Connect with us

Islam

Friday Sermon: Thoughts on Islam 1: Prejudices and Ideological Biases

Published

on

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.

 +2348033110822

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Islam

Friday Sermon: Mysteries of Life and Death 4: Esoteric Beliefs

Published

on

By

By Babatunde Jose

“Some seem to take the mystery to be that we cannot know or even conceive of what being dead will be like. This might be thought to follow from the fact that most of us who are living have no recollection of ever having been dead, and thus we lack first-hand experience of what death is like.”

The nexus between life and death cannot be overemphasized. While the idiosyncratic nature and meanings of ‘life’ and ‘death’ appear to a layman as clear and distinct, it seems to be a controversial subject of debate among scholars on what these terms actually entail.

One mystery which relates to life after death is the issue of metempsychosis. Metempsychosis, also known as reincarnation, is the belief that a soul is immortal and passes through cycles of life and death in different bodies.

The theory may have originated from the teachings of Pythagoras, who may have been influenced by the Indian concept of reincarnation.

Metempsychosis is a belief that is common to many religions and philosophies across the world. It was once prevalent in many parts of the world, but is now more commonly associated with Asia, especially India.

Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism have different beliefs about rebirth. Christianity and Islam have largely rejected reincarnation, though some sub-sects are still interested in it. Theosophical society and other mystic and esoteric schools have their own unique descriptions of rebirth.

It is natural for humans to be curious about death, including the death of others. Death is a universal human experience, and understanding it can help us make sense of our own mortality and the meaning of life. Additionally, death is often surrounded by mystery and uncertainty, which can make it even more intriguing.

Transmigration of souls is a topic which evokes emotive arguments but which is never resolved because it relates to spirits, paranormal and supernatural phenomenon that are not amenable to empiricism. However, there are some aspects which defy rational explanations, hence the mystery. One of such phenomenon is the Akudaya syndrome.

The same goes for the Abiku phenomenon which with the advances in healthcare and improvement in infant mortality the scourge has been considerably reduced, but cannot be dismissed.

According to late Professor Sophie Oluwole, “African Traditional thought claims three types of justification for the belief in reincarnation (Oluwole, 1996). The first is family resemblance, in which case, children resemble their dead ancestors, having some physical and mental features identical with theirs. Secondly, the unnatural and circumstantial marks made on some people, such as gunshot and deliberate deformities on the dead do also reappear on the child that is born. This cannot adequately be explained as a biological family trait. The deformities mete out on the bodies of the babies out of desperation to stop them from coming back, appear on those children when they are reborn. The third justification is memory transfer. This is attested to by the stories of children who could recount real life experiences of their ancestors with astonishing details, yet had no first hand access to the stories of such ancestors. All these justifications for reincarnation are well maintained among the Yoruba people as well.”

The mystery of life and death along with the concept of soul and body is a deep philosophical matter and it requires great rationality, prudence, contemplation, observation and intensive study and analytical research to understand it.

Akudaya is a supernatural phenomenon in Yoruba culture that involves the dead coming back to life, often after burial, and in places where they were not known in life. The story of Iya Risikat narrated here is a case in point.

Dayo, a job seeker in Lagos relates his experience: “Iya Risikat was a popular Ewa Agonyin seller in Brown Street in Ipaja, Lagos. After my secondary school, I left Ekiti to settle down in Lagos with my eldest brother in Ipaja. After my first week in Lagos, I decided to familiarize myself with my new environment. After walking some distance, I saw the shop of the famous Iya Risikat, the Agonyin beans seller.

“On getting there, I was shocked to see Iya Titi; a woman who had died in an auto crash along with her husband many years ago in my village in Ekiti.

“I could not believe it and immediately I ran home and narrated my finding to my brother. He picked up his phone and called our mother in the village to tell her that “Iya Titi is not dead”. Before he could hang up the call, my mother had already told her neighbors that Iya Titi was seen in Lagos selling beans.

“Before dusk, her relatives had already sent emissaries of five family members to investigate the assertion. Before the emissaries could get to Lagos, the news of Iya Risikat’s death had already gone viral throughout the whole area.

