in Cyrenaica under the Senussids, against the Italian colonization of Libya.
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadhi, commonly known by the epithet Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria.
The branch, known as the Tijāniyyah Ibrahimiyya or the Faydah (“Flood”), is mostly concentrated in Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, Niger, and Mauritania, and has a growing presence in the United States and Europe.
Ibrahim Niasse (1900–1975) was a Senegalese Sufi leader, a Wolof, of the Tijānī Sufi order. His followers in the Senegambia region affectionately refer to him in Wolof as Baay, or “father.”
Niasse was the first West African to have led al-Azhar Mosque in Egypt, after which he was styled “Sheikh al-Islam”. He was friends with and an adviser to Ghana’s first President, Kwame Nkrumah, and friends with Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. Sheikh served as the Vice President of the Muslim World League with Faisal as President.
Born in 1900 in the village of Tayba Naseen, between the Senegalese city of Kaolack and the border of Gambia, he was the son of Allaaji Abdulaay Nas (1840–1922), the main representative of the Tijānī Sufi Order, often referred to as Tareeqat al-Tijaniyya. Ibrahim relocated with his father to the city of Kaolack, where they established the zawiya (religious center) of Lewna Naseen.
After his father’s death in 1922, Shaykh Ibrahim’s elder brother, Muhammad al-Khalifa, became his father’s successor or Khalifa.
In 1929, the youthful Shaykh Ibrahim announced that he had been given the Key to Secrets of Divine Knowledge, and thus became the Khalifa of Sheikh Tijani in the Tijaniyya Order.
Tareeqa al-Tijaniyya al-Ibrahimiyya, as the Shaykh’s disciples came to be known, flourished, and gained large numbers of followers during the 1930s and 1940s throughout North and West Africa.
In 1937 upon meeting Shaykh Ibrahim during a pilgrimage to Makkah, the Emir of Kano, Alhaji ‘Abdullahi Bayero gave his oath of allegiance to the Shaykh and declared himself a disciple of Shaykh Ibrahim. That incident made Shaykh Ibrahim gain the allegiance of many of the prominent Tijānī leaders of Northern Nigeria and also many others who were not Tijani prior to this time.
Alhaji Abdulmalik Atta – a prince from Okene and the first High Commissioner of Nigeria to the United Kingdom – was one of Shaykh Ibrahim’s closest disciples as well as the his father-in-law through his daughter Sayyida Bilkisu.
Shaykh Ibrahim became a renowned Shaykh al-Tareeqa (Master of the Sufi Order) throughout the Hausa areas of West Africa. In the end, he had more disciples outside of Senegal than within it. At the time of his death in 1975, Shaykh Ibrahim Niass had millions of followers throughout West Africa. His branch of the Tijaniyya, Tareeqa al-Tijaniyya al-Ibrahimiyya has become the largest branch in the world.
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, known by the religious title Khalifa Sanusi II, is a spiritual leader in the Tijaniyya Sufi order of Nigeria. He was emir of the ancient city-state of Kano. He was born in Kano in 1961 into the royal family as the grandson of Muhammadu Sanusi I. As the Khalifa of the Tijaniyya Sufi order of Nigeria, he arguably has a politico-spiritual authority over the second largest Sufi order, with over 30 million adherents.
Barka Juma’at and happy weekend.
DO NOT GRIEVE – THERE IS ANOTHER LIFE TO COME:
These are indeed trying times in our clime, but Allah, the Exalted, said: Only those who are patient shall receive their rewards in full, without reckoning. (Qur’an 39: 10)
Do not grieve — There is another life to come.
The day will come when Allah will gather together the first of the creation and the last of it. The knowledge of this occurrence alone should reassure you of Allah’s justice. So, whoever’s money is usurped here shall find it there; whoever is oppressed here shall find justice carried out there; and whoever oppresses here shall find his punishment there.
Immanuel Kant, the German philosopher, said: ‘The drama of this life is not complete; there must be a second scene to it, for we see the tyrant and his victims without seeing justice being executed. We see the conqueror and the subjugated, without the latter finding any revenge. Therefore, there must be another world, where justice will be carried out”
Ash-Shaykh ‘Ali at-Tantawi, commenting on this, said: ‘This statement suggests a confession from this foreigner (to Islam), of the existence of a Hereafter where judgment will take place.”
An Arab poet said: “If the minister and his delegates rule despotically, And the judge on earth is unjust in his judgments, then woe, followed by woe after woe Upon the judge of the earth from the judge Who is above.”
“This Day shall every person be recompensed for what he earned. No injustice (shall be done to anybody)’. Truly, Allah is Swift in reckoning.” (Quran 40: 17)
Therefore, Do not grieve — There is another life to come. In Sha Allah, There is another life to come!
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