O You Who Go

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

A few days back I heard my wife humming a few lines from an old Hindi song. It was from a film, and had its own romantic ramifications.

But I found myself explaining to her my own interpretations of those lines in an Islamic perspective. Below are those interpretations:

Kahan ja raha hai tu ae jane wale (Where are you going, O you who go)

Most men and women are wont to go about in this world pursuing their limited worldly objectives. They want to lead comfortable lives, with ample means to do so. They get upset if someone or something comes in the way of getting that objective fulfilled. Then they resort to doing things, fair or foul, that could overcome those hindrances.

This worldly life is the be-all and end-all of their existence. They don’t believe in any life after death. And they don’t believe in any divine punishments for any misdeeds on their part. So, they go on grabbing whatever they lay their hands on.

Some of them believe in and worship their personal gods. Some believe that some of their own kind, dead or alive, achieve divine powers, to whom they go to for redressal of any of their personal problems.

But whatever way they go in their worldly pursuits, there is a common, pervading feeling of unhappiness and unfulfillment among them. The poet addresses such a one in his line above.

Andhera hai man ka (A mental darkness it only is)

He is telling such a one that the latter is just groping in the dark. It is unlikely that he will find any real happiness and satisfaction because of the darkness that his own mind has created. The causes for the mental darkness are his misconceptions about the purpose of his life. He perceives that he is superior intellectually to any other form of life on this earth. That perception misleads him to the false belief that he is the master of what he surveys. It has led him to believe that there is no such thing as a Creator of this world/universe, which he thinks has come up on its own! He has become aware of the exquisite planning, wisdom, wizardry, craftmanship and care that has gone into the making of his own body, but he dismisses any idea of God bringing it into being and guiding and monitoring his actions here in this world.

That is his undoing; he continues to grope in the dark!

Diya to jala le (Just you put the light on please!)

The Maker Who has created him with such superhuman intelligence has not left him just to grope in the dark after his creation. HE has given him a mind which time and again prompts him to see the wisdom of recognizing the existence of the Maker. HE has provided evidences galore of His Existence. And He has sent down His Book of Guidance, the Qur’aan! This is the Light that is capable of extinguishing the utter mental darkness of the man. But the man, in his self-destructive arrogance, has refused to put that Light on!

The above poetic line beckons man to just put on that Light to put an end to all his misery.

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 28^th of July 2017.

Word of Allah

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

In the 19^th July 2017 issue of the Indian Express, there was an article entitled Islam’s reform: Way to go. The ‘way’ shown therein was for Muslims to accept that Qur’aan is not the Word of Allah! In other words, to annihilate the very base of their religion!!

The Qur’aan is not the Word of Allah because it is not the Speech of Allah, the article pleaded.

Well, the Qur’aan has never claimed that it is entirely a direct speech from Allah. It is a Message from Allah conveyed to Prophet Muhammad (peace on him) through Angels. There are evidences galore to prove that it is truly and entirely a divine Message, immutable and fool-proof! Youtube.com videos providing such evidences are aplenty now.

Herein below I reproduce one of my many articles on the matter:

The Twelve

1.    Most Muslims may be aware of there being numerous astonishing numerical evidences of the Qur’aan being divine and not man-made. I too had read about it innumerable times, but had not brought myself to personally verify any of those.
2.    But, some days back, I did physically do the counting job on one such evidence. The word I chose was shahr, the Arabic equivalent for month. My information was that this word in singular occurred exactly twelve time in the entire Qur’aan to correspond with the twelve months in a year.
3.    Needless to say, I was not disappointed! The word shahr occurred in Verses 2:185 (twice), 2:194 (twice), 2:217, 5:2, 5:96, 9:36, 34:12 (twice), 46:15 & 97:3. Twelve times, totally!
4.    What’s so great about it, you may ask. The greatness in this is that the Qur’aan was revealed to Prophet Muhammad, bit by bit, during a long and extended period of 23 years in the seventh century AD. People in those days had no means to keep count of every word occurring in the Holy Book. There were no printing presses, not even paper – leave aside the modern-day computer! This counting could only be done then by Allah Almighty, and not by man. And this evidence came to light only recently, when man could have access to modern techniques.
And this is not the only numerical evidence! There are far too many of them to be humanly possible for a Book, produced in the 7^th century, to have. Click here to know more about this. One cannot dismiss an avalanche of such evidences as mere coincidences.

