TAM ÝLMÝHÂL
SE’ÂDET-Ý EBEDÝYYE
With the Basmala,
let us begin reading this book!
The name Allah is
the best shelter.
His blessings are
immeasurable, incalculable.
He is the Lord, the
most Compassionate, the most Merciful!
With the name of Allah, I begin writing
the book Endless
Bliss. Pitying all the people in this world, He creates
and sends useful things to them. In the next world, favouring whomever He wants
of those Muslims who are to go to Hell by forgiving them, He will put them into
Paradise. He is the only One who creates every living creature, who keeps every
being every moment in existence, and who protects all against fear and horror.
Trusting myself to the honourable name of such a being as Allah, I begin to
write this book.
1 – May Allahu ta’âlâ honour us all with
the prosperity of following Muhammad Mustafâ (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam),
who is the spiritual Master of this and the next world and who is the highest
of all the people in every respect. Because Allahu ta’âlâ likes those who obey
and follow him, a tiny act of following him is more exalted than all the
worldly advantages and all the blessings of the next world. Real superiority
consists of adapting oneself to his sunnat, and the honour and virtue of
humanity entails following his Sharî’at. [The word sunnat has three different
meanings. In this context, it means the Sharî’at.]
[Adapting oneself to him, or following
him, is following the way on which he has guided us. His way is the way shown
by the Qur’ân al-kerîm.
This way is called Dîn-i Islâm. In order to adapt ourselves to
him, we should first have îmân (belief); then learn
Islâm well; then carry out the fard and
abstain from the harâm; and then fulfill the sunnat and abstain from the
makrűh. After all these, we should also try to follow him in what is mubah.]
It is essential for everyone to have îmân;
îmân is necessary for everybody. Those who have îmân should carry out the fards
and abstain from the harâms. Every Mu’min (Believer) is obliged to carry out
the fards and abstain from the harâms, that is, to be a Muslim. Every Mu’min
loves our Prophet (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam) more than his own life and
property. A symptom of this love is to carry out the sunnat and abstain from
the makrűh. After following all of these, the more a Muslim adapts himself to
him in what is mubâh, the more perfect and the more mature will he become. He
will become all the closer and more beloved to Allahu ta’âlâ.
It is called Îmân to like and to admit
sincerely, that is, to believe, all of what Rasűlullah (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa
sallam) said. Those who believe so are called Mu’min. It is called Kufr not
to believe even one piece of what he said, and to doubt if it is good and
correct. People who disbelieve so are called Kâfir. Things which Allahu ta’âlâ
clearly commands in the Qur’ân al-kerîm are called Fard. Things
which He clearly forbids and prohibits by saying “don’t” are called Harâm. Things
which Allahu ta’âlâ doesn’t clearly command but which are acts our Prophet
praised or which he habitually did or which he did not prohibit, though seeing
them done, are called Sunnat. It is kufr (disbelief) to
dislike the sunnat. It is not a sin not to do them, as long as you like them.
Those things which are not liked by him, and which also eradicate the blessings
of worships are called Makrűh. The things which are neither
commanded nor prohibited are called Mubâh. All these commands and
prohibitions are called Sharî’at or Af’âl-i mukallafîn or Ahkâm-i Islâmiyya.
Af’âl-i mukallafîn consists of eight aspects:
Fard, wâjib, sunnat, mustahab, mubâh, harâm, makrűh, mufsid. Things that are
not prohibited, or though prohibited, their prohibition has been abolished
through one of the reasons which the Sharî’at accepts as an excuse, a hindrance
or a necessity, are called Halâl. All mubahs are halâl. For
example, it is halâl to lie in order to reconcile two Muslims. Everything that
is halâl may not be mubâh. For example, it is not mubâh, but it is makrűh to go
shopping while the adhân is being called. Nevertheless, it is halâl. A Muslim
crier calls Muslims to pray when it is prayer time; this public announcement is
called the adhân.
It is fard to learn and know the tenets of
îmân, and the various fards and harâms. Thirty-three fards are well-known. Four
of them are basic; to perform namâz, to fast, to give zakât, and to perform
hadj (pilgrimage). These four fards together with îmân are the basis of Islâm.
He who has îmân and who worships, that is, he who carries out these four fards
is called a Muslim or Muslimân. He who carries out all four of
them and abstains from the harâm is a complete Muslim. If one of these is
defective or nonexistent, his state of being a Muslim will also be defective.
He who does not carry out any of them may be a Mu’min (believer), but he is not
a true Muslim. Though such an îmân protects one in this world only, it is
difficult to transmigrate to the Hereafter in possession of this kind of îmân.
Îmân is like a candle. Ahkâm-i Ýslâmiyya is like the lantern, the glass
globe around the burning candle. The candle and the lantern which contains it
represent Islâm and
Dîn-i Islâm.
The candle without the lantern will go out
quickly. Islâm cannot exist without îmân. Therefore, where there is no Islâm, there
is no îmân, either.
Dîn (religion) means the way prescribed by
Allahu ta’âlâ in order to guide people to endless bliss. The unwholesome ways
which people make up under the name of religion are not called religion; they
are called irreligiousness and disbelief. Since the time of Hadrat Âdam, Allahu
ta’âlâ has sent mankind a religion by means of a prophet every thousand years.
These prophets (salawatullahi ta’âlâ ’alaihim ajma’în) are called Rasűl. On
the other hand, in every century, by making the purest person the prophet, He
has strengthened the religion through him. These prophets who followed the
rasűls are called Nabî. All the prophets have communicated the
same îmân; they have asked their ummat to believe in the same things. Yet,
since their Sharî’ats, that is, the things that are to be done and avoided
through the heart and body, were different, their being Muslims was different.
He who has îmân and adapts himself to the
Sharî’at is a Muslim. Those who want to adapt the Sharî’at to their desires and
pleasures are disbelievers. They don’t understand that Allahu ta’âlâ has sent
down the Sharî’at in order to break the desires and pleasures of the nafs and
to prevent their excessive indulgence.
Every subsequent Sharî’at has abolished or
changed the Sharî’at previous to itself. The latest Sharî’at that has changed
all the Sharî’ats prior to it, which has assimilated all the previous Sharî’ats
within itself, and which will never change until the end
of the world is Hadrat Muhammad’s
Sharî’at. Today, the religion which Allahu ta’âlâ likes and loves is the
Islâmic religion, which is based on this Sharî’at. To those who perform the
fard and abstain from the harâm, which this Sharî’at communicates, Allahu
ta’âlâ will bestow blessings and favors in the next world. That is, they will
receive thawâb (rewards). For those who do not carry out the fards and do not
abstain from the harâms, there are punishments and suffering in the next world.
That is, such people become sinful. The fard performed by those who have no
îmân will not be accepted. That is, they will not be given rewards. The sunnat
performed by the Muslims who don’t carry out the fard, that is, who owe a debt
to Allahu ta’âlâ, will not be accepted, and they will not be given rewards.
They are not looked upon as having adapted themselves to our Prophet
(sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam). If a person does all the fards and omits one
fard without an excuse, none of his nâfila (supererogatory) worships and
sunnats of this kind will be given rewards, until he pays this debt of his. Hadîth-i Sharîfs declare this clearly as
quoted in the book Miftâh-un-Najât: “O ’Ali! When the people are busy with the fadâil (supererogatory)
try to
complete the fards.” Also, it states at the end of
the third fasl (part) of the book Durrat-ul-Fâkhira by Imâm-i Ghazâlî: “Allahu ta’âlâ will
not accept the nâfila salât of the person who has a debt of qadâ salât.” The
book Miftâh-un-Najât
has already been published by Hakîkat Kitâbevi in
Ýstanbul. When the mubâhs are done with good intentions and with beautiful
thoughts, one will receive rewards. When they are done for evil purposes, or if
doing them prevents one from performing a fard or causes the delaying of a
fard, they will be sins. While the fard and sunnat are being done, if evil
thoughts are involved, the debt will be paid and punishment will be averted,
but no reward will be obtained. It may be a sin instead. The fard and sunnat of
those who commit harâms will be acceptable. That is, they have paid their debt,
yet they won’t receive rewards. The book al-Hadîqa in explaining the hadîth: “The worships of
people of bid’at will not be accepted,” says, “The worships of
those Muslims who do not abstain from sinning are not accepted, even if they
are sahîh.” A harâm cannot be mubâh (permitted), even if done with goodwill. In
other words, a harâm will never be rewarded, and he who commits a harâm without
an excuse is certainly sinful. He who abstains from the harâm and gives it up
with goodwill, fearing Allah, will receive rewards. If he doesn’t commit a
harâm for other reasons, he won’t receive rewards. He
will only escape its sin. It is out of
place for those who commit harâms to say, “You should look at my heart, it is
pure. Allahu ta’âlâ looks at the heart only.” It is nonsensical. This is only
said to deceive Muslims. It is written in the thirty-ninth letter [of Hadrat
Imam-i Rabbânî] that the smyptom of a heart’s purity is in adhering to the
Sharî’at, that is, obeying its commands and prohibitions. The book Hadîqa and
Shirât ul-Islâm,
on its 246th page, while explaining taqwâ says,
“Committing the harâms with good intentions does not deliver them from being
harâms. A good intention does not affect either the harâms or the makrűhs. It
does not change them into tâ’at.”
It is written on the seventy-third page of
the book Mir’ât-ul-maqâsid
concerning an intention for an abdast (ritual
ablution, wudű) in Ibni Âbiddîn (rahmat-Allahî ’alaih) and on
the fifty-fourth page in the translation of Milal-Nihal that there are three kinds of
actions: The first is, ma’siyyat, that is, sinful actions. These are the
actions which Allahu ta’âlâ dislikes. It is ma’siyyat not to do what Allahu
ta’âlâ has ordered to be done, or to do what He has prohibited. The second one
is tâ’at, those
actions which Allahu ta’âlâ likes. These are also called Hasana. He
has promised that He will give Ajr, that is, Thawâb (blessings) to a Muslim
who performs tâ’at. The third group of actions are called Mubâh, which
have not been declared to be sinful or tâ’at. They are tâ’at or sinful
depending on the intention of the person who does them.
Sins are not exempted from being sins if
they are committed with or without a good intention. The hadîth “Actions are good
or bad depending on the intention,” declares that the tâ’at
and mubâh actions will be given rewards in accordance with the intention. If a
person, in order to please someone, offends another person, or if he gives alms
with someone else’s property, or if he builds mosques or schools with haram
money, he won’t be given rewards. It will be ignorant to expect rewards for
these efforts. Cruelty and sins are still sins even if they are committed with
a goodwill. It is blessed not to do such actions. If one does them knowing that
they are sins, it will become a grave sin. If one does them without knowing, it
will be a sin also not to know or not to learn the things that are known by
most Muslims. Even in Dâr-ul-harb it is not an excuse, but a sin, not to know
the Islâmic rules which are common.
When the tâ’ats are done without an
intention or intended for Allah’s sake, blessings are given.
When one does a tâ’at, it will be accepted
whether one knows or not that one is doing it for Allah’s sake. If a person
does a tâ’at knowing that he does it for Allah’s sake, it is called Qurbet. While
doing an action which is qurbet, one does not have to intend so that rewards
will be given. The tâ’at in which it is necessary to intend for Allah’s sake so
that rewards are given is called Ibâdat (worshipping). The abdast
(ritual ablution) that is performed without an intention is not an act of
worshipping, but it is qurbet. However, one has cleaned oneself and can perform
namâz. It is understood that every worship is qurbet and tâ’at. Reading the Qur’ân al-kerîm, donating property to a religious
foundation, emancipating a slave, giving alms, making a wudu’ (in the Hanafî
Madhhab) and the like, since an intention is not necessary in order to receive
blessings, they are tâ’at and qurbet. Yet they are not acts of worship. While
doing an action which is tâ’at or qurbet, if one intends for Allah’s sake, one
has done an act of worship. However, these are not commanded as worships. It is
not qurbet, but it is tâ’at to learn such branches of knowledge as physics,
chemistry, biology and astronomy, which help men to know Allah. Unbelievers
comprehend Allah’s existence, not while learning them, but after learning them.
It is a sin to perform any tâ’at with a bad intention. Beautiful thoughts
increase the reward of a tâ’at. For example, it is a tâ’at to be in a mosque.
It will be more rewarding if one intends to visit the House of Allah, thinking
that the mosque is the House of Allah. Also, if one intends to wait for the
next prayer or stays inside the mosque to prevent the eyes and ears from
committing sins or goes into seclusion to think about the next world or to
mention Allah’s name in a mosque or perform amr-i ma’ruf and nahy-i munkar to
teach the people about Allah’s commands and prohibitions or to listen to the
preaching of others or to strive to feel embarrassment before Allah, one will
receive different rewards for each act, depending on one’s intention. Every
tâ’at has various intentions and rewards. Ibni Âbidîn (rahmat-Allâhi ’alaih)
explains these while explaining how to send a proxy to Mecca for pilgrimage.
Every mubâh is a tâ’at when done with
goodwill. It is a sin when done with ill will. If a person uses perfumes,
dresses well and smartly in order to enjoy worldly benefits, to make a show, to
boast, to cherish himself or to hunt girls and women, he will be sinful. He
won’t be tormented for his intention to enjoy worldly advantages, yet it will
cause the blessings of the next world to decrease. He will be tormented for his
other intentions. If this
person dresses smartly and uses perfumes
because it is a sunnat, if he intends to pay reverence to a mosque and not to
hurt the Muslims who sit by him in the mosque, to be clean, to be healthy, to
protect Islam’s dignity and honour, he receives different rewards for each of
these intentions of his. Some scholars say that one shouldn’t forget to make an
intention for every mubâh action, even before eating, drinking, sleeping and
going to the water-closet. One should be careful about one’s intention when
beginning a mubâh action. If one’s intention is good, one should do that act.
