The Muslims are required to use their own
intellect, learn the Quran by themselves and take direct guidance from it. But unfortunately very few people take efforts in
this direction. They do not use the Quran as
a source of law and guidance, they rather use it for purposes of taking oaths or use it as
an Amulet. For guidance in the matters of
“Deen,” (Way of Life) they often approach the Priest. The Priest when consulted for any particular issue
pertaining to “Deen” quotes the authority of some Imam or some so-called learned
man and seldom quotes the authority of the Quran; thus taking the Imam as his lord in
degradation of God. His reason for doing so
is that the Imams could supposedly understand the Quran better than other people. This behaviour on the part of the Priest has a
historical background. When Muslims held the
reigns of power for the first time, they took guidance from the Quranic fundamentals but
they needed by-laws within the four walls of these fundamental principles for purposes of
running the state.
Those conversant with the
teachings of the Quran gathered together and made the by-laws according to the needs of
the time. Such laws were forwarded to the
Judiciary for application. As the laws were
initiated by the state, any addition or alteration to them was the function of the state. This is how the “Fiqa laws”
originated. It is apparent that these by-laws
were changeable with the changing needs of time. These were not immutable like the
fundamentals of the Quran, within the four walls of which they were framed. Neither did the originators of these laws know the future requirements of all times to come,
nor were they in a position of final authority, for all future law making. But unfortunately the Muslims generations that
followed adopted the view that no further application of mind was required either for
receiving fresh guidance from the Quran or for the introduction of fresh by-laws
consistent with the changing needs of time. They
though the originators of the Islamic laws were the only competent persons who could think
over it. Thus the Quran gradually came to be
considered only a book of highest reverence but not a book which could be used a source of
law. This wrong and objectionable attitude
advanced further. It did not remain
restricted to matters concerning our daily life, it also blocked the way of any further
research on the Quran which is a vast treasure of knowledge in so many ways. For example, it deals with the history of the past
nations providing thereby guidance and moral lessons of the highest importance. It also deals with the phenomena of nature in
support of the truth of its fundamentals, the subject being one of a most revealing nature
introducing fresh horizons of knowledge. The
result of this disuse of intellect was that a vast majority of Muslims became,
“…like
animals, rather worse than that…” Al-Araaf 7:179.
Such people, the Quran states,
“have
minds wherewith they understand not, eyes wherewith they see not and ears wherewith they
hear not.” Al-Araaf 7:179.
these people are the one heedless of any
warning.
Now let us consider this
issue dispassionately. Does not such disuse
of one’s intellect and judgement amount to worship of those who preceded us? Is it
not taking others as lords in derogation of God? It
is only the Creator of the universe Who has created and evolved things according to plan
and Who possesses the knowledge of His future plans.
Considering the predecessors to be immutable, amounts to giving them an
equal status with God. Truly it is priest
worship.
The Lord of the universe has
blocked the way of this exploitation of one set of people by another, through a forceful
declaration that the Quran is explicit and self-explanatory. It needs no outside help for the clarification of
its message; it needs only the intellect and the judgement of the reader. Thus it is said:
“This (the
Quran) is a code of life whose laws are based on Permanent Values, further explained in
detail – from One Who is Wise and Well-acquainted (with all things).” Hood
11:1.
As mentioned earlier, the
Divine message sent to humanity, through Hid successive messengers by God, has been the
same in essence, though it was in accordance with the needs of the time and the standard
of mental equipment of men in their respective ages.
The final code of life was brought by Muhammad. As the message was to be conveyed to all the
future generations of mankind, God took upon himself the safety, as well as the
clarification, of the message.
God impressed upon the
believers to follow the universal truth and the way of life prescribed by Him and not to
follow the priest-craft who indulge in the malpractice of mixing up their whims and wishes
with the Divine message.
“And We
gave them (Israelites) a clear code of life. It
was only after the knowledge had come to the that they fell into schisms through mutual
envy. Verily the Lord will judge between them
on the Day of Judgement in the respect of that in which they differed. Then We put thee (O Muhammad) on the right way of
life, so you follow that (way) and follow not the desires of those who know not.”
Al Jaathiyah 45:17-18.
