Do not blindly follow conjectures of other people

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

Now if you pay heed unto the majority of those [who live] on earth, they will but lead you astray from the path of God: they follow but [other people's] conjectures, and they themselves do nothing but guess.  6:116

Do not blindly follow conjectures of other people

Towards the end of the twentieth century, Muslim scholasticism saw a resurgence in the literalist tradition, partly due to the economic support offered by certain governments for the same. This has led to a decline in the teaching of so-called twenty-first century skills, especially creativity and critical thinking, and increased emphasis on sticking to opinions of past scholars.  The challenge is not a new one, but it definitely is on a larger scale now, as compared to the past.

One of the famous Punjabi scholars of undivided India, Hafiz Muhammad ibn Barakallah Lakhwi (1806-1893) , who has had a tremendous impact on religious thought in the Punjabi language, narrates a story to illustrate this problem from more than a hundred years ago.

There was once a trader who used to travel far and wide for business.  When he got married, it was thought that he would settle down, but few months into the marriage, he decided to travel again as expenses were increasing.  He promised to write to his wife regularly, and he kept his promise till he reached a city in Afghanistan where he had to stay for sometime. His laziness overwhelmed his desire to keep his promise.  As his replies grew few and far between, despite his newly wed wife sending letters on a regular basis, she started becoming upset by all of this. One fine morning, fed up by all of this, she asked her brother to bring the family stationery and the seal and wrote a terse message to him.

"On this and this date, your wife has become a widow."

Then she sealed it and stamped it with the family seal, and asked her brother to go travel to Afghanistan, find his brother-in-law, and deliver the letter to him in person. The brother reached his destination after several weeks, and lost no time in locating his brother-in-law.  After the usual curtsies he delivered the letter.

Upon reading the letter, the trader became distraught. He start crying inconsolably.  His friends gathered round and offered him support and tried to find out what was wrong.  He just showed them the letter and kept on weeping.

One of his friends was puzzled.  He protested to his friend, the trader : "But your wife can only become a widow if you are dead. And yet, here you are, hale and hearty."

To which the trader replied: "What you say does seem to make sense, but I recognize her handwriting, and the stationery, as well as the family seal. Furthermore,  it is delivered by her brother himself. Thus, this chain of narration is authentic and cannot be ignored or disregarded."

Believe without the need for proof

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

[Know that true]  believers are only those who have attained to faith in God and His Apostle and thereafter have had no doubt..... Part of 49:15

Believe without the need for proof !

I would like to share a little known incident during the life of eminent theologian Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, which underscores the superiority of belief over reasoning. It may well be difficult to establish whether Razi had become a practicing Sufi towards the end of his life or not. There even exists a letter from Shaykh al-Akbar ibn ‘Arabi, who, impressed by his imaginative faculty (al-quwwa al-mutakhayyila), ended up advising (and probably praying for) Razi to try to reach the stage of gnosis and contemplation, even going so far as to tell him that in heaven, medicine and geometry will not be of much help to him. He certainly became sympathetic to Sufism, especially in his later life, when he started writing deeply spiritual poetry. Quite a few of his books have esoteric ideas as well.

The build up of the incident supposedly involves Razi meeting the Sufi saint Najm al-Din Kubra in a gathering and being very condescending and belittling to Sufis in general. Having boastfully claimed the superiority of his religious knowledge over others, he went ahead and said that he knew a hundred proofs of existence of God. Najm al-Din replied calmly,

 البرهان لإزالة الشك , والله تعالى جعل في قلبي نورا ,لا يدخل معه الشك فضلاً عن الحاجة للبرهان 

"Is not each proof due to some doubt? God has placed in my heart a light of certainty which dispels all doubt so that they are no longer in need of any (further) proofs.”

The answer shocked Razi, and he begged the saint to be allowed to enter on the Path under his direction.

After some days of vigil and prayers, the saint asked Razi to lie down and started reciting a prayer and moving a white shroud from his feet towards his chest. Razi suddenly stood up shouting at the top of his voice: "I cannot, I cannot!"  He felt as if all the knowledge of which he had been so proud was slowly leaving him and he could not bear it. The saint replied that the purpose of the exercise was to remove all bookish knowledge from him so that he is freed from its burdens.  Thereupon Razi agreed to resume the process.  Again, as the saint was pulling the shroud upto Razi's chest, he sprung up again screaming ( لا أطيق ) "I cannot stand it!". This time he begged the saint that it was unbearable for him to rid everything he had so painstakingly acquired over the years.  So the saint asked him, " What then do you want from me?". Razi replied: "Just help me navigate the test when my time is near."