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 21^st of July 2017

Worship

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Extract from Chapter 2 of QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir:

163. Wa-ilahukum ilahun wahidun la ilaha illa huwa alrrahmanu alrraheemu

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163. And the Being worthy of your worship is the One, and Only! None is worthy of worship other than He, the Gracious, the Merciful.²⁶³

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263. Allah, as we Muslims know, is the One and Only Being worthy of worship (Ilaah). 'Worship' connotes unquestioned obedience. We worship Allah if, and only if, we obey all His commands given in the Qur'aan. But we need to introspect, deeply and sincerely, whether we really do so. We need to introspect whether we do not have ilaahs, other than Allah, in the form of our own carnal desires and in the forms of other forces, human or otherwise, imagined or real, in the influence of which we often do things contrary to divine commands.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 14^th of July 2017.

Feedback on New Moon

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Continuing from the Sermon for last Friday, let me discuss here some critical feedback I received thereon.

In the opinion of one critic, there could be no such thing as a global lunar calendar. He wouldn’t even agree that there is any global solar calendar either. In an example he cited, at the time it was 8:43 am of 4^th July in Australia this year, it was still 3^rd July at his place.

I pointed out to him that it was Tuesday in Australia at the said time on 4^th July there, and Monday 3^rd July at his place. But when 4^th July did come to his place it was Tuesday there too! ‘Despite the difference of time zones, the same (Gregorian) calendar is in use at both the places! That is what I mean by a globally viable calendar. The Qur'aan envisaged such a globally viable lunar calendar.’ People like him are coming in the way.

Nevertheless, despite such irrational opposition, more and more countries are now veering round to the Qur’aan-envisaged global lunar calendar. At present, it has just been for Ramadan fasts – some of the other countries merely following Saudi Arabia. But for the legal inception of a globally viable lunar calendar, an international agreement on the nitty-gritties thereof – a la of the Gregorian Calendar – is required. Most of the details, like the international dateline, of that Calendar can ipso facto be adopted. But the moot point for the lunar Calendar would be as to when, after the birth of the new moon, the lunar next month would start, internationally.

A brother has suggested, “If on any solar date (irrespective of local time and place), New Moon is born, then the next solar date will be the first day of lunar month in every part of the world.” I think that’s a viable suggestion, but it has got to be internationally approved and applied.

The only international body, I can think capable of doing that, is Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Any reader in a position to contact the Organization, may kindly bring this important issue for their consideration and resolution.

A brother from Australia thinks that it’s time to consider this matter we are discussing as too prolonged, and it should be closed to make way for discussing other urgent matters like minority bashing in India.

To the brother from Australia, and to many other Muslims, the question of having a globally viable lunar calendar is unimportant. For, they all have the Gregorian solar calendar to go by for their day-to-day needs.

I think this general attitude among Muslims is at the root of their all-too-palpable despicable position as a community in the world today. The community has become a favourite whipping boy for every Tom, Dick and Harry. It is as if Allah Almighty has withdrawn His Hand of Mercy from them. The Qur’aan had warned them of this ignominy if they ceased to follow it. It had told them, in no uncertain terms, that they should establish a globally viable lunar Calendar for their day-to-day mundane activities. The Muslims completely neglected this divine instruction. And the Rabb of all mankind transferred this responsibility of establishing a calendar viable for them all, to the Christians. For, otherwise, their increasingly global activities would be in chaos. The Christians then established the internationally viable solar calendar. And the Muslims were doomed for their disobedience! But even now, the Muslims can resurrect a globally viable lunar calendar, for, it can, I am informed, correct the slight lacuna inherent in the solar calendar.

And as for the Muslim bashing, the Qur’aan tells them that if they say that Allah is their Rabb, and solemnly abide by that conviction, come what may, they would have nothing to fear, nor would they grieve [Verse 46:13].

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 7^th of July 2017.