Now the way of life
prescribed by God lies in the contents of the Quran:
“These are
the clear torch lights of knowledge and guidance and a pattern (of life) for those who
believe (in the truth of this message).” Al
Jaathiyah 45:20.
thus the Quran lays great stress on the deep
application of the mind, research and understanding the Divine message and prohibits blind
faith. The Quran has called itself “Basaair”
which means “clear arguments” “manifest realities” or “bright
knowledge.”
“Now have
come to you from your Lord clear arguments (baasair).
If any will use his vision, it will be for (the good of) his own
personality. If any will shut his eyes to
them, it will be his own (harm). I am not
here to watch over you.” Al-Anaam 6:104.
One who closes his eyes
cannot be benefited by the light whether he sits in the sun or in the dark room. On of the most advanced traits peculiar to man is
his capability of accumulating knowledge through successive generations. The accumulation of knowledge is a progressive
phenomenon. But any nation who considers that
the door to the advancement of knowledge has been closed at a certain stage of history, is
doomed to failure. Thus the Muslim nation
which came into existence to show a searchlight of highest magnitude to humanity as a
whole, now began to receive light from every glow-worm that came in its way. The Muslims adopted the easiest way of receiving,
what was ready-made, from our ancestors, rather than a life of toil and sweat, to create a
novelty. The fate of the ease-loving nations
is always sealed.
“Just in
the same way, whenever We sent a warner before thee to any people, the wealthy and
ease-loving among them said: We found our fore-fathers following a particular way of life
and we follow in their footsteps.” Al-Zukruf 43:23.
We are living in a world of
cause and effect, where the law of requital prevails.
We can not only acquit ourselves by performing such deeds that are lawful
according to the Divine guidance, and not by absolving ourselves from the responsibility
by saying that we followed so and so a leader.
The Holy Quran displays an
interesting picture of such religious leaders and their followers by describing that on
the Day of Judgement the leaders shall disown their followers:
“Then
those who are followed disown those who follow (them): They would see the penalty and all
relations between them would be cut off.” Al-Baqarah 2:166.
Both groups, the leaders and
the led, shall quarrel with one another, each holding the other responsible for their
misfortunes:
“…Couldst
thou but see when the wrong-doers will be made to stand before their Lord throwing back
the word (of blame) on one another. Those who
had been despised will say to the arrogant ones ‘had it not been for you, we should
certainly have been believers.’ The
arrogant ones will say to those who had been despised, ‘Was it We Who kept you back
from guidance after it reached you? Nay, rather it was you who transgressed. Those who had been despised will say to the
arrogant ones, ‘Nay, it was a plot (of yours) by day and night: Behold! You
(constantly) ordered us to be ungrateful to God and to attribute equals to Him.”
Saba 34:31-33.
At another place it is said:
“And they
(the misled) would say ‘our Lord.’ We
obeyed our chiefs and our great ones, and they misled us from the (right) path. Our Lord! Give them double penalty and curse them
with a very great curse.” Al-Ahzaab 33:67-68.
Both the groups (the
followers and the followed) shall be living in a state of hell. Just as unity, harmony and peace are symbols of
bliss, so are disputes and disorder symbols if hell.
It by no means follows that this state of hell shall come only after death. Human deeds are perpetually being rewarded. Heaven and Hell begin on this earth.
Thus in this state of hell,
those who followed shall be asked,
“Did there
not come to you the messengers of God with clear signs?” They will say “yes”…then
call as much as you want; the disbelievers’ calls are in vein.” Ghaffir
40:50.
the disbelievers do not pay attention to what is
given to them by the messengers of God. They
only worship their leaders.
Ancestral
Worship
Ancestral worship is not a
description meant to indicate all the treasures of knowledge that came down to us from our
ancestors are useless. The point that is
emphasised is that we should not be the blind followers of what we received from them. Rather we should keep our eyes open and use our
intellect and judgement in light of the Quranic fundamentals. Now let us see what is the starting point of
“ancestral worship.”