This anecdote is narrated in Fritz Meier/Meyer, Die Fawa'ih algamal wa-fawatih al-galal des Nagm ad-Din al-Kubra (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1957), pp. 45-46, and according to another version in Ahmad Ibn Mustafa Tash Kubri Zadah's Mawsu'at Mustalahat Miftah al-Sa'adah wa-Misbah al-Siyadah fi Mawdu'at al-'Ulum, (Hyderabad, 1329 k.s.], vol. 1, pp. 450-51), it is rather during this retreat that Razi is supposed to have received the inspiration that guided him in the composition of his great commentary on the Qur'an.

The two then went their separate ways, and Razi returned to his hometown thousands of miles away. One day when Najm al-Din Kubra was doing ablution (wudhu') with a pot in his hand, he suddenly became agitated and in the process hurled the pot towards the wall in front of him and yelled : "O Fakhr al-Din! Say, 'I believe in my Lord without the need for proof." After that he calmed down a bit, and then smiled, and continued his ablutions.  The disciples were shocked at this, and noted the date and time, but they would not come around to ask the saint for an explanation of all that happened.  Several months passed, and the disciples of Razi came to their town and they were able to confirm that the date and time of Razi's passing coincided with the incident of the wudhu' pot. The disciples of Razi confirmed that the theologian was much agitated at the time of his passing and kept mumbling for a long time, and just before he passed away he exclaimed "I believe in my Lord without the need for proof!" and then was calm, relaxed and then passed away smiling.

Finally the disciples gathered around the saint Najm-al-Din and asked for the secret behind all this.  He said that at the time of death Razi was confronted by iblees (the Devil) who challenged him to prove the existence of God. As Razi started to give proofs, he was met with strong refutations each time. Reaching ninety-odd proofs, Razi realized that his proofs were running out and his logic was betraying him at a very critical juncture of his life. Thereupon the saint came to the rescue by telling Razi what he said, and thus iblees was left defeated and Razi died on true faith.

Learn true charity

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

...[for,] if He were to demand of you all of them, and urge you ("to divest yourselves of all your possessions"), you would niggardly cling [to them], and so He would [but] bring out your moral failings.47:37

Learn true charity

Mujaddid Alfe Thani Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi ( رَحِمَهُ ٱللّٰهُ‎) was a famous Sufi scholar of the Indian Sub-continent, from the Naqshbandi tariqah. 

Once, in context of discussing generosity in spending for charity he mentions the following story:

When someone asked Shaykh Bayazid Bastami ( رَحِمَهُ ٱللّٰهُ‎) about what is obligatory in charity, he said :
"Do you want to know according to the jurist, or according to the Knower (عارِف) of God ?" 

 The questioner asked: "Is there a difference?"

To which Bayazid replied: "Of course.  The jurists will say give one-fortieth (2.5%) and be proud of yourself on having completed the obligation. But the Knowers will say even after giving everything, you should be obliged that it was accepted."

The puzzled questioner replied : " I have never even heard of such a thing that you are expected to give everything, and yet feel grateful/obliged."

The great shaykh replied "Have you not heard of the precedence set by our master Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه)?".  Then he went on to narrate the story which is in the following hadith, among others :

عن عمر بن الخطاب قال أَمَرَنَا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ أَنْ نَتَصَدَّقَ فَوَافَقَ ذَلِكَ عِنْدِي مَالًا فَقُلْتُ الْيَوْمَ أَسْبِقُ أَبَا بَكْرٍ إِنْ سَبَقْتُهُ يَوْمًا قَالَ فَجِئْتُ بِنِصْفِ مَالِي فَقَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ مَا أَبْقَيْتَ لِأَهْلِكَ قُلْتُ مِثْلَهُ وَأَتَى أَبُو بَكْرٍ بِكُلِّ مَا عِنْدَهُ فَقَالَ يَا أَبَا بَكْرٍ مَا أَبْقَيْتَ لِأَهْلِكَ قَالَ أَبْقَيْتُ لَهُمْ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ قُلْتُ وَاللَّهِ لَا أَسْبِقُهُ إِلَى شَيْءٍ أَبَدًا

3675 سنن الترمذي كتاب المناقب باب في مناقب أبي بكر وعمر رضي الله عنهما كليهما

قَالَ هَذَا حَدِيثٌ حَسَنٌ صَحِيحٌ

Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله عنه) reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ  ordered us to give charity and at the time I had some wealth. I said to myself, “Today I will outdo Abu Bakr, if ever there was a day to outdo him.” I went with half of my wealth to the Prophet ﷺ and he said, “What have you left for your family?” I said, “The same amount.” Then, Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه) came with everything he had. The Prophet ﷺ said, “O Abu Bakr, what have you left for your family?” Abu Bakr said, “Allah and his messenger ﷺ.” I said, “By Allah, I will never do better than Abu Bakr.”Source: Sunan al-Tirmidhī 3675

Grade: Sahih (authentic) according to Al-Tirmidh

The shaykh continued, "Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه) gave all his wealth and possessions, and even his daughter in marriage to the Prophet ﷺ , and yet all his life he feld indebted to the Prophet ﷺ that he was graced by the company of the Prophet ﷺ, and blessed by the fact that the Prophet ﷺ would accept his humble offering."