If the intention is not only for Allahu ta’âlâ, one shouldn’t do it. It is
declared in a hadîth-i-sherîf, “Allahu ta’âlâ does not look at your beautiful faces or
possessions; He looks at your hearts and deeds.” That
is, Allahu ta’âlâ doesn’t give anybody rewards or gifts in consideration of his
new, clean clothes, good deeds, possessions and rank. He gives him rewards or
torments because of his thoughts, or the intention behind his actions.
Then, the thing which is of the highest
necessity, which is the most important fard for every Muslim, is learning îmân,
the fards and the harams. There is no Islâm unless these are learned. Îmân
cannot be maintained, the debts to Allah and to human beings cannot be paid,
intentions and morals cannot be corrected and purified unless the basic
principles of Islam are learnt. Unless correctly intended, no fard will be
accepted. It was declared in a hadîth in ad-Durr-ul-Mukhtâr: “Learning or teaching knowledge for one
hour is more blessed than worshipping until morning.” The
author of the book Hadarât-ul-quds states on the ninety-ninth
page, “I studied the books Bukhârî, Mishkat, Hidâya and Sherh-i-mawâqif under
Imâm-i-Rabbânî’s supervision. He would encourage young people to acquire
knowledge. ‘Knowledge first, and tasawwuf next,’ he would say. Noticing my
shirking from knowledge and taking pleasure from tarîqat, he pitied me and
advised me, ‘Read books! Acquire knowledge! An ignorant sufi will be a
plaything in the hands of the devil,’ [that is, he will fall into disesteem.]”
It is called Ibâdat (worship) to do the fard and
sunnat and to abstain from the harâm and makrűh, that is, to carry out the
rules of Islâm in order to attain Allahu ta’âlâ’s love and receive thawâb
(rewards). There is no worship without an intention. In other words, it is
necessary first to have îmân and then to learn and carry out the rules of Islâm
in order to follow Rasűlullah (Hadrat Muhammad).
To have îmân means to begin following him
(Rasűlullah) and to enter into the door of happiness. Allahu ta’âlâ sent him to
invite all the people of the world to happiness and declared in the
twenty-eighth ayat of Sűrat-us-Saba’: “O my beloved Prophet! (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa
sallam) I send you to
humanity so that you should give the good news of the endless bliss to all the
people in the world and to guide them toward this way to happiness.”
For example, a little midday sleeping of a
person who adapts himself to him is much more valuable than spending many
nights worshipping without following him. It was his honourable habit to
perform Qaylűla, that is to sleep for a
while before noon. Also, not fasting on the feast day, but eating and drinking
because his Sharî’at commands it, is more valuable than years of fasting that
doesn’t exist in his Sharî’at. A small amount given to the poor according to
his Sharî’at, which is called zakât, is better than giving a pile of gold coins
as big as a mountain with one’s own wish. After performing a morning prayer in
jamâ’at, Hadrat ’Umar, the Amîr-ul-mu’minîn, looked at the jamâ’at and, seeing
that one of the members was absent, he asked where he was. His companions said,
“He prays until morning at nights. Maybe he fell asleep.” The Amîr-ul-mu’minîn
said, “I wish he had slept all the night and performed the morning prayer in
congregation; it would have been better.” Those who have deviated from the
Sharî’at blunt their nafs by subjecting themselves to inconveniences and by
striving hard. Yet, this is worthless and low because they don’t do it
compatibly with the Sharî’at. The benefit for these efforts of theirs, if there
is any, consists of a few worldly advantages. Then, in fact, this world is
worthless; therefore, of what could be the value of a part of it? These people
are like dustmen; dustmen work harder and become more tired than anybody else,
but their wages are lower than anybody else’s. As for those who adapt
themselves to the Sharî’at, they are like jewellers, who deal with fine jewels
and precious diamonds. They do a little work, but their earnings are great.
Sometimes an hour’s work provides them a hundred thousand years’ earning. The
reason for this is that an action compatible with the Sharî’at is accepted and
liked by Allahu ta’âlâ; He loves it.
[He declares in many places in Qur’ân
al-karîm that this is so. For example, He declares in the thirty-first ayat of
Sűrat-u Âl-i ’Imrân: “O my beloved Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’! Tell them, ‘If
you love Allahu ta’âlâ and if you want Allahu ta’âlâ to love you also, adapt
yourselves to me! Allahu ta’âlâ loves those
who adapt themselves to me’.”]
Allahu ta’âlâ does not like any of the
things that are incompatible with the Sharî’at. Is it possible that rewards
will be given for the things that are disliked? Maybe they will bring about
punishment.
2 – Allahu ta’âlâ declares in the Qur’ân al-kerîm, in
the eightieth âyat of the Surât-un-Nisâ that obedience to Hadrat Muhammad is
obedience to Him. Then, unless His Messenger is obeyed, He will not be obeyed.
In order to make it known that this is absolutely certain and clear, He
declared in an âyat-i-kerîma: “Of course, it is certainly so.” Thus, giving no opportunity
for some people who cannot think properly to see these two orders as being
different from each other. Again, stating dissatisfaction with those who see
these two orders as being different, in the 150th and 151st ayâts of sura Nisâ
in Qur’ân al-karîm, Allahu ta’âlâ declares: “The disbelievers want to differentiate Allah’s commands from
His prophets’ commands. They say they believe in certain parts, but not in
others. They want to establish a new path between belief and disbelief. All of
them are kâfir. For all of them we have prepared the torments of Hell with very
bitter torments.”
3 – Attaining endless bliss requires being
a Muslim. To be a Muslim, no formality is necessary, such as going to a mufti
or imâm. It is stated in the twelfth chapter of Maqâmât-i-maz-hâriyya, “It will be enough to
say: ‘I believe Allâhu ta’âlâ and His Messenger and all the messages he (the
Prophet) brought from Allâhu ta’âlâ. I love the friends of Allâhu ta’âlâ and
His Messenger, and hate their enemies.’ It is scholars’ duty to prove every
religious teaching with documents and to indicate the âyat-i-kerîmas and
hadîth-i-sherîfs that are its fulcrums. Not every Muslim is encumbered with
it.” As it is stated in Ibni Abidîn’s book at the end of the
chapter “The disbeliever’s marriage”: [“It is not a condition for an old man
who becomes a Muslim to be circumcised at once. Some ’âlims said that it is even
permissible not to circumcise him since circumcision does not legitimize the
exposing of one’s private parts.” It is written in the book al-Hadîqa and
Barîqa that
“Old or unhealthy men who become Muslim will not be circumcised if they can’t
stand its pain.” Doctor Najmuddîn Ârif bey (1343 [1925 A.D.]) says in his book Amelî Cerrâhî puslished
in Istanbul, “The Jews circumcise their boys when they are seven days old, but
Muslim boys are circumcised at any age. Many Christians in Europe and in the
United States have themselves and their
boys circumcised thinking that it is good for their health. This is written
also in the book Fann-i hitân by doctor Rýzâ Nur bey, who
was a deputy of Sinop.”
4 – The first thing necessary for all
people is to have îmân and the creed of the Ahl-i sunnat scholars as
communicated in their books. It is these scholars who have explained the way of
our Prophet Hadrat Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’, who have comprehended murâd-ý
ilâhî (the divine purpose) of the Qur’ân
al-kerîm, and who have extracted the Prophet’s purpose
from the hadîth-i-sherîfs. It is the way shown by them that will save us on the
Day of Resurrection. It is the Ahl-i sunnat scholars who have transferred
the way of Allah’s Prophet and his companions (radî-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anhum
ajma’în) into books and who have protected them against being changed or
defiled.
5 – Those scholars in the four madhhabs
who reached the grade of ijtihâd and the great scholars educated by them are
called the Ahl-i sunnat scholars. The leader and the
founder of the Ahl-i sunnat is (Imâm-i a’zâm Abű Hanîfa Nu’mân bin Thâbit (radiy-Allâhu
ta’âlâ anh).)
6 – Sahl bin Abdullah Tusturî ‘rahmatullâhi
aleyh’, one of the great Awliyâ who has reached the grade of haqîqat (the
highest grade in sufism), says, “If there had been a person like Imâm-ý a’zâm
Abű Hanîfa (rahmat-Allâhi ta’âlâ ‘alaih) among the ummats of Hadrat Műsâ and
’Isâ, they wouldn’t have turned into Jews or Christians.” [Awliyâ are people
whom Allah loves.]
7 – Millions of books written by this
great leader and by hundreds of his disciples and by thousands of the great
people educated by them, correctly spread and promulgate our Prophet’s way all
over the world. Today, there is not a city, a village or a person left in the
free world that has not heard about the Islam communicated by our Prophet. Upon
hearing about Islam, if someone sincerely wants to learn it correctly, Allâhu ta’âlâ
promises that He will grant him true knowledge. Today, there are catalogues
giving the names of the books on Islâm that fill the world’s libraries. For
example, there are about fifteen thousand names of books and some ten thousand
names of authors in the book Kashf-uz-Zunűn by Kâtib Çelebi. This book, in
two volumes, is in Arabic. Ismâ’îl Pasha from Baghdad wrote two supplementary
volumes to this book. Nearly ten thousand names of books and authors exist in
these supplementaries. Kashf-uz-Zunűn was first printed in 1250
[1835 A.D.] in Leipzig; the upper
portions of its pages were written in
Arabic, while the lower portions were in Latin. Before that, it was translated
into French in 1112 [1700 A.D.] At exactly the same time it was printed in
Egypt, too. Lastly, together with its two supplementaries, it was printed in
Arabic in Istanbul between 1360-1366 (1941-1947). The books are in the order of
the Arabic alphabet. Four of them were sold at the libraries of the Ministry of
Education in Turkey. The two-volumed Arabic book Asmâ-ul-muallifîn by Ismâ’îl Pasha was
printed in Istanbul in 1370 and 1374 (1951 and 1955). In these two volumes, the
authors of the books in Kashf-uz-Zunűn and its supplementaries are
written in the order of the Arabic alphabet and under each name are the books
written by the owner of the name. Today, another very useful and valuable book
listing only the Arabic Islamic books existing all over the world and their
authors and in which library they can be found and at which call number they
exist in each country is Carl Brockelmann’s German book Geschichte der
Arabischen Literatur, which was printed in Leiden in
1362 (1943). The book Miftâh-us-sa’âdah by Tashköprüzâde Ahmad Efendî
(rahmat-Allâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih), the author of the book Shaqâyiq-i
Nu’mâniyya, which gives the biographies of the scholars
educated in the Otttoman Empire, defines and explains nearly five hundred
branches of knowledge and gives information about the books written in every
branch of knowledge and their writers. His son, Kemâladdîn Muhammad, translated
this book from Arabic to Turkish. It lists the Islâmic savants and their works,
and he gave it the name Mawdű’ât-ul-’ulűm. This book was printed at the
printing office of the newspaper Iqdâm in 1313. It is available in bookstores.
After seeing Islam’s twenty main branches of knowledge and its eighty – one sub
– branches and the scholars of these branches and the books which each of them
wrote tirelessly and perseverently, an understanding and reasonable person cannot
help admiring the great number of Islâmic scholars and their skill at diving
into the ocean of knowledge.
[In these books of theirs, refuting
through documents and argumentations the words of naturalists and materialists
and the absurdities which non-Muslims wanted to inject into Islâm, they
silenced them all, and thus extinguished the fire of instigation and corruption
prepared by enemies of the religion. Moreover, exposing the shame of those who
tried to give wrong meanings to the Qur’ân and who strove to prepare
defiled translations with evil intentions, they, on the one hand, clearly wrote
all the facts
that have to be believed in one by one,
and, on the other hand, they very correctly presented to humanity the religious
aspect of every event and action that has happened all over the world and that
will happen until the end of the world.
The names and biographies of more than
eight hundred of Îmâm-i a’zâm Abű Hanîfa’s ‘rahmat-Allahu ta’âlâ alaih’ and
those who attended his lectures, are written in books. Five hundred and sixty
of these are well known in the knowledge of fiqh, and among these, thirty-six
have reached the grade of ijtihâd.]
8 – Every bid’at holder has inferred wrong
meanings from âyats of Qur’ân al-kerîm
and hadîth-i-sherîfs with covered meanings. Our Prophet ‘alaihis-salâm’ said, “He who gives a
false interpretation to the Qur’ân according to his own mind, thought and
knowledge, and who writes made up interpretations [those
opposed to the interpretations which the great men of religion have prepared
after learning them from our Prophet and from his Ashâb] is a kâfir.” Please
read the fiftieth disaster incurred by one’s speech, discoursed on in Berîqa.We
shouldn’t buy or read the false books of interpretations published to make
money by those who know nothing of salât and îmân; we shouldn’t believe their
decorated advertisements.
9 – The valuable and right teachings
derived from the Qur’ân al-kerîm and hadîth-i-sherîfs is only what the [Ahl-i Sunnat] savants
understood and explained. Every renegade, every deviant, every man of bid’at,
and every ignorant person supposes and claims that the way he follows is
compatible with the Qur’ân al-kerîm
and hadîth-i-sherîfs. For this reason, not every meaning derived from the Qur’ân and
hadîths is to be accepted and esteemed.