“The emissaries arrived in Lagos, but Iya Risikat’s body had already been laid to rest according to the Muslim rite. When they got there, they met everyone crying including her husband and the kids. The emissaries never believed until they saw a big family picture of her sitting beside her husband and children”.

Not only had she started another family in Lagos but had died twice. How do we explain this? Yet: “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

It would not be the last of such stories. A man died in Zimbabwe and was seen by his cousin in New York, he claimed he was there on holidays. Another woman died at childbirth in Lagos and was sighted at Alagomeji entering a bus going towards Oyingbo; she claimed her husband sent her to Oyingbo market. Kunle picked up a lady at a party and brought her home, after getting into the act, he saw her off to her house. She entered her yard in his presence. Next day he went to visit her. After the people in her house interrogated him, they then told him the lady in question had died months ago and could not have been possible. How then do we explain the bizarre story?

A good example of transmigration or bodily resurrection is the all-time story of the resurrection of Jesus in 33 AD. See (John 20:11-18). Jesus wasn’t the only one believed to have risen from the dead. Stories of resurrection appear in ancient cultures around the world. See History Channel.

Jesus said of John the Baptist, “He is Elijah who is to come” (Matt 11:14), which some say is figurative and means that Jesus was talking about the spirit of Elijah coming on to John the Baptist. Spirit or body, it is still a phenomena of transmigration.

The most common view has been that, at death, the soul immediately goes to be with God and there is a continuity of personal existence. There is no interruption of life at the end of this life, but we continue to be alive in our personal souls upon death.

Why then are we scared of death? This can be related to fears of the unknown, of non-existence, of eternal punishment, of the loss of control, or fear of what will happen to the people we love.

In a sense, death is the ultimate purveyor of perspective. It helps us see trivial things for what they are—and face up to the fact that much of what we worry about and consume ourselves with isn’t so important after all. Reflecting on death can help us stop fretting about things that are outside our control. Thi ngs that are metaphysical and supernatural.

One of the most important teachings of the Qur’an is the survival of the soul after separation from the body, and that death is not the end of human life, but is an appendage to another life. All verses in the Quran which are about resurrection also indicate the immortality of the soul.

However, not everything can be known by man with our current mind and intelligence that are far limited to perceive such paranormal phenomenon.

But, one thing is very clear: Human mind’s greatest weakness is to make concepts that fit into its belief and then believe it is the absolute truth. Such diverse beliefs have led to the origin of religions. Each religion and each spiritual teacher differs in their view of existence or mechanism of rebirths. However, there cannot be many truths. So it appears that the “Truth” is beyond the reach of the mind. The only sure thing is that death is inevitable. Thus, we all will find out sooner or later!

At the end of the day, the sterling truth about death is that it is the greatest relief from intractable sickness, miserable life, excruciating pain caused by incurable disease, and a life of misery and pain. Death puts an end to all these and brings succor to the family of the dead.

 

Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un. Last Friday we lost Alhaji Bashiru Ayoola Bakare a director of Caverton Offshore Support Group Plc., and former Executive Director of First Bank Plc. Bashiru was a childhood friend, just as his late father Justice Bakare was my father’s childhood friend too. May Allah admit ‘Bashey boy’ to Jannatul Firdous.

Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend

 

Milestone: Hurray! Our amiable sister, Dr. Yetunde Aderemi (Hajja Yets), will climb to the seventh floor of life as she celebrates her 70th birthday tomorrow, 9th November. We wish her a Happy Birthday. May Allah preserve her, bless and bless her children, bless her new age and grant her good in this world and in the Hereafter; May her days be long.

Continue Reading

Islam

Friday Sermon: Mysteries of Life and Death 3: The Soul

Published

on

By

By Babatunde Jose

One of the mysteries of life and death is the concept of the soul which needs to be addressed before examining the other mysteries of death as it has a bearing on the concept of rebirth, resurrection, transmigration and reincarnation.