The Naqshbandis traced their tariqah to this beloved companion of the Prophet ﷺ. The minimum requirement from the Knower of Allah is that they must give away everything they possess. They reach gnosis by losing what they possess and standing with what He owns. It is as if Bayazid is saying that to reach God, the way by abandoning everything that is other than Allah. 

Wisdom From God

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

...granting wisdom unto whom He wills: and whoever is granted wisdom has indeed been granted wealth abundant. But none bears this in mind save those who are endowed with insight 2:269

Wisdom from God

I had come across the story about how Islam was revived in Moghulistan, in several sources, most notably in Tarikh-i-Rashidi (تاریخ رشیدی)  of Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat, who is buried in Gorstan e Shahi in Srinagar. There were several variants, which I have sought to reconcile in the following narrative.

The story revolves around the encounter of Shaykh Jamal Al-Din and his son Arshad al Din of the town of Lop-Katak with Tughlugh Timur (also known as Tughluq Tömür or Tughluk Timur).

The teenager Tughlugh had organized a hunting party, and was camped for a hunt the next day, when Shaykh Jamal Al-Din and his son happened to trespass by accident. This annoyed the young Tughlugh on two accounts, one due to the trespass and the second was that the Khans considered Tajik/Iranians/Muslims as bad-luck and he was upset that it will ruin his plans for a successful hunt the next day.  He asked them, “Why have you disobeyed my commands?” The Shaykh replied, “We are strangers, who have fled from the ruined town of Katak. We know nothing about the hunt nor the ordinances of the hunt, and therefore we have not transgressed your orders.”

Still angry with them, he asked a question which was quite offensive:
 “Are you better than this dog, or is the dog better than you?”

The Shaykh's calm and composed answer really affected me, as I realized the wisdom from Allah has no equivalence in all the bookish knowledge of the world:

“Right now it is hard to say. However, if I die on faith, then I may be better than this dog; otherwise for sure this dog is better than I am.”

This made Tughlugh quiet, and thoughtful.  He further asked the Shaykh, “What is this thing that renders man, if he possesses it, better than a dog, or without it, worse?”

Shaykh Jamal Al-Din explained to him what Faith was, in detail, and the duties of a Muslim, while Tughlugh wept.  After listening to his heart's content, Tughlugh said that he could not do anything now, but
“If I ever become Khan, and obtain absolute authority, you must, without fail, come to me, and I promise you I will become a Muslim.”

He then sent the Shaykh away with the utmost respect and reverence.

Many years later, as the time of his death was approaching, Shaykh Jamal advised his son Arshad al-Din, an exceedingly pious young man, to follow up on this promise because he had once dreamt that Arshad al-Din had carried a lamp up to the top of a hill, and that its light illumined the whole of
the east.

Many years later, when news of Tughlugh Timur becoming Khan reached Shaykh Arshad al-Din, he proceeded to Moghulistan, but all his efforts to obtain an audience with the Khan were fruitless.  He was a simple young man, who looked like a nobody.  However, he encamped nearby and prayed to God regularly. By chance the Khan was awake one early morning, and heard the call for prayer in the wee-hours and asked his soldiers to summon the noise-maker.  The soldiers seized him by the neck, dragged him before the Khan.

 “Who are you that is disturbing my morning sleep?” thundered the Khan.

Fearlessly, Shaykh Arshad replied , “I am the son of the man to whom you made the promise to become a Muslim.”  The Khan remembered his promise and became Muslim, and it is said that many of those who were Muslim from before revealed their faith, and as much as a 160,000 accepted Islam.

A faith whose adherents were considered worse than dogs, became the state religion and the Khans helped spread it far and wide. All due to the wisdom granted by Allah to Shaykh Jamal on how to answer the question:
 “Are you better than this dog, or is the dog better than you?”