10 – It is impossible to escape torment in
the Hereafter for those who deviate as much as a hair’s breadth from the creed
and îmân communicated by the Ahl-i sunnat scholars, the great and pious people.
It is understood with the intellect, throughout the Qur’ân al-kerîm and hadîth-i-sherîfs and with
the great religious men’s perceptions through the heart that this is so. There
cannot be a mistake in this. Words and books of those who deviate as much as a
hair’s breadth from what these great people communicated in their books are
poisons. Those who use the religion as a means in order to earn worldly
possessions and who, after introducing themselves as men of religion, write
whatever occurs to their minds, are thieves of the religion. They steal the
beliefs of those who read their books and
magazines. Those who believe them think of themselves as Muslims and perform
namâz. However, because their îmân has been stolen and lost, none of their
prayers, worships nor good deeds are accepted or will be of value in the next
world.
Concerning those who sell their religion
for the world, Allahu ta’âlâ revealed the sixteenth Âyat of Sűrat-ul-Baqara: “The ignorant idiots
gave away their religion in order to get the pleasures and enjoyment of the
world. Selling out their next world, they received the world and what their
lusts desired. Abandoning the way to salvation, they ran after perdition. They
earned nothing in this act of buying and selling of theirs. They didn’t know
the way of trading or earning. They lost a great deal.”
11 – Attaining happiness in both worlds
depends only, and only upon following Hadrat Muhammad (’alaihi’s-salâm), who is
the master of this and the next world. In order to follow him, it is necessary
to have îmân and to learn and to carry out the rules of Islâm. The symbol of
true îmân’s existence in the heart is to bear hostility against disbelievers
and to annihilate the things that are peculiar to them and that are the
symptoms of disbelief. For Islâm and kufr are opposites, antonyms of each
other. Where one of them exists, the other cannot stay and goes away. These two
opposite things cannot stay in the same place together. To esteem one of them
means to insult, to blame the other. Allahu ta’âlâ commands Hadrat Muhammad,
His beloved Prophet (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam), who has the attribute
khulk-i azîm and who is very merciful, to perform jihâd, to wage war against
disbelievers and to treat them severely. This means to say that it is khulk-i
azîm to behave severely towards disbelievers. The dignity and honour of Islâm
is in insulting disbelief and disbelievers. He who glorifies and respects
disbelievers insults and dishonors the Muslims. [Declaring in the Qur’ân, in
the one hundred and forty-ninth âyat of Sűrat-u Âl-i ’Imrân that those who
esteem and follow disbelievers are wrong and will repent, Allahu ta’âlâ says, “O those who believe
my beloved Prophet! If you, believing the words of disbelievers, deviate from
the way of my Messenger, and if you, taken in by the lurid and mendacious
statements of those who pretend to be Muslims, let your faith and îmân be
stolen, you will be at a loss in this and the next world.”]
Allahu ta’âlâ declares that disbelievers
are His and His Prophet’s (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam) enemies. To love the
enemies of Allahu ta’âlâ and to cooperate with them draws one
towards being hostile against Allahu
ta’âlâ and His Prophet. A person thinks of himself as a Muslim, expresses the
word tawhîd, and
says, “I believe,” and performs namâz and every kind of worship, but, on the
other hand, cooperates with disbelievers. Yet he does not know that these
loathsome actions of his will extirpate his being a Muslim and his îmân.
[Disbelievers are people who dislike the
Islâmic religion of the Messenger of Allah and who say that it dosen’t
correspond with our age, the age and science, and renegades who publicly and
basely make fun of Muslims and Islâm. Because remaining outside Islâm befits
their pleasures, lusts and inner secret desires, they call it “retrogression”
to be a Muslim. They call disbelief and irreligiousness “modernism,
civilization and enlightenment.” Murtads (renegades) are people who were born
from Muslim parents and yet who know nothing of Islâm. These people haven’t
read or understood any books by any Islâmic scholar, dislike Islâm and, being
seized by the present-day current, say that Islam prevents progress, only in
order to obtain a favour, some sympathy or something worldly.
Some of them, in order to deceive innocent
children, say, “In Islâm everything ends in ‘said so’. It is always based upon
‘said so’ by saying, ‘It has been said by so and so.’ It is not based upon a
document or a voucher, whereas other branches of knowledge are proved and are
based on documents.” These words of theirs manifest how ignorant they are. They
have never read an Islâmic book at all. Fantasizing in their imaginations
something under the name of Islâm, they presume that Islâm is nothing but these
thoughts of theirs. They don’t know that the branches of knowledge and science,
proofs and documents, which they consider as different and far away from Islâm,
are each a section, a branch of Islâm. For example, all of the scientific
knowledge, the books of physics, chemistry and biology that are taught in high
schools today say in their initial pages, “The essence of our lesson is
observation, examination and experimentation.” That is, these three things are
the basis of scientific knowledge. In fact, all these three are the things
which Islâm commands. That is, our religion commands us to learn scientific
knowledge. In many places of the Qur’ân al-kerîm, we are commanded to see and
observe nature, that is, all creatures, living and lifeless beings. One day his
As-hâb-i-kirâm ‘alaihim-ur-ridwân’ asked our Prophet, “Some of us who have been
to Yemen saw that they budded the date trees in a different way and got better
dates. Shall we bud our trees in
Medina as our fathers have been doing or
as we have seen them do in Yemen, thus getting better and more plentiful
dates?” Rasűlullah could have answered them, “Wait a bit! When Hadrat Jabrâil
(Gabriel) comes, I will ask him and tell you what I learn,” or “I must think
for a while; when Allahu ta’âlâ lets my heart know the truth, I will tell you.”
He didn’t. Instead, he said, “Try it! Bud some of the trees with your father’s method, and
others with the method you saw being used in Yemen! Then always use the method
which gives better dates!” In other words, he commanded
us to experiment and to rely on experimentation, which is the basis of science.
He could have learned it from the angel or no doubt, it might have materialized
in his blessed heart. But he pointed out that all over the world Muslims who
will exist until the end of the world should rely on experimentation and
science. The event about budding the date trees is written in Kimyâ-i se’âdet and
also on the hundred and eighteenth page of Ma’rifatnâme. Islâm emphatically
commands every kind of work, working in all the branches of science, on
knowledge and morals. It is written in books that all these efforts are fard-i
kifâya (a fard which is no longer an obligation for other Muslims when one
Muslim does it. That is, when one Muslim does it, the others don’t have to do
it any longer). Moreover, if a tool or a means newly discovered by science is
not produced in an Islâmic country, and if any Muslim suffers harm for his
reason, the administrators, the authorities of that country, are held
responsible according to Islâm. It was declared in a hadîth, “Teach your sons
how to swim and how to shoot arrows! What a beautiful amusement it is for women
to spin threads in their homes.” This hadîth commands us
to procure every kind of knowledge and weaponry necessary for war, never to
remain idle, and to find useful amusements. Today, it is for this reason that
it is fard for a Muslim nation to make atomic bombs and artificial satellites.
By doing so, Islâm will be known all over the world. Not striving to make them
will be a grave sin.
The knowledge which Muslims have to acquire
and learn is called “Ulűm-i Islâmiyya” (Islâmic knowledges). It is
fard to learn some of this knowledge. It is sunnat to learn some other branches
of it, and it is mubâh to learn even more of it. Islâmic knowledge is mainly
divided into two branches. The first one is Ulűm-i naqliyya. This is also called
“religious knowledge.” This originates from four sources called “Adilla-i
Shar’iyya.” Religious knowledge is also divided into two: the
Zâhirî (external) branches
of knowledge and the bâtinî (internal)
branches of knowledge. The first ones are called the Knowledge of fiqh or
Sharî’at; the
second ones are called the knowledge of tasawwuf (sufism) or Ma’rifat. The
Sharî’at is learned through murshids and through the books of fiqh. Ma’rifat
goes into hearts after flowing from murshids’ hearts.
The second branch of Islâmic knowledge is Ulűm-i ’aqliyya (experimental
sciences). The branch dealing with living creatures is called Ulűm-i týbbiyya (science
of medicine), and the branch dealing with non-living creatures is called Ulűm-i hikemiyya. The
branch dealing with the sky and stars is called Ulűm-i falakiyya. The knowledge dealing
with the earth is called Ulűm-i tabî’iyya. The subdivisions of Ulűm-i
’aqliyya are mathematics, logic and experimental knowledge. They are acquired
by perceiving through the five senses, by observing through ithe mind,
experimentation and calculation. These fields of knowledge help us to
understand and better carry out religious knowledge. They are necessary for
this reason. They change, increase and improve in the course of time. For this
reason, it has been said, “Takmîl-i sýnâ’ât is fulfilled by talâhuk-ý afkâr,”
which means that “improvement in arts, science and technology is realized by
adding to one another’s ideas and experiments.”
The knowledge which is acquired through
tradition, that is, religious knowledge, is very exalted. It is beyond and
above the mind, the power of human brains. It can never be changed by any
person at any time, and this is the meaning of the statement, “There can be no
reform in the religion.” Islâm has not prohibited or limited the knowledge
which is acquired through the mind; yet it has commanded us to learn it
together with religious knowledge and to utilize its results compatibly with
the Sharî’at. It has also commanded us to make it useful for people and not
to use it as a medium for cruelty,
torture and disasters. Muslims made and used many scientific productions. The
compass was invented in 687 [1288 A.D.]. The rifle with a trigger was invented
in 1282 [1866 A.D.]. The cannon was invented in 762 and used by Sultan
Muhammed, the conqueror. Islâm prohibits the teaching and learning of
immorality, false history and lies against Islâm, which enemies of Islâm,
enemies of morality, put forward as education and give the name “lessons” or
“duties”. Islâm wants useful and good things to be learned and abstinence from
bad and harmful propaganda.
Islâm is a religion which encourages every
branch of
knowledge, every branch of science and
every sort of experimentation. Muslims like science and believe in the
experiments of the men of science. But, they cannot be deceived by the slanders
and lies of false scientists, who introduce themselves as scientists.]
Disbelievers destroy and annihilate
Muslims when they are able. Or, they mislead Muslims onto a path which they
have made up.
As a matter of fact, it is written on the
hundred and second page of the minutes of a meeting held by Masons in 1900, “It
is not enough to overcome the pious and their temples. Our ultimate purpose is
to annihilate religions.”
Publicly and shamelessly they reveal their
hostility in their books and speeches. Knowing nothing about knowledge and
science, they say childish things. For example, they say, “Ancient people were
ignorant; being defenceless and weak against natural forces, they believed in
imaginary things. They exposed their inferiority by worshipping and begging
things which they themselves had made. However, we are in the atomic age today.
Dominating nature, we can do whatever we want. There is nothing other than
natural powers. Paradise, Hell, genies and angels are things fabled by ancient
people. Is there anyone who has gone and seen them? Can anyone believe things
that are not seen or experienced?” These words of the irreligious show that
they know nothing of history either. In the course of history, ignorant people
in each century thought of themselves as wise and learned, and the people
coming before them as ignorant. Since Hadrat Âdam, they have changed and denied
the religions revealed in every century by saying that they are the words of
ignorant primitive people. Such assertions made by disbelievers are quoted, and
answered in many parts of the Qur’ân al-kerîm. For example, He says after the
thirtieth âyat of Sűrat-ul-mu’minűn, “They didn’t believe Hadrat Nűh (Noah), so We drowned them in
water. For the people We had created after them, We sent a Prophet from amongst
them and said, ‘Worship Allahu ta’âlâ. There is nobody other than Him to be
worshipped. Fear His torment!’ Many of those who didn’t obey, who didn’t
believe in the resurrection after death, and yet whom we had given plenty of
worldly blessings, said to others, ‘This Prophet eats and drinks like you. If
you believe someone who needs many things like you, you will be deceived and
suffer a loss. The Prophet tells you that after dying and after your bones have
rotted and turned into dust and soil you will be resurrected and get
up from your graves. Is that ever possible? Whatever exists is in this world.
Paradise and Hell are all in this world. This is the way it has been and this
is the way it goes. There is no resurrection after death.” In
communist countries, in order to demolish the faith and morals of the people,
teachers in schools and officers in the army say to the boys, girls and
soldiers, “If Allah existed, we would see Him. He would hear us and give us
what we want. If you ask me for candy, I will immediately hear you and give you
what you want. Ask Him, you see He doesn’t respond. Then, He doesn’t exist.
Your parents are ignorant. They are backwards and old-fashioned. They are
retrogressive. But, you are open-minded, modern youngsters. Never believe such
superstitions! Paradise, Hell, angels and genies are fables.” Through such
lies, they try to annihilate youngsters’ îmân, manners and sense of shame,
which they have acquired in their fathers’ homes. Deceiving these poor
children, they sacrifice youngsters for the sake of their base desires,
pleasures and evil earnings. By saying, “Who on earth has seen Paradise and
Hell? One simply shouldn’t believe things that are not seen.” They expose the
fact that they follow their organs of perception. However, animals too follow
their organs of perception. Imâm-i Ghazâlî says, “Human beings follow reason.
Human organs of perception are lower than those of animals. Man cannot smell as
well as cats or dogs do. Neither can he see in the dark as well as they do.