Generation B assumes that
although we are liable to make mistakes, the generation A that preceded us could not do
so, they were infallible. Similarly
generation C, in turn assumes that generations A and B that preceded them were infallible. This process of assuming ourselves to be fallible
and our predecessors to be infallible continues in succession. As a matter of fact people of all generations are
fallible, their decisions may be right or they may be wrong. The religious leaders in the past were the wiser
people of their respective ages, they pondered over matters pertaining to life and made
valuable contributions to them. But they were
not infallible and they never considered themselves to be so. But their followers belonging to the successive
generations went so far as to consider the teachings of the Quran which are not compatible
with the sayings of their religious leaders, to be unacceptable.
Sect Worship
(Madhab)
Contrary to the teachings of
the Quran which prohibits any division of Muslims into sects (Madhab), they have been
subject to division and disintegration for the last few centuries. As a matter of fact this is a natural consequence
of predecessor worship. Difference of
opinion does occur among human beings and did occur even amongst the companions of the
Messenger but they did not allow themselves to be divided into sects. But since the start of ancestral worship, the
followers of particular Imams took their respective Imams to be infallible and assumed
that the truth lay they said in matters of life. In
other words all the others, besides them (the Imams), said was mere falsehood. This divided the Muslims among themselves and
every sect became content with what the Imams gave them.
From then onwards each sect struggled hard to prove that they themselves
were right and others were wrong. They became
devoid of tolerance and also of self-effort to find out what was right and what was wrong. Thus they were not prepared to hear a word against
their own particular belief, not because they had good reason to do so but because
anything going against the belief of their ancestors was impossible for them to tolerate. The differences between the sects are not
necessarily on basic issues, even the
differences on petty things have separated them from each other. The curious aspect of this situation lies in the
fact that the laws of Fiqa are now the vestigial remnants of the Muslim rules from the
past. No Islamic state, i.e. state based on
Islamic principles, exists today but the differences based on the Fiqa laws continue to
exist. A lot of energy is being wasted to
keep up differences. On the other hand, not the least effort is being made to revive the
Islamic state.
Tradition
Worship
If you ask any Muslim “what
are the constituents of ‘Deen’?” the almost invariable answer shall be that
the Deen comprises the Quran, God’s message to mankind and the Hadith, the traditions
attributed to the prophet Muhammad. We have
become so much used to this idea that we never make the slightest effort to find out if it
is exactly right. Even to cast a searching
glance over it is considered sinful. However
there is one thing with which we all agree, that “Deen” must be based on
certainty not on speculation.
“But most
of them follow nothing but conjecture: conjecture is no substitute for truth. Verily God is well aware of all that they do.”
Yunus 10:36.
Now it is for us to find out
if any of the two constituents which are supposed to compromise “Deen” is not
based on conjecture! And whether each one of
these two constituents has been given to Muslims by God and his Messenger. As regards the Quran it has been repeatedly said:
“That
which We have revealed to thee of the Book is the truth.” Faatir 35:31. this Book begins with the following words: “This
is the Book, in its guidance sure, without doubt.” Al-Baqarah 2:2.
Thus it is the book without any conjecture, sure
and certain. On the other hand, God took upon
Himself the collection and compilation of this book:
“It is for
Us to collect and promulgate it.” Al-Qiyaamah 75:17.
Not only that, even the explanation of it:
“Nay more,
it for Us to explain it (and make it clear).” Al-Qiyaamah 75:19.
not even that, it is emphatically proclaimed
that no change in the Quran is possible for all time to come.
“It is We
and We alone Who have sent down this message and We will assuredly guard it *from
corruption).” Al-Hijr 15:9.
The purity of the text of
the Quran through the last fourteen centuries is a foretaste of the eternal care with
which this Divine Message is guarded through all ages.
To give a practical shape to the protection the Messenger is addressed as
follows:
“O
Messenger! Proclaim the (message) which has been sent to you from our Lord…”
Al-Maa’idh 5:67.
In obeyance of this order,
the Messenger dictated every word of the Quran to his companions and thousands of people
learnt it by heart and reproduced it.
Thus the Messenger satisfied
himself before he died that the complete Message was delivered to humanity in its
perfectly original form. God conformed this
by revealing the following verse:
“The
code of divine laws is perfected in truth and in justice.
None can change his laws, for He is the One Who is All-Hearing and
All-Knowing.” Al-Anaam 6:115.
The Quran has thus come down
to us from God, perfectly safe, through the last 14 centuries and shall continue to do so
for all times to come.