Recite the Qur'an as it should be recited

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

VERILY, this Qur'an shows the way to all that is most upright...... 17:9 (beginning of the ayat)

 Recite the Qur'an as it should be recited

As I was growing up in Kashmir, I would come across a well-known saying from the patron saint of Kashmir, Sheikh Noor ud-Din Wali (RA), popularly known as Nund Rishi, which went like this:

Quran Paran Kono Mooduk, Quran Paran Goi No Soor
Quran Paran Zindeh Koh Rooduk, Quran Paran Dodh Mansoor

Why didn't you get annihilated reciting the Qur'an  ?
Why did you not turn to ashes reciting the Qur'an ?
How come you are still alive after reciting the Qur'an

(While) Mansour, reciting the Qur'an, went up in flames?

I would wonder what it meant, and how is it that we are expected to be annihilated while reciting the Qur'an, until one day I came across this passage in the Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya by Shaykh al-Akbar, Ibn Arabi, with the title (المراد بتلاوة القرآن التدبر لمعاني القرآن) or "What is meant by the tilawah/recitation of the Qur'an?":

روينا في هذا الباب على ما حدثنا به شيخنا المقري أبو بكر محمد بن خلف بن صاف اللخمي عن بعض المعلمين من الصالحين أن شخصا صبيا صغيرا كان يقرأ عليه القرآن فرآه مصفر اللون فسأله عن حاله فقيل له إنه يقوم الليل بالقرآن كله فقال له يا ولدي أخبرت أنك تقوم الليل بالقرآن كله فقال هو ما قيل لك فقال يا ولدي إذا كان في هذه الليلة فأحضرني في قبلتك و اقرأ على القرآن في صلاتك و لا تغفل عني فقال الشاب نعم فلما أصبح قال له هل فعلت ما أمرتك به قال نعم يا أستاذ قال و هل ختمت القرآن البارحة قال لا ما قدرت على أكثر من نصف القرآن قال يا ولدي هذا حسن إذا كان في هذه الليلة فاجعل من شئت من أصحاب رسول اللّٰه صلى اللّٰه عليه و سلم أمامك الذين سمعوا القرآن من رسول اللّٰه صلى اللّٰه عليه و سلم و اقرأ عليه و احذر فإنهم سمعوه من رسول اللّٰه صلى اللّٰه عليه و سلم فلا تزل في تلاوتك فقال إن شاء اللّٰه يا أستاذ كذلك افعل فلما أصبح سأله الأستاذ عن ليلته فقال يا أستاذ ما قدرت على أكثر من ربع القرآن فقال يا ولدي اتل هذه الليلة على رسول اللّٰه صلى اللّٰه عليه و سلم الذي أنزل عليه القرآن و اعرف بين يدي من تتلوه فقال نعم فلما أصبح قال يا أستاذ ما قدرت طول ليلتي على أكثر من جزء من القرآن أو ما يقاربه فقال يا ولدي إذا كان هذه الليلة فلتكن تقرأ القرآن بين يدي جبريل الذي نزل به على قلب محمد صلى اللّٰه عليه و سلم فاحذر و اعرف قدر من تقرأ عليه فلما أصبح قال يا أستاذ ما قدرت على أكثر من كذا و ذكر آيات قليلة من القرآن قال يا ولدي إذا كان هذه الليلة تب إلى اللّٰه و تأهب و اعلم أن المصلي يناجي ربه و إنك واقف بين يديه تتلو عليه كلامه فانظر حظك من القرآن و حظه و تدبر ما تقرأه فليس المراد جمع الحروف و لا تأليفها و لا حكاية الأقوال و إنما المراد بالقراءة التدبير لمعاني ما تتلوه فلا تكن جاهلا فلما أصبح انتظر الأستاذ الشاب فلم يجيء إليه فبعث من يسأل عن شأنه فقيل له إنه أصبح مريضا يعاد فجاء إليه الأستاذ فلما أبصره الشاب بكى و قال يا أستاذ جزاك اللّٰه عني خيرا ما عرفت أني كاذب إلا البارحة لما قمت في مصلاي و أحضرت الحق تعالى و أنا بين يديه أتلو عليه كتابه فلما استفتحت الفاتحة و وصلت إلى قوله إِيّٰاكَ نَعْبُدُ نظرت إلى نفسي فلم أرها تصدق في قولها فاستحييت أن أقول بين يديه إِيّٰاكَ نَعْبُدُ و هو يعلم أني أكذب في مقالتي فإني رأيت نفسي لاهية بخواطرها عن عبادته فبقيت أردد القراءة من أول الفاتحة إلى قوله ملك (مٰالِكِ)يَوْمِ الدِّينِ و لا أقدر أن أقول إِيّٰاكَ نَعْبُدُ إنه ما خلصت لي فبقيت أستحيي أن أكذب بين يديه تعالى فيمقتني فما ركعت حتى طلع الفجر و قد رضت كبدي و ما أنا إلا راحل إليه على حالة لا أرضاها من نفسي فما انقضت ثالثة حتى مات الشاب فلما دفن أتى الأستاذ إلى قبره فسأله عن حاله فسمع صوت الشاب من قبره و هو يقول له يا أستاذ أنا حي عند حي لم يحاسبني بشي
قال فرجع الأستاذ إلى بيته و لزم فراشه مريضا مما أثر فيه حال الفتى فلحق به فمن قرأ إِيّٰاكَ نَعْبُدُ على قراءة الشاب فقد قرأ 