Moreover, how can one rely on one’s eyes in everything while many times wisdom
proves the eyes to be wrong? For example, the eyes, seeing the sun through the
window, may consider it smaller than the window; but reason says it is larger
than the earth.” I wonder if these disbelievers do not believe reason by
saying, “We believe what we see; is it possible that the sun is larger than the
earth?” No! Here they also believe reason as Muslims do. It is seen that men
differ from animals by conducting worldly affairs not according to their
perception, but according to their reason. Instead of saying, “We don’t believe
in the things of the next world,” and thus remaining dependent on the organs of
perception, why don’t they follow their reason and thus become exalted to the
degree of being human here, too? Islâm declares that human beings will be
recreated in the next world and will live eternally, and animals, after having
their accounts settled, will be annihilated. By promising human beings an
eternal life, it differentiates them from animals. But these
disbelievers want to be deprived of
eternal life like animals. Today, thousands of medicines, household appliances,
industrial and commercial goods, electronic instruments, and weaponry are
manufactured in factories. The majority of them are manufactured after
sophisticated calculations and hundreds of experiments are conducted. Do they
say, even about one of them, that it is self-created? On the one hand, they say
all those above-mentioned things have been manufactured consciously and
willingly by a certain manufacturer; on the other hand, they claim that so many
millions of substances and phenomena that are seen on living and lifeless
beings, and new and more subtle ones of which are being explored in each
century, so that we do not know the structures of most of them yet, are
self-created. How can this hypocrisy be explained except as extreme obstinacy
or explicit stupidity?
A coummunist teacher in Russia told his
students during the lesson, “I can see you. You can see me, too. This means to
say that we exist. The mountains over there exist because we can see them, too.
Something non-existent cannot be seen. What we cannot see is not said to exist.
My words come from our scientific knowledge. One who is educated and
progressive depends on scientific knowledge. Reactionists claim that there is a
creator of all the creatures. It is wrong to believe the existence of a
creator. It is not compatible with science. It is reactionary to claim the
existence of something which cannot be seen.” Asking permission to respond, a
Turkoman boy said, “Are you talking with your intellect? Since we cannot see
the existence of your intellect, it would be incompatible with science to
accept that you have an intellect and that you are talking with it.” The
teacher was unable to answer these statements and kicked him out of the class
after beating him harshly with a hatred arising from defeat. The boy was never
seen again.
Today, there are two kinds of disbelievers
in the world. First there are disbelievers with a holy book (people of the
book). They are Jews and Christians. They believe in Resurrection and in
eternal life after death.
Second, there are disbelievers without a
holy book, that is, mushriks who do not believe in one Allah, who makes
everything. Some of these disbelievers, by using State oppression, cruelty and
torture, prohibit worshipping, and the teaching of religion. And some of them,
through words that provoke feelings of goodness and humanity, cause others to
fall into debauchery. They also
cause them to be deprived of moral and
religious knowledge. Putting forth false stories and mendacious examples, they
deceive millions of people. They train them as religiously ignorant people. In
other words, on the one hand, they talk about civilization, science and human
rights, and, on the other hand, they animalize human beings.
The people of Europe and America have holy
books. Copernicus, the founder of modern astronomy, was a priest in Freienburg.
Bacon, the great physicist of England, was a priest belonging to the Franciscan
Church. The famous French physicist Pascal was a priest and wrote religious
books while exploring the laws of physics and geometry. The famous Richelieu,
who was France’s greatest prime minister and the one who brought France to the
leading position in Europe, was a high ranking clergyman. Also Schiller, the
great German doctor and poet, was a priest. Bergson, the French thinker and a
world-famous philosopher, in his books defended spirituality against the
attacks of materialists. Those who read his books Matlčre et Mčmomiera, Les deux Sources de
William James, the great American
philosopher, founded the sect of pragmatism; and in his book Religious
Experiments and others, he praised being a believer. French doctor Pasteur, who
had studied on infectious diseases, bacteria and various vaccinations, willed
that his funeral be performed with a religious ceremony. Finally, F.D.
Roosevelt, an American President, who administered the world in the Second
World War, and the British Prime Minister Churchill were Christian believers.
Many scientists and politicians, whose names we cannot remember, were all
persons who believed in the Creator, the next world, and angels. Who can ever
claim that those who disbelieve are wiser than these people? They would have
been good Muslims if they had seen and read Islâmic books. But reading, even
touching, Islâmic books was prohibited and even deemed a grave sin by their
priests. Those priests prevented people from attaining happiness both in the
world and in the Hereafter. Please see the twenty-sixth chapter, about Social
Justice, Socialism, and Capitalism, in the Second Part (of the Turkish
version).
Imâm-i Alî (radî-Allâhu ’anh), said “Muslims believe in the next world.
Disbelievers without a holy book deny it. If there weren’t a resurrection,
disbelievers would not gain anything and
Muslims would not suffer any harm. But
since what disbelievers believe will not happen, they will suffer eternal
torment.” Islâmic scholars prove their words true and respond to the attacks of
disbelievers through reason, knowledge and science. Could Resurrection be
denied if Muslims did not prove their words to be true? Even if being under
eternal torment were only a probability, whichever wisdom would risk it?
Nevertheless, torments in the next world are not only a probability, but an
obvious fact.Then, it is unwise not to believe.
And some enemies of Islâm, seeing that
through reason and knowledge they won’t be able to vitiate the sound îmân of
the people and that they only display their own disgrace, resort to tricks and
lies. They pretend to be Muslims, write false articles that seem to like and
praise Islâm; but in these articles and words of theirs, by disputing the
essential and basic principles of Islâm, they cast a bad light on them as if
they were not a part of Islâm. They try to alienate and estrange the readers
and audience from them. Thinking of the times for, amounts of, and kinds of
worships, which Allahu ta’âlâ has commanded as inappropriate, they believe it
would be better if worships were done in another way. Knowing nothing of the
delicacies, uses and values that are hidden in the inner soul of worships, they
consider them as a medium for simple and primitive functions; and they act as
if they are trying to correct them. It is a defect in men not to know
something; it is all the more funny and pathetic to interfere with something
that one doesn’t understand. And the Muslims who obey and believe such ignorant
people, supposing them to be wise are even poorer and more stupid. And some of
these insidious and ignorant disbelievers say, “Yes, Islâm commands developing
good habits, being healthy, working hard, and it prohibits evils and matures people.
These are necessary for every nation. Yet there are also social rules, the
rights of family and community in Islam. These were established in accordance
with the circumstances of ancient times. Today, nations have grown larger,
circumstances have changed and needs have increased. New rules and laws are
necessary to meet today’s technical and social improvements. Rules in the Qur’ân cannot
meet these needs.” Such words are the absurd and out-of-place thoughts of the
ignorant who do not know of Islâmic laws and Islâmic knowledge. Islâm has
declared clearly what justice and cruelty are, what rights and duties people
have towards one another, families and neighbors towards one another, people
towards the government,
and governments towards one another. Islâm
states what a crime is, and it has put basic rules upon these unchangeable
concepts. It has not limited the practicing of these unchangeable rules on all
events and happenings, but has commanded them to be practiced according to
common usage. In the book Durar-ul-Hukkam, an explanation of Mecelle, from
article 36 onward, it is written: “The rules depending upon a Nass (Âyat-i
karîmas or Hadîth-i sharîfs
with clear meanings) or a Dalîl (proof) do not change in the course of
time; however, the rules depending upon customs and common usage may change
with time. The Hukm-i Kullî (general rule) does not
change, but its application to events may change in time. In worship, ‘common
usage’ becomes dalîl in order to give clarity and to inform people of a rule
which is not declared by a Nass. To classify a custom as ‘common usage’, it
must originate from the time of the Sahâba-i Kirâm, and it must be known that
it has been used by the Mujtahîds and that it has continued to be used. In the
rules of Mu’âmalât (transactions),
the customs prevailing in a region which don’t contradict a Nass also become
dalîl. These can be understood by the ’âlims of fiqh. Allahu ta’âlâ has
established the Islâmic religion in such a manner that it addresses every new
development and invention in every country. Showing toleration and indulgence
not only in social life, but also in worships, the Islâmic religion has given
men freedom and the right of ijtihâd when confronted with different conditions
and necessities. During the times of Hadrat ’Umar, the Umayyads and in such a
big empire as the Ottoman Empire, large communities of various peoples, spread
over continents, were administered with these divine rules. Muslim
accomplishments and glories have been famous throughout history. And in the
future, every nation, big or small, will attain comfort, peace and happiness in
proportion to the extent to which it obeys and practices these unchangeable
divine rules. Nations and societies which deviate from the social and economic
rules declared by Islâm will not escape hardships, suffering and calamity. It
is written in history that this has been so with nations in the past, and so
will it certainly be in the future. History is repetitive.
Muslims should attach great importance to
national unity and solidarity; they should be extremely active materially and
morally in making their country stronger; they should learn the teachings of
the Islamic religion very well; they should abstain from the harams; and they
should pay their debts to Allâhu ta’âlâ and His born servants. They should be
ornamented with the beautiful
morals of Islam and should not cause harm
to anybody. They should not be a means of agitation or anarchy, and they should
pay their taxes. Our religion, Islâm, wants us to behave in such a manner. The
first obligation of a Muslim is to abstain from being guilty according to the
law and from sinning by not following Satan or one’s nafs, and by not believing
bad, insidious, disobeying and revolting people. Allahu ta’âlâ imposed three
obligations on His human beings. The first one is a personal obligation. Every
Muslim must be well trained, healthy, well mannered, and good tempered. He must
perform his i’bâdats and learn ilm, high-morality, and he must work for halâl
sustenance. The second obligation is to be carried out within the family. One
must observe the rights of his father, mother, children, brothers and sisters.
The third obligation concerns those which must be performed within the context
of the society. These are the obligations relating to a Muslim’s neighbours,
teachers, family, the persons employed by him, the government, the state, and
the people belonging to different religions and nationalities. It is a must to
help everyone, not to insult anybody by saying something evil, not to hurt
anyone, to be helpful towards everybody, not to revolt against the state, the
government, the laws, to observe everybody’s rights, and to pay taxes promptly.
Allahu ta’âlâ did not order us to interfere with governmental and state affairs.
Allahu ta’âlâ ordered us to help the government, not to incite trouble.]
Then, Muslims should feel hayâ (bashful)
towards Allahu ta’âlâ. Hayâ is from îmân. The bashfulness peculiar to a Muslim
is indispensably necessary. It is a must to abhor and believe as wrong and
harmful the disbelievers and disbelief and everything outside of Islâm, no
matter what theory or ideology it is. Allahu ta’âlâ has commanded us to take
jizya from disbelievers; that is, they must pay taxes. The purpose of this is
to humble them. This type of insulting is so effective that they cannot wear
valuable suits, nor can they adorn themselves out of the fear of having to pay
more jizya. They lead a despicable and miserable life. The purpose of jizya is
to offend and disgrace disbelievers. The jizya shows the glory and honor of
Islâm. If the zimmî converted to Islâm, he would no longer have to pay jizya.
The symptom of îmân’s existence in a heart is that it dislikes disbelievers.
[Disliking is done by the heart. We should live in harmony with disbelievers or
any others; we should not cause harm to anybody.]
[Temporary co-operation with disbelievers
can be formed only
politically and when necessity requires
it. Yet this shouldn’t go as far as to unite with them, and it should end when the
necessity is over.
Question: “We should not distrust or
have a bad opinion of anybody; we should not look at his words and actions
exposing his disbelief, but those indicating his îmân. Îmân exists in the
heart. Allah knows if there is îmân in a heart. No one else knows it. He who
says ‘disbeliever’ about a person with îmân in his heart becomes a disbeliever
himself. We should regard everybody as a Muslim and love everybody who does not
openly speak ill of Islâm,” is said. Is this point of view correct?
Answer: It is wrong to say we
shouldn’t distrust anybody. Its correct form is “We shouldn’t distrust a Muslim.” In
other words, when a person, who says that he is Muslim and does not express a word or
does not do an action rendering him a disbeliever, says or does something which
may mean belief as well as disbelief, we should understand it as belief, and we
should not say that he has dissented from the religion. But when a person
strives to demolish the religion and to make youngsters kâfir, or if he, saying
“good” about one of the harâms, tries to make it popular so that everybody
commits it, or if he says that one of Allahu ta’âlâ’s commands is retrogressive
and harmful, he is called “kâfir”.” Even if he says that he is a Muslim,
performs namâz (ritual prayer) and goes on a hajj (pilgrimage), he is still
called a Zindîq. It
would be stupidity to regard such hypocritical persons, who deceive Muslims, as
Muslims.]
Allahu ta’âlâ in the twenty-eighth âyat of
Sűrat-ut-Tawba of the Qur’ân al-kerîm says, “Najas and rîjs,” that is, “foul,” about
disbelievers. Then, disbelief should be foul and base in the eyes of Muslims.
Allahu ta’âlâ declares in the fourteenth âyat of Sűrat-ur Ra’d and in the
fiftieth âyat of sűrat-ul Mu’min, “The prayers of these enemies are without a result. There is no
possibility of them being accepted.”
Allahu ta’âlâ and His Prophet are pleased
with Muslims. There cannot be a greater blessing than attaining Allah’s consent
and love.
As îmân and kufr are opposite one another,
so are this world and the next. This world and the next world cannot stay
together. In order to earn the next world it is necessary to abandon this
world, that is, the harâms. Abandoning this world can be done in two ways.
Firstly, it is to abandon the mubâh, that is, many of the activities that are
not sins, together with all the things that are
harâm, and to use as many of the mubahs as
is only necessary to live. [In other words, it is to abandon the habits of
being lazy or idle and/or diving into pleasures, dissipations and amusements of
the world. Intead, we must spend our time worshipping, while making and using
the most advanced forms of technology that are necessary for the protection and
comfort of Muslims. And we must work so that non-Muslims may come to reason.
