Islamic Life

 

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

(For the purpose of this article, a man stands for a woman as well.)

A man leading an Islamic life would have, first and foremost, an unflinching belief in Allah. By Allah, I mean the Power, without a beginning or an end, that has created the Universe and everything therein. Allah has absolute control over everything He has created. 

Allah has given a code of conduct, in the form of the Qur'aan, for man to lead his worldly life. HE has given man the intelligence to recognize Him without seeing Him. HE has also given him the freedom not to abide by the Qur'aan, but with the warning that a breach of the Code could land him into Hell! And abiding by the Code could fetch him the reward of Paradise. Hell is the place of everlasting suffering, while Paradise, the place for everlasting joy! Both Hell and Paradise are placed in the Hereafter. There is life after man's worldly death. That life is the Hereafter!

The man leading an Islamic life would therefore be ever vigilant that he abides by the Code. He would commit no offence against anyone, lest Allah should punish him here or in the Hereafter. He would necessarily be just and fair in all his dealings with others. He would never cheat anybody but help anyone to the best of his ability.

If most men were to abide by the Code, there would be a virtual Paradise on earth!

I had started this article with the assertion that a man stands for a woman as well. Man and woman are two aspects of the same personality.  One is made for the other. They are the two wheels of the cart of mankind. The cart would come to a grinding halt without any one of the two wheels functioning. Both must be equal in stature. The Qur'aan gives rights for either one, over the other. Allah won't forgive a man who ill-treats his wife. An Islamic couple would necessarily be happy with each other. In Islam, sexual enjoyment is restricted to the bounds of marriage. To prevent its proliferation outside these bounds, both men and women are required not to be provocative in their dress and demeanour in public. There is otherwise no restriction on either man or woman acquiring any useful knowledge or doing any honourable public service.

Mohammad Shafi 

Friday, the 24th of September 2021.

 

PS: I have grown very old and weak, and I find it difficult to do any original writing now. So, if I do continue to live, I would be doing, at most, only a copy-and-paste job from my past writings. Allah Hafiz!

 

Hypocrites

 In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

I was reading Verse 9:74, wherein hypocrites' declaration of belief in Allah and His Messenger was exposed to be false! The hypocrites meant were those living then, that is at the time when the Qur'aan was being revealed. 

But it occurred to me, to my dismay, that we, modern-day Muslims, could be such hypocrites as well!

We declare we are believers of the Qur'aan! Really? Why do we then act contrary to some of the Qur'aanic edicts?

In Verse 17:110, Muslims are instructed not to be too low in their voice during their prayers. But we disregard this clear instruction and say our ظهر and عصر prayers inaudibly! Why?

In Verse 62:9, we are asked to abandon all our mundane business and rush towards ذكر الله immediately on hearing the Call for Friday prayer. What do we do? We are in no hurry to leave our business! We delay our going to the Masajid till it is time to start the ritual prayer. "The Imam's sermon isn't worth hearing," we think. And the females think the divine directive is for men, and not for women! So, they remain busy preparing meals for their men returning from their prayers!!

Verse 2:187 directs us to fast إلى اليل till night. But we break our fast at sunset! Sunset is not night. The atmosphere is still pervaded with daylight then. The Qur'aan itself calls dawn and dusk to be the 2 ends of the day طرفي انهار and not ends of the night (refer Verse 11:114). Night comes when all remnants of daylight vanish from the atmosphere. Just as fast starts, not at Sunrise, but at the start of dawn, it ends, not at sunset, but at the end of dusk! But we do not bother, we follow what our forefathers have been doing. 

The elite amongst us - some of them, not all, I grant - would rather have a pleasure trip around the world, than perform a Hajj! On the other hand, there are some who would perform a Hajj or an Umrah every year but would not spend on ameliorating some of the poverty around them!

Some of us - the younger generation particularly - usually enjoy a late-night show or remain busy with our mobile. Then it becomes difficult for them to get up for the prescribed dawn prayer. And, gradually, it becomes a habit! One day, they say a final bye to the dawn prayer, and then, to all prayers!

Qur'aan instructs us to be truthful always, and to stand firmly for justice even at our own cost! We casually go against this instruction in the interest of our worldly gains. And we assume, we have not done anything wrong!

Qur'aan repeatedly asserts that it explains in detail all things necessary for leading a good, virtuous life. But even our well-established Islamic scholars say that الربا(Ar-Riba) is not defined! In other words, they do not believe in the Qur'aan!

I can go on and on recounting our perfidies, but I am tired. I must stop here!  The undeniable fact, however, is that the modern-day Muslim is, generally speaking, a منافق, a hypocrite!  

May Allah have mercy on us!

Amen,

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 17th of September 2021.

 

Adam & Jesus

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Verse 3:59 tells us that, with Allah Almighty, Jesus was like Adam. They were alike in one respect; they were both born asexually. Both did not have a human father.

That is the plain interpretation of that Verse. But Allah had put a numerical code in the Qur'aan, perhaps completely unknown to the Arabs to whom the Qur'aan was revealed, to prove that the Holy Book was divine, and not man-made!

Adam occurs 25 times in the entire Qur'aan. Jesus (Aaeesa) also occurs 25 times therein!

Not only that!