The story implies what the Shaykh a considers as a real reading of the Qur'an in the presence of the Being.  I will try to summarize it as best as I can:

I will relate in this chapter what my teacher, Al-Muqri Abu Bakar Muhammad bin Khalaf bin Saf Al-Lakhmi narrates from some noble teachers about a youth having a severe pallor, which was noticed by his Qur'anic reading master.

Upon inquiring, the master was told by the youth that the reason was that he stood the whole night in prayers and recited the whole Qur'an in them. The master advised, "O my son, you say that you read the whole Qur'an in one night", the youth replied "Yes, that is what I said to you", "O son, tonight when you recite the Qur'an in your prayers, envision that you are doing so before me".
The following morning upon being asked by the teacher, the youth conceded to having been able to read barely half the Qur'an.
The the master advised him that the following night, he should read it as though he were in the presence of one of the Companions of the Prophet, having done that the youth only managed to read a quarter of the Qur'an.
For the subsequent nights, the the master advised him to envision being in the presence of the Prophet ﷺ himself, and Gabriel, and each night the amount of Qur'an read by the youth was reduced till he was only able to read a few verses.

Finally, the master said to him then: "My son, turn to your Lord in repentance and prepare yourself tonight. Realize that he who prays converses with his Lord and that you stand before Him reciting His Word. Think about that which belongs to the Qur'an and that which belongs to Him and meditate on that which you recite, for it is not simply a matter of assembling letters and recounting the words of others. Recitation entails meditating on the signification of that which you read. Do not be ignorant!"

The following day there was no sign of the young man. The master visited him and found him gravely ill. He confessed to the master that when he came to reading 'It is You alone who we worship', he could go no further than this verse, having realized just how insincere was his reading of it. The young man died not long after. The master heard the voice of the youth from the grave saying "I am alive with the Alive and he did not take me to account".  The master went back home and soon after became gravely ill, and passed away.

Shaykh al-Akbar Ibn 'Arabi concludes from this: He who has read "It is You whom we worship" just as the youth did, has truly read it.

Plant fruit-bearing trees

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

and persevere in doing good: behold, God loves the doers of good...... 2:195 (last part of the ayat)

Plant fruit-bearing trees

At the dawn of creation, when Allah created mankind, He decided to give each and everyone of us a small piece of arable land for cultivation. We could grow all kinds of crops in it to feed ourselves as well as feed others.  He also sent many people to guide us on how to best cultivate crops, and what to do with the produce.

Eventually, mankind understood that they needed to plant some fruit bearing trees, and although the trees might not bear immediate fruit, if we persevered and took good care of the trees, one day they would bear fruit. Lots of fruit. And this fruit could be consumed by us, or shared with our friends and neighbors, and shared with those who did not have anything to eat so that they could eat to their heart's content.

Most people would plant good quality fruit bearing trees, and tasty, sweet fruit was in abundant supply. And it was all good.

Then one day, a few of us had this idea.  Instead of putting all our energy into planting trees, why don't spend time and energy to encourage others to plant trees. This will be better use of our time, since we would now be responsible for the plantation of many more trees, rather than just a few trees that would fit our land.  So we became good at motivating others. Also, we developed infographics, memes, videos, and step-wise instructions on how to grow good trees. Which ones are the best trees to grow? Which ones are the best fruits?  We started arguing over whose farming methods are the best? And why other peoples methods won't bear fruit.  We started having a great number of followers who used to listen to us.

But instead of listening to us and planting trees, our followers really liked our techniques of motivation, and representation of information, so they ended up sharing this information with others. And spent most of their time sharing with others on how to plant good trees. They figured, if it works for us, it will work for them. And so more and more people became busy in talking about agriculture, and less and less people actually planted trees.

So it happened that one day it was discovered that there was severe shortage of fruit in the market, and those who previously would not go hungry, also had to go hungry.  However, techniques on growing trees, and highly detailed agricultural nuances and differences were in abundance. Alas, that day we discovered that we cannot eat infographics, articles or videos.   If only we had spent our time growing fruit instead...