Hadith
We see that God has not
taken upon himself the safety of any other book besides the Quran. God never ordained to collect Ahadis (plural of
Hadith) and never promised to protect them.
Ahadis are supposed to be a
collection of the sayings and the deeds of the Messenger, but had the Messenger himself
taken any step to make them a part of the “Deen.”
Did he try to preserve them as he did in the case of the Quran. He never asked the people to note down all that he
said, he never asked them to learn the sayings by heart.
He never tried to fully
satisfy himself whether they remembered all that he said correctly. In fact he never made any arrangement for the safe
preservation of his own sayings for the future. Only
this much can be gathered from the books of tradition that, besides the Quran, certain
miscellaneous things had been reduced to writing in the presence of the Messenger, and
after his death the following articles were found in written form, -(1) A register
containing the names of his 1500 companions. (2) the copies of certain letters which he
wrote to certain Kings. (3) Some written orders and agreements.
Thus the Messenger did not
leave anything behind him except the Quran. There
is even a tradition in “Bukhari” considered to be the most authentic book of
Ahadis, which runs as follows: Ibn Abbas was asked: What did the Messenger leave (for his
community)? He said “He did not leave anything except the Quran.”
(Bukhari, Volume III Kitab Fazailul-Quran.)
After the death of the
Messenger, his companions did their best to preserve and promulgate the Quran but what did
they do about the Ahadis? Did they try to preserve and promulgate them?
In ‘Tazkiratul Haffaz’
it is said about Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddiq (the first Caliph): “After the death of the
Messenger, he once collected the people and told them, ‘you relate the sayings of the
Messenger and you differ amongst yourselves about it.
Those people who come after you shall differ more. So do not tell any hadiths of the Messenger. If anybody asks you about the sayings of the
Messenger, tell him that the Book of God is present between you and me. All that is said to be lawful in it should be
considered and all that is said to be unlawful in it should be considered to be unlawful.”
Hazrat Omar (II Caliph) was
even more strict about it. A tradition runs as follows – Abu Huraira was asked –
“Did you relate Ahadis during the time of Hazrat Omar?” He said “Omar would
have beaten me with his stick, if I had done so.”
Once the issue of bringing the Ahadis of the Messenger into writing was
brought before Hazrat Omar who thought over it for one month and said, “There was a
mention of bringing the Ahadis into writing. But
when I thought over it, there came into my mind the state of a nation who wrote a book
themselves and became so much absorbed in it that they forsook the Book of God. By God, I shall not mix up the Book of God with
anything else.”
Even till the end of the
first four Caliphates there is no trace of any Ahadis being collected by the Caliphs
themselves or being collected under their supervision.
In 100A.H. some Ahadis were collected during the Khilafat of Omer Bin Abdul
Aziz. After this, Imam Ibn Shahab Zahri (died
124A.H.) prepared a small collection of Ahadis, under orders of the then Caliph, about
which he himself said that he did not like. But
these two collections did not last long, although the latter collections have quoted from
them. The first such collection of Ahadis
which is available at present is by Imam M’alik (died 179A.H.). different copies of this collection of Ahadis
increased in number and volumes. Most
well-known collections are “Sahih Bukhari” and “Muslim.” Imam Bukhari died in 256A.H. He collected 600,000 Ahadis out of which he
selected 2,630 for entry into his book and rejected the rest on account of their
unreliability.
The True Position
of Ahadis
The contents of Deen must be
absolutely certain and free from fancies. The
Quran is the only book which is certainly true because God took its safety upon Himself. The Messenger put the words of the Quran into
writing and handed it over safely to the Community after he completely satisfied himself
about its authenticity. He not only gave it
in the form of a book, but he made thousands of people learn it by heart and satisfied
himself that they remembered it correctly. Thus
through the last fourteen centuries it has come down to us not only in the form of a book
but also through the memory of millions of people who existed in the past, exist now, and
shall always continue to exist.
Besides the Quran, the
Messenger did not dictate anything; nor did he ask the people to memorise anything in
addition to it. On the other hand, there is
evidence to the fact that he opposed and resented this practice.