Working for these purposes must be our hobby in this world. All the Ashâb of
our Prophet and many of our superiors worked in this way. It is very
meritorious and very useful to abandon the world in such a way. We say once
more that the purpose of this path is to sacrifice all comforts and pleasures
in order to do the things which the Islâmic religion commands.]
Secondly, it is to abstain from the things
that are harâm and dubious in this world without abandoning the mubâh. Even
this kind of abandoning of the world is of value in light of the present
world’s condition.
Then, it is positively necessary for each
Muslim to abstain from the things which the Islâmic religion prohibits.
[He who slights the fact that these are
harâm, that is, he who does not think it is necessary to abstain from them, or,
he who does not pay attention to Allahu ta’âlâ’s prohibitions and instead likes
them and says ‘How nice,’ becomes a disbeliever. They will remain in Hell
eternally. Those who admit and respect the prohibitions of Allahu ta’âlâ yet
are overcome and deceived by their nafs and commit them but later come to their
senses and repent do not become kâfir; they do not lose their îmân. Such people
are called Âsî (disobedient) or Fâsiq (sinner).
Though perhaps they will go to Hell and will be punished because of their sins,
they will not remain in Hell eternally but will get out and enter Paradise.]
There are many things which Allahu ta’âlâ
has made mubâh, which He has permitted. The value in these is more than that in
the harâm. Allahu ta’âlâ likes those who use the mubâh. He dislikes those who
use the harâm. Does a wise and reasonable person spurn the love of his owner
and creator for only a temporary pleasure? Besides, the number of things that
are harâm is very small. The flavours in the haram, exist in the mubâhs, too.
[Dunyâ (world) is the feminine form of adnâ, i.e.,
ism-i tafdîl
(adjective in the superlative degree). Its masdar (infinitive)
is either dunuwwun or
danâatun. When
it is derived from the
former, it means ‘the nearest’. The word dunyâ in
the âyat, ‘We have
adorned the lowest (nearest to the Earth) heaven with stars
giving lights like lamps’ is so. It has been used with
the second meaning in some places. For instance, it bears the second meaning in
the hadîth, “Things that are danî, base, are mal’űn.” That
is, the world is mal’űn. Despicable things are the nahy-i iqtizâ-i and nahy-i gayr-i-iqtizâi of
Allahu ta’âlâ, that is, they are harâm and makrűh. Property was not spoken ill
of because Allahu ta’âlâ considers property a blessing. The evidence for our
position is the property of Hadrat Ibrahîm Khalîl-ur-Rahmân (’alaihi’s-salâm),
who is the second most valuable creation of all creatures and humanity. His
livestock included half a million heads of cattle that filled plains and
valleys.]
12– It is very easy not to commit a harâm
and to carry out the rules of Islâm. It seems difficult to the sick-hearted.
Yes, there are many jobs that are easy for healthy people. Yet they are
difficult to the sick. The sickness of the heart involves not believing in the
Sharî’at entirely. Even if such people say that they believe, it is not a real
confirmation. It is a confirmation through words. A symptom that indicates the
existence of a real confirmation, true îmân in the heart, is to feel it easy to
follow the path of the Sharî’at.
13 – Allahu ta’âlâ gives favours,
blessings, gifts that is, His kindness reaches everybody every moment, no
matter whether he is good or evil. Without discriminating, He sends everybody
property, children, food, the right way to Islâm, guidance, safety, and every
goodness.
The difference is in the way people accept
and receive Allah’s gifts, or in their not being able to receive them. It is
declared in the thiry-third Âyat of Sűrat-un-Nahl:
“Allahu ta’âlâ does not torment or do injustice to His born servants
(men). They treat themselves
cruelly and torment themselves with their own evil thoughts and loathsome deeds
that draw them to torments and sufferings.”
As a matter of fact, while the sun shines
over the laundryman and over the linen in the same manner, it tans the man’s
face, while whitening the linen.
[By the same token, though it shines over
the apple and over the pepper in the same manner, it reddens and sweetens the
apple, yet it reddens and makes bitter the pepper. Though the sweetness and the
bitterness are caused by the rays of the sun, the
difference between them is not from the
sun; it is from themselves. Because Allahu ta’âlâ pities all people very much,
more than a mother’s mercy upon her child, He has declared in the Qur’ân al-kerîm how
every person, every family, every society and every nation, all over the world,
in each century should act in each of their undertakings, in which way they
should run their activities, and what they should abstain from in order to be
comfortable in this and the next worlds. The Ahl-i sunnat scholars learnt all
these with their keen insight, and, writing millions of books, they
communicated them to the whole world. This means to say that Allahu ta’âlâ has
not left people free in their actions. Consequently, there is not a place left
on the earth where Islam has not been conveyed. Islâm cannot be separated from
worldly affairs. Attempting to do so means to strive to destroy Islâm and the
Muslims from the earth?]
The reason why people will not attain the
blessings of the hereafter is because they turn away from Him. He who turns
away will certainly get nothing. A container with a covered brim will certainly
not get April’s rain. Yes, many people who have turned away still seem to live
with worldly blessings and so they are considered as not being deprived. But
these are given to them as a reward for their struggling for this world.
However, things that are regarded as worldly blessings are, in actual fact, the
seeds of torment and calamity. They are disasters which Allahu ta’âlâ
deceptively gives their owners by misrepresenting them as blessings. As a
matter of fact, it is declared in the fifty-sixth âyat of Sűrat-ul-Mu’minűn, “Do disbelievers
presume that we are doing them a favor or are helping them by giving them
property and many children? Do they say that we are rewarding them because they
disbelieve my Prophet and dislike the Islâmic religion? No, it is not so. They
are wrong. They do not understand that these are not blessings, but disasters.”
Then, the worldly things that are given to those
whose hearts have turned away from Allahu ta’âlâ are all desolation and
calamity. They are like the sweetmeats given to the diabetic.
[The heart is a force existing in the
piece of flesh which is (also) called heart (qalb). As for the soul; it
occupies the whole body. When a heart wants to follow his nafs and commit
disbelief or sins, if Allahu ta’âlâ pities that person, He does not will him to
commit disbelief and sins. So he cannot do them. If He does not pity him, He
wills him to commit the sins and creates them, and then punishes him.
Therefore, the reason why a man is drawn to
torments and disasters is due to his own
behavior; that is, he follows his nafs.
Question: If Allahu ta’âlâ did not
create the nafs, then people would have been free from being deceived. Nobody
would have committed bad deeds and all would have gone to Paradise. Would it
not be better?
Answer: The creation of the nafs is
intended for man’s living, multiplying and working in the world, and for their
earning thawâb of Jihâd for the Hereafter. Allahu ta’âlâ created the nafs for
many reasons. On the other hand, pitying all men, He created ’aql (reason,
wisdom) in them. He also sent down commands and prohibitions so that everyone
could stop following his nafs, control it, avoid its harms, and thereby live in
comfort. The ’aql is a power which examines and distinguishes the good and bad
influences coming from the brain, satan, and the nafs. During this process, if
it can choose the good, it is called ‘’Aql-i salîm’. Allahu ta’âlâ, by means of
sending prophets, also informed His born servants of what is good and useful,
what is bad and harmful, and that all the desires of the nafs are bad. The aql
can discriminate between the desires of the nafs and the things which were
determined to be useful by the Prophets, and communicate this realization to
the heart. If the heart prefers the thoughts which came from the aql, the
desires of nafs are not fulfilled; that is, you will not let your limbs do that
action. If one prefers and wishes to do the deeds which are said to be good
according to the Sharî’at, one will attain happiness. The process of preferring
and wishing good or evil with the heart is called ‘Kasb.’ Human limbs of movement depend
on the brain, and the brain depends on the heart. They act compatibly with the
orders of the heart. The heart is a centre wherein all the influences coming
from the sense organs, the spirit, the nafs, and Satan are accumulated.
Therefore, if the heart follows the ’aql, creation of the nafs will not prevent
people from attaining eternal blessings.].
14 – Although Allah’s mercy and compassion
reaches everybody, Muslims and disbelievers alike, in this world and He rewards
everybody’s good deeds in this world, there will not be a mote of mercy for the
disbelievers in the Hereafter. As a matter of fact, it is declared in the Qur’ân, in
the fifteenth âyat of sűrat-u Hűd, “Those with a short sight and defective mind do every favour in
order to obtain worldly comforts and benefits such as fame, rank and reverence.
We give the rewards for these efforts of theirs only in this world. Their
earnings in the Hereafter will only
be fire of Hell. For they have received the recompense for their
efforts in this world. They have only one credit left, which is fire of Hell,
the punishment for their corrupt intentions. Their efforts in this world, which
they have done for their ambitions and lusts and for show, will prove to be to
no avail to them, nor will they be able to rescue themselves from Hell.”
It is declared in the eighteenth âyat of
Sűrat-ul-Isrâ’, “Those with minds and visions which are restricted within the frame
of this world give up the Hereafter and run after the transient pleasures of
the present life. We easily and abundantly give what We want of these
blessings, which they think of day and night and of which they vie for by
enduring many hardships, to whomever We want. But by doing this, We are not
really doing them a favour. We are preparing the fire of Hell for them. In the
next world, they will be kept far away from mercy and will be drawn to Hell in
a degrading manner. As for those who, instead of holding to only worldly
blessings, each of which is transient and leaves torments and disasters behind,
wish for the endless, real and never-changing blessings of the Hereafter, which
I point out and like, We like all their efforts because they follow the way
which I declare in the Qur’ân. Both to the lovers of this world and to those
who believe My words and carry out My commands, We shall give what they want in
this world. We shall not deprive anybody of what he expects. We scatter our
blessings to all. There is nobody whom your Allah’s blessings do not reach.”
15 – For adapting oneself to Muhammad
‘alaihis-salâtu wa-s-salâm’ completely and flawlessly, one needs to love him
completely and without defect. The symptom of complete and perfect love is to
bear hostility against his enemies, and to dislike those who dislike him. Love
cannot include sloth. Lovers, being crazy about their darlings, cannot do
anything against them. They cannot come to a mutual agreement with those who
act against them. The love for two opposites cannot settle in the same heart
together. To love one of two opposites entails enmity towards the other.
These worldly blessings are transient and
deceitful. If they are yours today, they will be somebody else’s tomorrow. But
those which will be obtained in the Hereafter are endless and will be earned in
the world. If a few days’ life in this world is spent following Hadrat
Muhammad, who is the most valuable man in this and the next worlds, one may
hope for endless bliss, eternal salvation. Otherwise, unless one adapts oneself
to him, everything
turns into nothing. Every good deed and
act of kindess done without following him remains here, nothing will be
obtained in the Hereafter.
16 – Hadrat Muhammad is the darling of
Allahu ta’âlâ. The best of everything will be given to the darling.
[As-sayyed Abdulhakîm-i Arwâsî Efendi
said, “Every prophet is superior to all his people in every respect, in his
time, and in his place. Yet Muhammad (’alaihissalâm) is the highest of all of
the creatures which have come and will come to the world from the day it was created
to Doomsday. No one is superior to him in any respect. This fact is not
difficult to realize. Allahu ta’âlâ, who makes what He wills and what He likes,
created him so. No person has power enough to adequately praise him. No human
being is able to criticize him.” It is written in the preface of the book Ma’rifatnâma that
Allahu ta’âlâ said, “Were it not for thee, I would not have created the heavens.” The
same is also written in the sixth and thirteenth pages of the book Mawâhib-i
Ladunniyya and in the thirteenth and fifteenth pages of the
book Enwâr-i
Muhammadiyya. This fact is also stated in the letters
numbered 122 and
17 – Allahu ta’âlâ has
gathered in His darling all the visible and invisible advantages, all the
superior traits and all that is beautiful and which can exist in a person. For
example, his face was the most beautiful among all human beings and was very
luminous. His blessed face was white mixed with red and shone like the moon.
His words were so sweet that they pleased hearts and attracted souls. His mind
was so great that, though coming from among the very violent and obstinate
people of the Arabic Peninsula, he handled them very well, endured their
torments and thus brought them to tenderness and obedience. Many of them
abandoned their religions and converted to Islâm; for the cause of Islâm, they
even fought against their fathers and children. For his (the Prophet’s) sake
they sacrificed their possessions and homes and shed their own blood. As a
matter of fact, they were not used to such things. He was so good-tempered, so
tender, so forgiving, so patient, so kind and so benevolent that everybody
admired him. Those who saw him or heard about him, became Muslims willingly. No
unseemliness or defect was ever noted in any of his actions, in any of his
words. Though for his own sake he never became offended with anybody, he was
harsh and severe against those who spoke ill of or laid hands on the religion.
If he hand’t
been tender and affable
towards everybody, it would have been beyond anybody’s strength to sit beside
him or to listen to him owing to his awe-inspiring prophethood and his great
manners (sall-Allahu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam).