The doctrine of transmigration of souls, or tanasukh, is not accepted in Islam: Ibn Sina argued that transmigration is untenable because every living being is governed by one soul.

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. The concept provides an abstract perspective on the notion of life, and who we are as individuals.

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 terms.

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.

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 (1875-1941), 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.

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 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.

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 Quran 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.’”(Quran 17:85)

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.

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. Without that breath, there is no life.

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.

Death is separation of the soul from the physical body. Death becomes the starting point of a new life. Death does not end your personality and self-consciousness. It merely opens the door to a higher form of life, a new consciousness.

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.

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; see the stories of the People of the Cave in Surah Al Kahf and that of Ezra in Surah Baqara in the Quran. There is also the bodily resurrection of Jesus in the Bible.

As to the answers to the many questions raised by the concept of Soul, Allah knows best.

Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend. 

Continue Reading

Islam

Friday Sermon: Mysteries of Life 2: Death

Published

on

By

By Babatunde Jose

Where science ends, philosophy starts. Stephen Hawking was perfectly in line with the ancient philosophers when he acknowledged that physics points to the deeper questions of metaphysics. Indeed, when questions stop becoming scientific, they start becoming philosophical.

The mystery of death is a subject that has fascinated human beings for millennia. Although death is inevitable, it remains a mysterious and frightening phenomenon for many. Religions and beliefs have attempted to provide answers to this question, but death remains an unfathomable mystery.

What precisely happens at the time of death is a question that theologians have struggled over for centuries but have never answered satisfactorily.

Whether there is life after death is a mystery that remains unanswered, and the belief in an afterlife varies widely across cultures and religions. Some people believe that death is the end of existence, while others believe that it is a transition to another form of life or consciousness.

Transmigration of souls, also known as reincarnation or rebirth, is the idea that a soul lives on after death and takes on a new body. The term comes from ancient Greek philosophy, and is a central tenet of many religions and belief systems. This is a topic for another day which would also include the Yoruba concept of ‘Akudaya’ (Akudaya is a supernatural phenomenon in Yoruba culture that involves the dead coming back to life, often after burial, and in places where they were not known in life). The name Akudaya is also used to describe the transmigrated souls. In Yoruba culture, Akudaya is a central part of beliefs about reincarnation and mysterious sightings. It is also known as “Abarameji” in Yoruba culture.

There is however a concept which the Abrahamic religions agree upon; that of Resurrection, Day of Reckoning, Day of Judgment and what have you. There are however debates about the nature of the resurrection: Will it be only of the soul or bodily resurrection?

In the history of religion, the term eschatology refers to conceptions of the last things: Immortality of the soul, rebirth, resurrection, migration of the soul, and the end of time.

The concept of Qiyamah, or the Day of Resurrection, is a central theme in the Quran and Islamic eschatology: The dead will be resurrected and will be judged for their deeds and faith. The Quran describes how Allah will resurrect people in the same shape, size, and state they were created in, including their fingerprints.

Surah Al-Qiyamah, Quran 75, is devoted to the subject of resurrection. It refutes doubts about the possibility of resurrection and includes themes such as God’s ability to raise the dead bodily.

On the Day of Judgment the (trumpet) will be sounded twice. The result of the first sound will be that everything – the earth, the skies and every living thing in between will perish and when the second sound is given, every dead thing will come back to life.

This therefore alludes to the fact that after death, there would be a bodily resurrection. This is clearly mentioned in the Qur’an: Does man think that We will not assemble his bones?  Yes. [We are] Able [even] to proportion his fingertips.(Quran 75:3-4)

To exemplify the powers to resurrect man bodily for Judgment on the Day of Qiyamah, Allah used the story of the ‘People of the Cave in Surah Al Kahf as an example, See Surah Kahf 9-26.

The story includes lessons, signs, and evidence that testify to the great Power of Allah, ta`ala, and His Wisdom in managing His creations. As narrated, the details of the story proceed as follows:

A king named “Duqyanus”( Roman Emperor Decius 249-251 AD) ordered the people in his territory “Afsus” (Ephesus near the modern village of Selcuk western Turkey) to worship idols. There were some young men who refused to worship the idols having been recent converts to the one true God. Christian legend also speaks about a group of youths who hid inside a cave outside the city of Ephesus (modern-day Selçuk, Turkey) around AD 250.