When certain people thought
of writing down the history of the period of the Messenger and his companions they also
thought of collecting such things that were considered to be the sayings of the Messenger. They collected them in the form of books. These very collections are now known as Books of
Ahadis. The Ahadis literature which is being
considered as authentic as the Quran was collected about 250 years after the death of the
Messenger. Even the earliest such book was
compiled 150 years after him. The source of this literature was the stories that were
current among the people of that period. These
stories were not transferred in words, from one generation to the other, but in content.
Those who collected and
compiled them decided on their own as to whom amongst those who originally related these
words were reliable so that decisions about reliability took place hundreds of years after
their deaths. These collections of Ahadis
even contain material which goes against the teachings of the Quran, so much so that it
even reflects badly upon God and His Messenger.
Such is the literature which
is considered to be as much a part of Deen as the Holy Quran. It is even said that the Quran is dependent on
Ahadis and if there is a conflict on a certain point between the two, the Hadith shall be
considered more reliable than the Quran.
It is apparent that the
Hadith literature is based more on fancy and thus cannot be considered as the basis of
Deen. We can benefit by this literature only
as far as it is consistent with the Quran. As
the Messenger did not leave behind any written record of anything other than the Quran, it
is not easy to check whether a certain saying attributed to him was actually said by him. Those who tried to investigate the issue only went
to the extent of finding out whether those few people who are described to have originally
related the Ahadis were really reliable and truthful.
This was the only procedure adopted to sort out the correct from the
incorrect or forged Ahadis. On the other hand
there is no source available from which one could ascertain that the Ahadis which have
been attributed to certain persons, were actually related by them.
Saint Worship
We have described above the
different aspects of worship of man by man. But
there the worshippers had to produce some reason or authority, good or bad, for doing so. Now we come to another aspect of worship of man
by man where not even that is required. This
is the blind obedience to Saints (mystics), a bad form of human slavery. Here every order of the Saint, like an order of
God, must be obeyed.
The command of the Saint is
rather superior to the command of God, because here, if the orders of the Saint are
contrary to the orders of God, obedience shall be to that of the former rather than the
latter. The authority for obedience to the
Saint is the secret knowledge which he possesses: it needs no external evidence for its
support. A Saint, they say, gets hid
knowledge direct from God and the Messenger, however such knowledge is contained neither
within the Quran nor in the Ahadis. As soon
as a person accepts his attachment to a certain Saint, the doors of reason and intellect
are closed on him. In the words of the Quran,
“Such
people have minds wherewith they understand not, eyes wherewith they see not and ears
wherewith they hear not. They are like animals – nay more confused; for they are
heedless.” Al-Araaf 7:179.
The word of the Saint is the
word of God, because his followers cannot say anything against it, rather they are not
permitted to think of anything against it, because a Saint is well aware of what is inside
anybody’s mind.
So a follower is always
under the dread of Saint’s frown because he believes that the Saint has full control
over his gain or loss and can change his fate. Although
in the words of the Quran:
“Verily
these whom you call upon besides God, are human beings like unto you.” Al-A’raaf
7:194.
Worship
of the Dead
Enslavement to a Saint does
not end with his death but continues to dominate the minds of his followers after he dies;
indeed his grip becomes even more powerful. This
is on account of the belief that after death the Saint merges into God and himself becomes
God; thus he remains always well informed of what his followers do. According to them the dead Saint can hear their
prayers and can solve their problems and remove their difficulties; in times of distress
he personally comes to help them.
This is the status of a
Saint among his followers. But let us see
what the Holy Quran says about them.
“If you
invoke the, they will not listen to your call and if they listen, they cannot answer your
prayer. On the Day of Judgement they will
reject your idol worship…” Faatir 35:14.
at yet another place it said: “Those whom they invoke besides God
create nothing and are themselves created.” Al-Nahl 16:20-21.
Worship of
the Past
There is one thing common to
all the various types of worship enumerated above and that is worship of the past. The Quran offered a “Deen” which had the
capacity of bringing about a bright present and a bright future to mankind; but the
religion invented by man gave the idea of a dark present and bright past. Based on this idea all that has passed away
appears bright. Worship of past traditions,
worship of ancestors, worship of the dead etc. are all offshoots of the same basic belief.