Before Verse 3:59, Adam occurs 6 times in the Qur’aan, and so does Jesus occur 6 times! And after Verse 3:59, Adam occurs 18 times, and so does Jesus!!

I have verified this myself.

Besides Verse 3:59, in which both Adam and Jesus are mentioned, Adam is mentioned in Verses 2:31, 2:33, 2:34, 2:35, 2:37, 3:33, 5:27, 7:11, 7:19, 7:26, 7:27, 7:31, 7:35, 7:172, 17:61, 17:70, 18:50, 19:58, 20:115, 20:116, 20:117, 20:120, 20:121, & 36:60. Whereas, Jesus is mentioned in 2:87, 2:136, 2:253, 3:45, 3:52, 3:55, 3:84, 4:157, 4:163, 4:171, 5:46, 5:78, 5:110, 5:112, 5:114, 5:116, 6:85, 19:34, 33:7, 42:13, 43:63, 57:27, 61:6, & 61:14.

Imagine, this was done when there was no computer! There was not even paper then to write on! And the Qur'aan was revealed, in portions, during a long spell of 23 years!!! Could any man have inserted this utterly astonishing code? Surely, a human mind can even then deny divine authorship of the Qur'aan only under Satanic influence!

Mohammad Shafi 

Friday, the 10^th of September 2021.

 

Sharia

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful 

The word شريعة (Sharia) is bandied around, all over the world, even without knowing what it really means. Non-Muslims consider it to be a sinister, medieval code of harsh laws. Muslims themselves are responsible for this perception! Some of the Muslim countries have made it obligatory for men to have long beards and for women to have a complete head to feet covering in public, and such other archaic laws, as part of شريعة. Such archaic laws are not part of the Qur’aanic شريعة. The شريعة as understood by those Muslim countries is based, on man-written books, published long after the death of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

In the Qur'aan, this word is mentioned in Verse 45:18 whereby Prophet Muhammad was informed that he himself was created with the divine code of conduct inherent in him. This code of conduct, inherent in the Prophet, is the Message of the Qur'aan! So, شريعة must be explored within the Qur'aan itself! Seeking its meaning outside the Qur'aan has led the Muslims astray. 

What then is the Code of Conduct (شريعة) laid down in the Qur’aan?

Summarised, for the sake of this short article, the essentials of this Code are as under:

1. Belief in Allah.

2. Belief in the Qur'aan being  a Message from Allah.

3. Belief in the Hereafter. 

4. Standing firmly for justice and truth.

I would elaborate on the essentials above as under:

The Universe and everything therein are so intricately and intelligently interlinked that the concept of their coming into being of their own accord, is just nonsense, even from the scientific point of view! From the same point of view, it would be nonsense to say that their creators are more than one.

The Unitary Power that created everything is called Allah in Islam. The Power could be called by any other appropriate name.

Allah has sent mankind to this earth for testing their eligibility for an everlastingly happy life in the Hereafter. There is another life after death, which is the Hereafter. Only those will be eligible to be happy there who have led شريعة lives here, at least during the last phase before death. The others go to Hell there!

The dos and the don'ts in the Qur’aan constitute the شريعة. The dos are all good things like truthfulness, honesty, kindness, sympathy, and ways and means to cultivate these. And the don'ts are all bad things like theft, treachery, oppression, dishonesty, falsehood, and ways and means employed for their perpetration.

People are urged to boldly stand for justice and truth even when it goes against their own selves or their near and dear ones.

Much ado is raised about the punishment of cutting a hand for theft (Verse 5:38). In the very next Verse (5:39), the perpetrator of the crime is pardoned if he/she repents and makes amends. The provision of a harsh punishment serves only as a deterrent. Only a repeater of the crime may suffer the harsh punishment. Even then it must be remembered that this punishment can be awarded only by a State governed strictly under Qur'aanic شريعة. In such a state, the judge would be an Allah-fearing person, who would not award the harsh punishment unless he is sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that the person concerned has indeed committed the crime. So, this is a case of much ado about nothing!

Question is also raised as to why a daughter inherits only half the share of a son, under the شريعة. Those who raise this question do not know that in Islam, the responsibility of bearing the family expenses is on a male member and not on a female. Moreover, a wife gets shares in inheritance both from her parents' side and from the husband's side. A husband gets inheritance only from his parents' side. And there are other aspects to this issue that are beyond the scope of this short article.

In Islam, sexual enjoyment is restricted within the bounds of marriage. Taking this outside these bounds generate many evils that would be bad for a good human society. The Qur'aanic شريعة has therefore put certain behavioural and dressing norms to avoid sexual provocation in public. But these norms do not prevent females from acquiring education or doing any normal Societal work in public as wrongly professed in some quarters.

The Qur'aanic شريعة, in short, is designed to generate a free and secure society for all mankind - even for those who do not believe in Allah, in the Qur'aan, and in the Hereafter. They will be dealt with by Allah Himself in the Hereafter. No earthly authority has any power to punish them for that unless they indulge in some crime against their fellow human beings.

It is not very important to have a high position in the life of this world. What is important is to qualify here for a place in Paradise. There is no harm in trying to get some important and fair position on this earth, but that should be done by fair means, not foul.

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 3^rd of September 2021.