The king was informed about them and was told, “Those people left your religion, and mocked and defied your idols.” The king called them to his court and ordered them to leave Islam. He threatened them with death if they declined. Then he sent them back to their homes.

In the meantime, King Duqyanus traveled. Those young men took advantage of his departure and consulted each other about running away to rescue their faith.

One of them said, “I know a cave in the mountain. My father used to secure the sheep in it. Let us go there and hide until Allah grants us victory.” They all agreed and fled to the cave.

There were seven of them: Makaslamin, Amlikha, MaraTonis, Yanyunis, Sazamunis, Dawanawanis, and KashfiTiT. Eastern Christian tradition names them Maximilian, Jamblichus, Martin, John, Dionysius, Antonius, and Constantine.

The story is recounted in the Quran’s 18th Surah, eponymously called the “Surah of the Cave” (Surah al-Kahf). A barking dog named “QiTmir” also followed them.

In the cave, they found fruits and water. They ate and drank. And a few moments later, they slept off on the floor and were in slumber; they were prevented from hearing anything.

Their eyes were wide open, because it was better for them to be exposed to the air so that they would not get impaired with lengthy closure.

It was also narrated that an honorable angel was in charge of turning them around, to avoid sore. After three hundred and nine years of sleep, Allah woke them up.

However, King Duqyanus had long passed away. A pious king was on the throne. The people of the city at that time were engaged in a hot debate over the true nature of resurrection. The king was distressed over the issue. So he made a supplication to ask Allah to make the truth known.

Amlikha, one of the men in the cave who was sent in search of food, reached the city of “Afsus” and looked confused and hesitant. Someone asked him, “Are you a stranger to this city, and what are you looking for?” He said, “I am not a stranger and I am looking for food to buy. I did not find the place where I used to buy food.”

The man led him to the owner of a restaurant. Amlikha took his money out and gave it to the seller. The seller wondered, because the coin had the picture of King Duqyanus on it. That king died three hundred years ago. He thought Amlikha had discovered a treasure and had a wealth of money in his possession. People gathered around Amlikha and took him to the righteous king.

The news of Amlikha reached the king before his own arrival. The king was in fact waiting for him eagerly, because he had heard the story of the youngsters from his grandfather. When Amlikha came, the king asked him about his story. So Amlikha told him what happened to him and his friends.

The king was pleased and said to his people, “Certainly, Allah sent you a sign to show the truth about what you differ.”

The king, along with the people of the city, walked with Amlikha to the cave. After that, Allah concealed the cave and its trace from the sight of the people.

Allah made the story a lesson and reminder to the people of His awesome powers.

Say: “Allah knows best how long they stayed: with Him is (the knowledge of) the secrets of the heavens and the earth: how clearly He sees, how finely He hears (everything)! They have no protector other than Him; nor does He share His Command with any person whatsoever. (Quran 18:26)

The second story that exemplifies the doctrine of bodily resurrection is that of Prophet Uzair (AS). Uzair is considered a righteous prophet in Islam who was sent to guide the Israelites. He is thought to have lived between the time of Suleiman and Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist.

Almighty Allah said: Or are you not aware of the one who passed by a city which was in ruins. He wondered, “How could Allah bring this back to life after its destruction?” So Allah caused him to die for a hundred years then brought him back to life. Allah asked, “How long have you remained ˹in this state?” He replied, “Perhaps a day or part of a day.” Allah said, “No! You have remained here for a hundred years! Just look at your food and drink—they have not spoiled. But now look at the remains of your donkey! And so We have made you into a sign for humanity. And look at the bones of the donkey, how We bring them together then clothe them with flesh!” When this was made clear to him, he declared, “Now I know that Allah is Most Capable of everything.” (Quran 2: 259)

Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend

Continue Reading

Trending