I do not mean to say that
all that has happened in the past is useless. After
all, the evolutionary process in this world is based on the past. All that is positive, true and beneficial must
survive, it cannot be ignored. But evolution
never halts at a certain point, so as to make the present dark and past bright which means
putting a stop to all future development.
Leader
Worship
There is yet another
category of mental slavery which is worth mentioning.
This is with regard to political leaders who appeared on the scene in modern
times, after the advent of western democracy. These
leaders are not necessarily politicians. Many
of them have no political or even academic background.
They are rather “oratorical prostitutes” who stir human sentiments
not by display of body contours but by display of rosy words. Oratory is a precious human virtue but it becomes
a sinful act when used for selfish ends. In a country like Pakistan politics is an easily
accessible vocation. But every vocation needs
some sort of training.
Businessman, mason,
carpenter, blacksmith or even a barber needs training before he starts his career. Politicians are however an exception. A shrewd politician manoeuvres to hold a firm grip
on the mental outlook of the products of his oratory.
Following are the pre-requisites of his success. He is capable of constantly
arousing the passions of his followers, without allowing them to use their own intellect. He can create a strong impression among them that
his thinking is mature and far superior to anybody else’s. he can act as a diplomat rather than a man of
principle. He is well versed in the art of
agitation and law-breaking. He knows how to
bring about abasement to his opponents, no matter how many lies he has to invent. He can feign strong resistance without accepting
even the truth offered by his opponents. He
is capable of depicting the darkest picture of the present regime and the brightest
picture of the future which he assures will be brought about.
He is content to kindle the
light of impossible hopes in the minds of his followers and in order to keep his trick
going, he never states anything definite, but presents his programmes in the guise of
attractive reforms. At every step he can
assure his followers that they are on the threshold of success. He can keep his followers fully confident that it
is only their party which is on the right path, all others are vague and unsound. He can keep them constantly on the move, never
giving them respite to pause and think.
These leaders often try to
keep their followers away from the divine fundamental laws because they themselves assume
the role of final authority in making decisions and their goal is to assert their own
authority. Some of them succeed in creating such awe amongst their followers that they are
always spellbound and consider all that is said by their leader is immutable, giving them
the status of “other god.” One who
leads is often a man of superior intellect, no doubt, but in spite of all that he is only
a man, he is not God, he is not infallible. But
the hold of political leaders on the imagination of their followers, though firm, is often
not so lasting as that of religious leaders. It
all depends on how many simpletons are left in a particular society to follow them.
Shirk
According to the Quran
subservience to anything except God is to ascribe partnership unto God. This is known as Shirk. “There is no sovereign except God.” The
Quran says:
“In the
subservience of his Sustainer let no one admit any one as partner.” Al-Kahf
18:110.
again it
is said:
“Ascribe
no partners unto God. To ascribe partners
(unto Him) is indeed the highest wrong doing.” Luqmaan 31:13.
The Quran explains itself. So let us see what is meant by ascribing partners
unto God. All that is present in the universe
is inferior to man in rank (Al-Jaathiya 45:13), but within themselves all human beings are
equal by birth and worthy of respect (Bani-Israel 17:70).
For a man to bow down before any object of God’s creation is his own
abasement. It makes no difference to God
whether man bows down before Him or before something else; but surely it brings about the
degradation of one who bows down before an object inferior to himself. This is what according to the Quran is Shirk, or
“ascribing partners unto God.” To
define Shirk briefly:
(1)
To believe that anybody else possesses the powers, which
God has kept specifically for Himself, is Shirk.
(2)
To believe in the subservience of anybody or any force,
other than God and to bow down before such persons or force is Shirk.
(3)
Obedience to laws contrary to the laws laid down in the
Quran for the guidance of humanity is Shirk.
(4)
The natural consequence of obedience to one God is unity
of a community i.e., the co-ordinated functioning of the social organisation of believers. Thus division of Community into sects is Shirk,
because the final authority in the affairs of each sect is a particular human being and
not God.
(5) One God, one final code of life laid down by
Him and given for the guidance of mankind through His last Messenger, one harmonious
Community obedient to these laws and a co-ordinated functioning of this Community means
Unity. Anything contrary to it is Shirk.