Despite the fact that he had not read or
learned anything from anybody, that he had never been able to write, and that
he had come from people who did not travel and who knew nothing of past history
and of those around them, he communicated facts written in the Tawrat (the
book which was revealed to Hadrat Műsâ) and the Injil (the real Bible)
and in all other holy books. He conveyed information about the states of
ancient people. Giving evidences and proofs, he silenced all the notables of
every religion and every profession. As the greatest mu’jiza (a prophet’s
miracle), he put forward the Qur’ân al-kerîm, and though he made the
challenge: “You cannot express anything like even one of its six thousand two
hundred and thirty-six âyats (verses),” nobody was able to meet his challenge,
though all the enemies of Islâm all over the world co-operated and poured out
their possessions and wealth in order to do this for more than fourteen hundred
years. And today, Jews, priests and masonic lodges, however hard they are
striving, by spending millions and using all their forces cannot compete with
it. In the early days of Islam, the Arabs were much more advanced in literary
arts such as poetry and eloquence than in any other area, so that most of their
accomplishments were based on literature. Yet they had to admit that they would
fall far short of saying anything to compete with the very powerful expressive
style of the Qur’ân. Being unable to surpass the Qur’ân, many
of them came to reason and converted to Islâm. And the ones who did not believe
had to fight in order to prevent Islâm from spreading.
There are innumerable things in the Qur’ân al-kerîm that
nobody can do or say. We will explain six of them here:
Firstly: I’jâz, and balâghat. This
means to convey many things smoothly and perfectly in few words.
Secondly: Though its letters and words are
like Arabic letters and words, the prayers, that is, words and sentences, are
quite unlike the words, poems and orations of Arabs. Qur’ân al-kerîm is
not of man: it is Allah’s word. The comparison of human words to the Qur’ân al-kerîm is
like the resemblance of pieces of glass to diamonds. After understanding this
very well, philologists admit it.
Thirdly: A person does not become bored
with Qur’ân al-
kerîm, no matter how much he reads
it. His desire, zeal, love and pleasure increase. On the other hand, no such
desire or taste occurs while reading the translations of the Qur’ân al-kerîm or other types of its written
forms or all other books; instead, boredom sets in. Getting tired is different
from getting bored.
Fourthly: Many known and unkown facts,
about the states of past people are told in the Qur’ân al-kerîm.
Fifthly: It foretells the things that will
happen in the future, many of which have already happened and are still
happening.
Sixthly: Pieces of knowledge which nobody
can know at any time. Allâhu ta’âlâ has explained the ’Ulűm-i-awwalîn the
’Ulűm-i-âkhirîn in Qur’ân al-kerîm.
The fact that Qur’ân al-kerîm is a mu’jiza (miracle) is
explained very well in the book Herkese Lâzým Olan Îmân (Îmân Which is
Necessary for Everybody), published by Hakîkat Kitâbevi in the Turkish and
English languages, and in the sixteenth letter in the third volume of the book Maktűbât-i
Ma’thűmiyya. The Turkish and English translations of
this letter exist at the end of the books Could not answer, and Cevab Veremedi.
This means to say that, for wise and
reasonable people, it is a very obvious fact that a person who, while having
been born and raised in a big city among its inhabitants and having lived for
forty years together with them and having never read books or travelled or
recited poems or made speeches, suddenly brought a book which nobody can write
and which, with its subtleties –six of which we have explained– is above any word
or any book, and who is in every respect, the best of all the people and
Prophets (salawatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaihim ajma’în), owing to his beautiful habits
and superior manners, is Allah’s beloved Prophet.
18 – To follow him means to like and do
the rules of
Islâm willingly, to regard and revere his commands and
the things which the Sharî’at cherishes and holds great, such as, his scholars
and the pious, and to strive to spread his Sharî’at and not to love those who
do not want to follow the orders of Allâhu ta’âlâ.
[Our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa
sallam’ said, “All of you are like shepherds of flocks. As a shepherd protects
his flock, so you should protect those under your command from Hell! You should
teach them Islâm! If you don’t, you will be held responsible.” And
once he said, “Many Muslim children will go to the Hell named Wayl because of
their fathers, for their fathers,
being seized by the ambition of earning money and making merry and
running after worldly affairs only, did not teach their children Islâm and the
Qur’ân al-kerîm. I am far removed from such fathers. And they are away from me.
Those who do not teach their children their religion will go to Hell.” And
once he said, “Those who teach their children the Qur’ân al-kerîm or who send
them to teachers of the Qur’ân al-kerîm for each letter of the Qur’ân al-kerîm
they will be given rewards as if they visited the Kaaba ten times, and on the
Day of Resurrection a crown of sovereignty will be put on their head. All
people will see it and admire it.” And once he said, “Teach your
children how to perform salât (ritual prayer). When they are seven
years old, command them to perform salât. When they are ten years old, beat
them if they do not perform it and have them perform it.” And
once he said, “When a Muslim’s child worships, his father will receive as much
reward as he gets. When a person teaches his child to sin and whenever this
child commits sins, his father also will be recorded sinful to the same
extent.” Ibni Abidîn[1]
says at the end of the section on the makrűh actions in namâz, “If a person has
his child do the things that are harâm for himself to do, he has committed a
harâm. A person who has his son wear silk clothes or ornaments him with gold or
who has his children drink alcohol or lets them urinate in the direction of
qibla[2], or causes them to stretch their legs in
the direction of qibla will be sinful.”
The hadîth-i
sharîf in the book Murshidun-nisâ states, “The salâts and
fasts of those who do not observe the rights of their wives and children will
not be acceptable.”
Imâm-i Ghazâlî says in his book Kimyâ-i Sa’âdat, “For
------------------------------------
[1] Sayyed Muhammad Amin bin ’Umar bin
Abdul’azîz was a fiqh savant. He was born in Damascus in 1198 and died there in
[2] The direction a Muslim turns when
performing namâz. This direction points to the Kaaba.
example, it is harâm (forbidden by the
religion) for women to go out with naked head, arms and legs. Also, it is harâm
for them to go out by covering themselves with thin, tight, ornamented and
coloured garments. Not only will such women be disobedient to Allah and sinful,
but also, their father, husband, brother and uncle, who are responsible for
them; that is, the one who lets them go out in this manner will be their
accomplice in disobedience and sin.”
The basis of the Islâmic religion is to
learn and teach îmân, the fard and harâm. Allahu ta’âlâ has sent Prophets
(’alaihimussalawâtu wattaslîmât) for this purpose. When these tenets are not
taught to youngsters, Islâm will be demolished and annihilated. Allahu ta’âlâ
commands Muslims to do Amr-i ma’rűf. That is, He says, “Communicate and
teach my commands.” And He commands them to do Nahy-i anil-munkar.
That is, He says, “Communicate my prohibitions and do not condone their being
done.”
Our Prophet said, “Teach Islâm to one
another! If you give up Amr-i ma’ruf, Allahu ta’âlâ will send the worst among
you upon you and He will not accept your prayers.” And
he said, “The reward
that is given to all worships when compared with the reward given for the ghazâ
(war in the way of Allah) will be as much as
a drop of water compared to an ocean; and the reward given for ghazâ, versus
the reward given for Amr-i-ma’rűf and Nahy-i-munkar, is like a drop of water
versus an ocean.” It is for this reason that Ibni Âbidîn
says at the end of the fifth volume, “The thawâb for a fiqh savant’s helping
Muslims is more than the thawâb of jihâd.”
In short, a child is a deposit in the
hands of the parents. The child’s pure heart is like a precious gem. Like wax,
a child can take any shape. When small, it has not taken any shape. It is like
pure soil. You will reap what you sow in pure soil. If children are taught the
tenets of îmân, the Qur’ân and the commandments of Allahu ta’âlâ and accustomed
to doing them, they will attain religious and worldly happiness. Their parents
and teachers will share this happiness of theirs. If they are not taught and
trained, they will become unhappy. The sin of each evil they will commit will
be given to their parents and teachers, too. Allahu ta’âlâ declares in the
sixth âyat of Sűrat-ut-tahrîm, “Protect yourselves and those in your homes and under your command
from the fire!” It is more important for a father to
protect his children against the fire of Hell than against worldly fire. And
protecting
them against the fire of Hell is to teach
them îmân, the fard and harâm to accustom them to worshipping, and to protect
them against irreligious and immoral friends. The source of all kinds of immoral
deeds is an evil friend.
Our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa
sallam’, by stating, “All children are born fit and suitable for Islâm. Later, their
parents make them Christians, Jews or irreligious,” indicates
that both for the settlement and for the annihilation of Islâm the most
important work on children can be done when they are still young. Then, the
first duty of each Muslim is to teach his children Islâm and the Qur’ân al-kerîm. The
child is a great blessing. If the blessing is not appreciated, it will be lost.
Therefore, pedagogy, i.e. the science of teaching children, is a very valuable
science in the Islâmic religion.
And because the enemies of religion also
understand this important point, Masons and communists, the most dangerous
sources of irreligiousness in our century, say, “Education of the youth is our
main goal. We should train children to be irreligious.” In order to annihilate
Islâm and to hinder the teaching and practicing of Allah’s commands, freemasons
say, “We should not tire the brains of the youngsters. They will learn the
knowledge of the dîn themselves when they grow up.” And they also say, “We all
should do our best to spread the idea of freedom of belief all over the world
and should establish the decisions we take up in our lodges in every country.
We should annihilate the brotherhood in the dîn and establish the masonic
brotherhood instead. Thus we will achieve our holy purpose, which consists of
the eradication of religions.”
Therefore, Muslims should not fall for the
tricks and lies of the enemies of the religion; they should not believe their
flattering, deceitful and falsely adorned flatteries. Muslims must do Amr-i ma’rűf and
Nahy-i
munkar to one another.
In every country today, youngsters are
taught physical training and made to do physical exercises in order to
strengthen, beautify and harmonize their bones, muscles, hands, feet and, in
short, all their limbs. They are made to memorize and do the rules and
exercises of arithmetic, geometry and psychology for the improvement and
refreshment of their mental efforts and spiritual activities, and they do
physical exercises in order to purify their cells by activating their blood.
While all these and the information that will be necessary for worldly affairs
are organized as lessons and duties to be practised, is it appropriate to
misrepresent it as a
crime and an aggression against the
conscience to teach and practise îmân, Islâm, the fard, the wâjib, the sunnat
and, the halâl, which will prepare children for real happiness in this and the
next worlds? For everyone’s comfort and peace, for improvement and progress,
for attaining Allah’s love and consent, for understanding the haram and the
things that will cause disbelief so that everyone will abstain from them, is
teaching Islâm a crime? In all Christian countries today, as soon as a child is
born they impress on it all the requirements of their corrupt religion.
Assiduously, they innoculate people of every age with Judaism and Christianity.
In order to steal and annihilate Muslims’ belief and faith and to Christianize
them, they sent chests full of books, brochures and motion pictures to Muslim
countries. For example, Christians, presuming that Hadrat Îsâ (Jesus) is the
son of God (never!), call Allah “Father” or “God, the Father”. In their novels
and films, they say such things as “God, the father will rescue us.” However, a
person who calls Allahu ta’âlâ “Father” or “God, the Father” loses his îmân and
becomes a disbeliever. Muslims should not watch such tricky films, nor should
they read such novels. Here, with these and various other approaches, they
insidiously steal the belief of youngsters. While they name these efforts of
theirs as service to humanity, a right and freedom, gifted by a democratic
regime, isn’t it an injustice to name it religious propaganda, retrogression,
aggression against the freedom of conscience for a Muslim to remind one of his
Muslim brothers of Allah’s commands?
While it is considered extremely normal
for a non-Muslim to put forward theories and ideas against Islâm, isn’t it
retrogression, fanaticism and bigotry to misrepresent it as a crime, murder and
perfidy for Muslims to talk about real and correct Islâm, which the Ahl-i sunnat savants
have communicated and have shown as the bright way of Hadrat Muhammad. By
giving Islâm such names as reaction, bigotry, retrogression, fanaticism and
defeatism against secular principles, they blemish these innocent people? Isn’t
it a malicious lie to say these men were primitive and abnormal who, in fact,
were pure-souled, far-sighted, useful people who ran after knowledge, morals,
science, virtue, and to describe those who dislike Islâm as modern, enlightened
and vigilant men? If they, on the one hand, try to oppose Amr-i ma’ruf and
Nahy-i munkar by saying that religion is free, that you cannot interfere
between Allah and man, that everybody will recognize and worship his Allah
according to the inspiration in his
conscience, and thereby extinguish our
îmân, an inheritance from our ancestors, and, on the other hand, offer
youngsters poisonous books and magazines through false advertisements that are
prepared by missionaries called Jehova’s Winesses with tricks and plans under
the name of Islâm in order to annihilate Islâm, won’t Muslims get hurt?
Disbelievers, who have focused all their
energies and efforts on the extermination of Islam from the earth and who would
not tolerate younger generations’ being curious about Islam, which might lead
them to making research and consequently learning Islam despite all the
strenuous interceptive measures, get mad with a fire of grudge, malice and
revenge from head to toe when they hear about the statements of Ahl-i sunnat
savants (rahmat-Allâhu ta’âlâ alaihim ajma’în). Drawing pictures of turbans,
beads and beards in their TVs, newspapers and magazines, they say, “The black
force has risen from its grave: Reaction!” As their bodies and souls will burn
eternally in the fire of Hell as a punishment for their disbelief, so their
foul souls burn in this world, too. These kinds of radio and television
programs are very harmful.
Muslims respect one another, run to help
one another. When they see others in trouble in matters of religious or worldly
affairs, they rescue them. They love and revere the month of Ramadân (the holy
month in which Muslims have to fast), those who fast, mosques, the adhân (call
to prayer), those who perform namâz and those who walk on the way of the
Sharî’at. As the Qur’ân is being read or recited, they
listen to it silently and with reverence. Keeping the Qur’ân above
any type of book, they don’t put anything on it. They do not read it at musical
or cocktail parties, while playing, or at places of entertainment. When it is
read improperly, they leave the place without listening, if they cannot silence
it. When they see the Qur’ân or its pages or its lines or
its letters or all respectable or blessed names at low, despicable places, they
at once raise them, their hearts aching. They observe the rights of all human
beings and animals. They don’t attack the property, souls, or chastity of
disbelievers or tourists. They pay their taxes in time, and they don’t violate
the laws. They obtain the love and respect of everybody by living in accordance
with the high moral principles of Islâm. As for disbelievers, they try to cause
the Qur’ân and
the Mawlîd and
all sacred names to be despised and referred to as foul. They print them in
magazines, on pieces of paper, and in newspapers so that they will be used as
covers for packages, or on tables of
entertainment, so that they be disrespected and placed on the floor. In plays,
in comedies, in cartoons, in films, in records and on radios they make fun of
Muslims, great religious men, and commandments of Allahu ta’âlâ. In all these,
they represent a loathsome, funny vagabond as a Muslim. That is, by insulting
Islâm and Muslims, they misrepresent them as unsympathetic and deserving of
hatred. They give loathsome names to great Muslims and to the things which the
Muslims deem great. Muslims should not go to see and hear shows, nor should
they buy or read words, writings and newspapers of this sort. They should be
very vigilant so that their îmân will not be stolen. If a person who criticizes
a religious savant or finds a religious book erroneous and full of mistakes, performs
namâz, fasts and abstains from the harâms, then oral and written statements
made by this person are worth studying and that savant or that book is worth
questioning. If the person who speaks ill of a religious book or a religious
savant does not worship or abstain from the harâm, we should not believe his
opinion, realizing that it is only a slander and an expression of enmity
towards the religion. Blemishing religious men (rahmat-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihim
ajma’în) and religious books has been a tool, a weapon for the enemies of
religion today. A savant only can appreciate a savant. Only the nightingale
appreciates the value of a rose, only the jeweller perceives the carats in
gold, and only the chemist understand a genuine pearl.
Muslims do not buy, use, listen to, read
or look at the harmful things which Allahu ta’âlâ prohibits. They do not harm
anybody. They do not respond to base behavior with base behavior. They are
always patient. They give advice with a sweet tongue and a smiling face.
Muslims try to learn, teach and do the things which Allahu ta’âlâ commands.
They search for them even among disbelievers. It has always been so in the
course of history; those who could not think of mankind as a superior being
have borne hostility against the Islâmic religion, have tried to deceive
youngsters and, at a time they did not expect at all, have died leaving their
worldly pleasures, which they had been clasping so tightly, and have gone to
Hell. The names of many of them have been forgotten, with no fame, no sign of
them having remained behind them, whereas the Islâmic sun has continued to
spread its light all over the world.
Disbelievers embrace the comfort and
beauty of the world which is sweet outwardly but bitter inwardly, adorned
outside but
poisonous inside, pleasing in the
beginning but vain in the end. Muslims should embrace the commandments of the Qur’ân, which
is the way of our Prophet (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam), and should
ceaselessly struggle to improve in this way. They should beware from bid’ats,
which have appeared later in the religion and have been made up by enemies of
the religion, by religion reformers, and by ignorant, stupid
people].
Our prophet (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa
sallam) says, “A person who respects performers of bid’at (that
is, those who do and teach as worship words, writings, ways, and deeds that did
not exist in the time of our Prophet and his four caliphs, but were developed
and made up later in the religion), who praises them when they are alive or dead, and who deem them
great, in fact, helps the religion to be demolished, to be eradicated from the
world.”
Every Muslim should try to protect his
îmân lest it should be seized. He should deem enemies of Allahu ta’âlâ and His
Prophet as enemies and struggle to humiliate and disgrace them.
Every Muslim should endeavor to maintain
his îmân and should not have it stolen. He should not love disbelievers who do
not believe Allâhu ta’âlâ and His Prophet. [But one should not treat harmfully
or cruelly those whom one does not like. Disbelievers and bid’at holders should
be given good advice with a smiling face and with a sweet tongue. We should try
to rescue them from disaster so that they may attain happiness.] Hadrat
Mazhar-Jân-i Jânân (radiyallahu anh) declared, “We are commanded not to love
disbelievers, men of bid’ats, and those sinners who commit sins boldly. One
should not speak with them, go to their homes and meeting, salute them, or make
friends with them. However, these prohibitions are suspended under
indispensable conditions within a time of necessity. Although it is permissible
to contact them under these conditions, it is a must not to love them in a
heartfelt way.”
Jihâd is done to save people who have been
deceived and oppressed by ignorant parents, by priests who work for their
worldly advantages, and by commanders who practice torture for their own
pleasures, from disbelief and from the way to calamity, and to use force in
order that they be honoured with Islam. Jihâd means to sacrifice one’s life and
property for the elimination of the wickednesses of dictators and exploiters,
who intercept Islam’s light from reaching those wretched people who were
brought up under oppression and among atrocities and thrown into darknesses. It
means to resort to force in order to save them
from torment of Hell and to make them
attain the boundless blessings of Paradise. Jihâd is not done individually, but
by the state. Attacking others individually is not called jihâd, but barbarism
or plunder. It is fard for those who have not joined in a jihâd to pray for the
mujahdîs (fighters). Disbelievers are rescued from the tortures of oppressors
and honoured with îmân owing to jihâd. We do not touch the religion, life or
property of those who, after hearing about and understanding Islâm, still
persist in disbelief and will not accept îmân. They live freely and comfortably
under the justice and mercy of Islâm. Owing to jihâd, no disbeliever will be
able to say, “I did not hear about it. I would have believed if I had heard.”
It is fard for Muslims to work, to become strong in order to perform jihâd. If
they do not work and perform jihâd, they will have done a great disservice to
the whole of humanity.
19 – It is written in the fifth asl
(chapter) of the book Kimya-yi sa’âdat: Rasűlullah (Hadrat Muhammad
[sallallahu alaihi wa sallam]) said, “The basis and the most dependable symptom of îmân is to
love Muslims and to dislike disbelievers.” Allahu ta’âlâ declared
to Hadrat Îsâ (Jesus [’alaihi’s-salâm]), “Even if you do acts of worship that equal those done by all
creatures on the earth and in heavens, it will be of no value unless you love
whom I love and unless you feel hostility towards My enemies.” Every
Muslim should dislike the enemies of Allahu ta’âlâ. He should love those who
obey the Sharî’at. He should make it evident in his words and, if possible, in
his actions. He should not be friends with those who are disobedient and
sinful, and should utterly keep away from those who commit many sins. He should
all the more avoid the cruel, and those who persecute muslims. Yet he should
forgive those who only torment him and should endure their torments; this is
very useful. Some of our superiors used to treat sinners and the cruel very
severely. And others used to show them only mercy and respect and used to
advise them. That is, thinking that everything happens according to qadâ and
qadar[1] they felt pity for sinners and cruel.
Their thought is great and valuable but idiots or those who are ignorant cannot
understand it and they may get the wrong idea. Those whose beliefs are weak and
who are neglectful in following the sharî’a, think that they are
------------------------------------
[1] Their lexical meaning is fate, destiny.
But these words will fall far too short of explaining qadâ and qadar. It is a
very deep and important subject. It will be explained in detail on the final
pages of our book.
contented with Allahu ta’âlâ’s qadâ and
qadar. However, there is evidence and proof for this state of contentment. If
they beat a person, snatch away his property and insult him and he still
doesn’t get angry, forgives them and pities them, it is understood that he is
content with qadâ. But if he, while getting angry during such times, pities
those who disobey Allahu ta’âlâ and says that it is their qadar (fate), he is
irresponsible, a munâfiq[1]
and religiously ignorant. Thus, it is a symptom of not having strong îmân for
those who do not know qadâ and qadar to pity and love sinners and disbelievers.
It is fard to dislike and to be hostile towards those who stand against Islâm
or who are hostile towards Muslims. As well, it is fard to feel hostility
towards those who accept the jizya[2].
Allahu ta’âlâ declares in the Qur’ân, in the last âyat of
Sűrat-ul-Mujâdala: “Those who believe in Allahu ta’âlâ and the Day of Resurrection do
not like the enemies of Allahu ta’âlâ. Even if those disbelievers and munâfiqs
are the fathers, mothers, sons, brothers and other close relatives of Muslims;
they do not like them. I will put such mu’mins into Paradise.”
To appoint disbelievers as presidents for
Muslims, by trusting them, is to disgrace Muslims, and this is a great sin. It
is necessary to dislike holders of bid’at, that is, those who want to defile
the Muslims’ îmân. A Muslim must feel hostility towards them, and even not
acknowledge their greetings. He must also inform other Muslims about them. It
is necessary not to talk to or make close friendships with those who, though
having îmân, worship and abstain from sins, hurt Muslims with their behaviours,
words and writings by giving false witness, unjust judgments, or by way of
lies, slander, and derision. Instead, they must be treated severely. We should
mildly advise the sinners who, though having îmân, do not worship, and who
commit the harâm, such as charging and paying interest, drinking alcoholic
drinks, and gambling, but who do not hurt the Muslims. However, if they do not
come to reason, we should not greet them or talk to them, but when they are
sick we should visit them and return their greetings. [Those disbelievers who
do not attack Muslims with their words, articles, or brute force must be
addressed with kind words and smiling
------------------------------------
[1] A person who disbelieves one or more of
what the Qur’ân and the Prophet declare and who does not let others know of his
disbelief.
[2] The tax which disbelievers under Muslim
control pay to a Muslim goverment. Allahu ta’âlâ commands the jizya in the
Qur’ân in order to disgrace disbelief.
faces. We should not harm anybody.]
20 – Disbelievers have adopted various
methods against Islam and parted into branches; yet they are summed up in two
groups. Those in the first group do their worldly affairs and their worships
and do not attack Muslims. Realizing their inferiority against Islâm’s strength
and greatness, they have accepted to give the jizya, thus accepting asylum in
Islâm’s domination and justice. These disbelievers are called Ahl-i zimmat or
Zimmî. It is necessary to dislike disbelievers of this
kind and to view them as enemies; yet it is harâm to torment them and to hurt
their hearts. It is written in the ‘Siyar’ section of Fatâwa-i-Khariyya, “Something
which is forbidden for Muslims is forbidden for the zimmîs, too. Fornication,
eating in public during Ramadan, violating the fast publicly, dancing, music,
interest (a percentage of a sum of money loaned to someone or borrowed from
someone), going out uncovered are forbidden for them, too. Only alcoholic
drinks and pork are not forbidden to them. It is permitted to visit them when
they are sick or at other times and to travel together with them.” It is written
in the subject on ‘ta’zîr’[1]
in Multaqâ and
Durr-ul-Mukhtâr
and in other fiqh[2] books, “A Muslim who utters a bad word to
disbelievers, such as, “You are an adulterer” or who hurts their hearts by
saying ‘disbeliever’ or who backbites them will be called to ta’zîr, that is,
he will be thrashed with a stick, for it is a sin to hurt them. Also, it is a
sin to touch their property.” It is written in the fifth volume of Durr-ul-Mukhtâr: “It
is worse to torment the zimmî, who is a non-Muslim compatriot, than it is to
torment a Muslim. To mistreat and torture an animal is worse than doing the
same thing to a zimmî. It is permitted to greet the
zimmî and to shake hands with him in order not to torment him. The case is the
same with greeting a sinner who commits sins publicly.”
The book Bariqa says while explaining the
disasters caused by the hand, “It is permissible to kill ants that do harm to
man and his food, provided they will not be tormented or thrown into water. It
is permissible to burn wood that has ants inside after
------------------------------------
[1] General name for various types of
punishment which the Islâmic religion inflicts for some crimes. The punishments
of ta’zîr is explained in detail in a different chapter in the third fascicle
of our book.
[2] A branch of Islâmic knowledge that
includes actions commanded, actions prohibited and actions neither commanded
nor prohibited.
shaking it by knocking it down on the
ground. It is always permissible to kill mice, lice, fleas, scorpions and
locusts. It is makrűh to throw lice, while they are alive, on the ground or to
burn any living creature. It is permissible to slaughter, shoot or poison a
harmful cat, a mad dog or wild beasts with a sharp knife. It is not permissible
to thrash them. Thrashing is done in order to teach manners. Since an animal
doesn’t have reason it cannot be taught manners. In case it is necessary to
kill a living thing, it is permissible to kill it by burning it when there is
no other way.”
It is permissible to excise one of a
person’s limbs in order to cure a disease like gangrene. It is permissible to
incise into the bladder [the kidney and the gall] in order to get stones out.
It is never permissible to slap a living thing on the face for any reason.
As for the second group of disbelievers;
they cannot stand the brightness of the Islâmic sun. They try to demolish the
Islâmic religion with all their forces and negative propaganda media. These
poor people do not realize that to eradicate Islâm from the world means to
deprive people of happiness, comfort, safety, and to draw themselves and all
the humanity into disasters and troubles. In short, it means to cut the ground
from under their own feet. Allahu ta’âlâ, by declaring: “In order to avoid
suffering the attacks and torments of disbelievers and in order to enable them
to attain endless bliss, work as ceaselessly as is humanly possible. Make the
most perfect media of war,” in the sixtieth âyât of
Sűrat-ul-Anfal, commands us to honour these disbelievers by helping them to
become Muslims or not to meddle with the workings or the worships of those who
yield themselves to Islâm’s protection by accepting the jizya. We must protect
the lives, property, and chastity of such people. Thus, He wants the whole
world to unite under Islâm’s flag; He wants everyone to have îmân and to love
one another. He commands us to establish a justice that will include all those
who persist in disbelief even though they understand Islâm. We must endeavour
to provide comfort for people, animals, the living, the dead, and everything.
21 – Escaping Hell in the next world is
peculiar only to those who adapt themselves to Hadrad Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’.
All the blessings in this world, all inventions, all degrees, all branches of
knowledge will be available in the next world on the condition that one has
followed the way of Rasűlullah. Otherwise, every good deed done by those who do
not follow Allah’s Prophet will remain in this world, causing their next world
to be destroyed.
That is, it will be nothing but an
istidrâj[1] disguised in goodness.
22 – As a matter of fact, of all the
useful and auspicious deeds in the world, the one which Allahu ta’âlâ likes
best is building a jâmi’ (mosque). There are hadîths explaining that building a
jâmi’ will bring about countless blessings. Nevertheless, Allahu ta’âlâ
declares in the eighteenth âyat of Sűrat-ut-Tawba, “It is not permissible for disbelievers to build a jâmi (mosque).
It is not a
reasonable and useful activity. Their building a jâmi’ and all their deeds,
which they like, will be useless for them on the Resurrection and, since they
do not adapt themselves to Hadrat Muhammad, they will go to Hell and will be
punished with very bitter torments eternally.”
He declares in the eighty-fifth âyat of
Sűrat-ul Âl-i ’Imrân, “Allahu ta’âlâ does not like or accept the religion of those who
wish for a religion other than the Islâmic religion, which was brought by
Hadrat Muhammad. He who turns his back on the Islâmic religion will suffer a
great loss and will go to Hell in the next world.”
A person who worships for thousands of
years, spends his life purifying his self, and becomes useful to those around
him with his beautiful manners and the tools he has invented will not attain
the endless bliss unless he adapts himself to Hadrat Muhammad.
He declares in the thirteenth âyat of
Sűrat-un-Nisâ, “Those who ignore the commandments of Allahu ta’âlâ and His Prophet,
Hadrat Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’, those who dislike
the commandments and who say that they are not compatible with the century,
with science, that they do not suffice for modern needs, will not escape the
fire of Hell on the Day of Judgement. There is a very bitter torment for them
in Hell.”
23 – This world is a field for the next world. How unfortunate and stupid are those who, instead of sowing their seeds, eat them, thus depriving themselves of earning much fruit. They do not prepare for that day on which brother will avoid brother, a mother will disavow her children. These people will be wrong in this and the next worlds and will repent at last. He who is reasonable looks on this world only as an opportunity. During this short term, instead of enjoying worldly pleasures, he sows seeds by doing auspicious deeds, the ones which Allahu ta’âlâ likes, and thus gathers the many blessings communicated in the âyat-i-
------------------------------------
[1] Allah’s inciting a sinner to perdition
by granting him success.
kerîma. Allahu ta’âlâ will give infinite
blessings for the auspicious deeds and worships done in this short life. And He
will eternally torment those who do not follow His Prophet and who dislike
Islâm.
[As a matter of fact, He declares in the
hundred and seventy-second âyat of Sűrat-un-Nisâ, “For those who, believing in Hadrat Muhammad, do the deeds
useful for the Hereafter, Allahu ta’âlâ will give what He promises and many
other blessings in addition. He will inflict vehement punishment on those who
presumed that it is baseness and retrogression to worship Allahu ta’âlâ, that
is, to obey Hadrat Muhammad. Such people pretend to be great by calling
themselves modern and enlightened. There will not be a helper or an owner of
power besides Allahu ta’âlâ to rescue these disbelievers from Hell, who assume
themselves to be superior to everybody.”]
He Himself knows why He will torment them
eternally. Men’s short brains cannot comprehend it. For example, He commands
various punishments for the murders done in the world. No man can understand
the reasons, the ultimate divine causes in them. Thus, He will torment
unbelievers eternally for such a transient, short period of disbelief.
He who attempts to adapt to all the
commandments of the Qur’ân, all the rules of the Sharî’at by means of reason
has not understood or believed in the highness of the rank of prophethood. We
should not read books that try to explain Islâm by making it believable through
reason and philosophy.
24 – The book Almunkizu Aniddalâl says: “As the things
that are understood through reason are superior to those perceived through
sense organs, and as the former may prove the latter wrong, that is, as our
sense organs cannot perceive the things comprehended through reason, so reason
is incapable of comprehending facts realized at the rank of prophethood. Reason
has no other option but to believe. How can reason assess things which it
cannot understand? How can it decide if they are right or wrong?
To try to investigate with reason the
things that have been understood through convention, in other words, the things
which Prophets have explained, is like forcing a loaded cart to go uphill while
it can hardly move on a level road. If the horse is whipped uphill, it will
either fall down or die from fatigue. Or, in order to get on the level road it
is used to, it will turn right or turn left, overturning the cart and spoiling
its load. So, if reason is forced to
solve the reality of the next world, which
it cannot cope with and which it cannot understand, the person will either go
out of his mind, or, by attempting to liken it to worldly affairs, which he is
accustomed to, he will go astray, become deceived and deceive others. Reason is a gauge, a tool
used to measure things that are like those which can be perceived or felt through
the senses or things that are relative to them. Reason can compare them with
one another and distinguish the good ones from the bad ones. Since it cannot
discern things that have no relation with such things, it will be overwhelmed
by them. Then, there is no other way to believe the things communicated by
Prophets without consulting reason. It is understood that following Prophets is
a necessity indicated by reason, and it is a way which is agreeble with reason.
It is an action contrary to reason to attempt to consult reason about a Prophet’s
statements, which are beyond and above reason. It is like walking heedlessly at
unfamiliar places in the pitch darkness of the night or the sailing of an
inexperienced captain in the open sea without a compass on a dark night; they
can at any moment fall into an abyss or whirlpool. As a matter of fact,
philosophers and materialists, who attempt to explain facts through their
imagination, have gone wrong in most of the things that were beyond their
logic. They were bringing many facts into view, whereas, in fact, they were
preventing people from attaining endless bliss. Reasonable ones among them have
always been able to understand and communicate this pathetic situation. There
are many examples. An article by Professor F.Arnold, a famous German chemist,
states in his book Tecribî Kimya (Experimental Chemistry),
which was published in Istanbul in Turkish: “The reason why improvements in
science and knowledge have been at a standstill for almost fifteen hundred
years is due to a fault in Aristotelianism.”
In Islam there are many things reason
cannot comprehend, but there is nothing contrary to reason. If knowledge of the
next world, things which Allahu ta’âlâ likes or dislikes, and forms of
worshipping Him were within the mind’s ability to understand, and if they could
be ascertained through reason, there would be no need for sending thousands of
Prophets. People would be able to see and find happiness in this and the next
worlds by themselves, and, in this case, Allahu ta’âlâ would have sent Prophets
in vain and unnecessarily (never!). It is because reason cannot find or solve
the knowledge pertaining to the next world
that Allahu ta’âlâ sent a Prophet to every
part of the world in each century, and lastly, He sent Hadrat Muhammad as a
Prophet for the whole world until the end of the world. All Prophets, instead
of meddling in worldly affairs that are ascertained through reason, only
commanded and encouraged their people to work in order to find them and get use
from them, and they explained how each worldly affair can draw people to
everlasting happiness or perdition. They also explained clearly the things
which Allahu ta’âlâ liked and disliked. Then, let us be reasonable: An ignorant
person who does not know of today’s technical information and experiments,
which expose to view the subtleties of Allah’s infinite power, who, let alone
reading and understanding the books of Islamic superiors, has not even heard of
their names –a fact that can be inferred from his words– and who is an enemy of
Islam working under the mask of a philosopher, behind the veil of a newspaper
writer; how can an idea put forward by such a person with his ever faulty
reason ever be held superior to the words of Allah’s Prophet? How can an
ignorant person’s words ever blemish our Prophet’s commands and words, which
encompass the knowledge of health, science, morals, justice and all branches of
happiness that are written in our books and which are respected and admired by
men of knowledge, experience and science that have come from all parts of the
world for the last fourteen hundred years, and which no one has ever been able
to find any fault or defect? Can there be sadness, a wretchedness more pathetic
than this? The perfect wisdom is the wisdom that doesn’t go wrong and doesn’t
make any mistakes. Can an ignoramus, who bandies thoughts about, claim that he
never goes wrong – not only in affairs that mind cannot grasp, but perhaps even
in his own daily affairs? Who will ever believe such a claim or consider such a
person as a deputy whom the nation(s) must look upon as the most intelligent of
today’s men? Let alone a single person, today’s supposedly most intelligent
Christians come together and elect the wisest ones among them, and these people
pass laws by using all their brains and knowledge. Then, expecting certain
results, these same people grow dissatisfied and have to change their own laws.
There is one thing on earth that is never defiled and that cannot be changed;
the Qur’ân
al-kerîm of Allahu ta’âlâ and the hadîth-i-sherîfs of
Rasűlullah (that is, his blessed words).
A man of science who has thoroughly
comprehended the rules of Islam and who has observed the short history of the
scientific
branches that form a basis for today’s
civilization will clearly see that in the course of history no technical
achievement, no scientific fact has ever stood against Islam, but all have
always been compatible with it. How can they be at odds while it is Islâm which
commands us to observe nature, to study matter and energy, and to rely on
reason in everything? Allahu ta’âlâ declares in many places in the Qur’ân al-kerîm, “Take lessons from your predecessors by observing their
lives, the path they chose, and what happened to them. Observe the earth, the
skies, the living, the lifeless and yourselves! Study the inner part, the
essence of what you see. Find and see, understand My greatness, and the
dominion which I have over all these!”
Allahu ta’âlâ has related îmân (which is
the basis of Islâm) to experimentation and the intellect. That is, the building
of Islâm has been erected upon these two principles. All other worships,
blessings, and forms of obedience are the branches and twigs of this tree of
îmân. Allahu ta’âlâ in many places of Qur’ân al-kerîm, scolds and disgraces
disbelievers because they didn’t use their minds; they didn’t think by
observing the earth, the skies and themselves, and thus attain îmân. The book Ma’rifatnâme writes,
“Sayyed Sharîf Jurjânî, a great Islâmic scholar, says that the knowledge of
astronomy helps a wise and reasonable person to realize the existence of Allahu
ta’âlâ. Imâm-ý Ghazâlî says that he who does not know astronomy and anatomy
cannot realize Allah’s existence.”
Yes, the righteous religion of Hadrat Îsâ
(Jesus) was changed insidiously in a short time by his enemies. A Jew named Paul
claimed that he believed ’Îsâ, and it appeared as if he was spreading the
religion of ’Îsâ ‘alaihissalâm’. However, he annihilated the Injîl, which
descended from heaven. Later four people appeared, and they put in writing what
they had heard from the twelve apostles. Thus four books in the name of the
Bible were compiled, but the lies of Paul were included in them. In addition,
although an apostle named Barnabas correctly recorded what he had heard and
seen from hadrat ’Îsâ, this Bible by Barnabas was also destroyed. In the course
of time, the number of Injils increased and made-up and different Bibles were
read at various places. Constantine the Great, formerly a pagan, accepted
Christianity, and after enlarging and improving the city, he gave it the name
Constantinople (now known as Istanbul). In the year
Bible to be written, having many articles
of paganism from his former religion inserted into it. Accepting Christmas Day
as the beginning of the year, he established a new Christian religion. It was
declared in the Injîl (the real Bible) of Hadrat ’Îsâ and in the
Bible written by Barnabas that Allah is one. Yet, because they did not have the
original Injîl, the idea of the Trinity put forward by Plato, whom they
esteemed as a philosopher, was included in these four defiled books.
Constantine had this idea of Trinity put into the new Bible together with many
fabled writings. A priest named Arius said that this new Bible was wrong, that
Allah is one, that Hadrat ’Îsâ was not His son but His born servant, yet they
wouldn’t listen to him. They excommunicated him. Arius fled to Egypt and spread
the tawhîd (unity of Allah) there, but he was killed.
The kings succeeding Constantine veered
between Arius’s sect and the new Christianity. In Istanbul, the second and the
third, in Ephesus, which is between Izmîr and Aydýn, the fourth, and in Kadýköy
the fifth and again in Istanbul the sixth meetings were held, thus giving rise
to many new Bibles. Eventually, Martin Luther and Calvin made the final changes
in 931 [A.D. 1524] and added lies to the truth heard from the hawârîs (the
apostles of Hadrat ’Îsâ); Christians who believed in this new Bible were called
Protestants.
Thus, a religion contrary to reason and reality
came forth in the name of Christianity. How can the attacks that are rightfully
made against Christianity in Europe be directed towards Islam?
Escaping torment in the next world is
dependent only upon following Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’. He who follows the way
guided by him will attain the love of Allahu ta’âlâ. Those who follow in his
footsteps will be close to Allahu ta’âlâ. He who adapts himself to him will get
the happiness of being a faithful born servant of Allahu ta’âlâ. The greatest
ones of the more than a hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets that came to
the world desired to follow him. If Hadrat Műsâ (Moses) had lived in his time,
despite his greatness, he would have preferred to follow him. All Muslims know
that Hadrat ’Îsâ will descend from heaven and follow his way. Muslims who are
of his ummat became the most auspicious and best of all people because they
adapted themselves to him. Most of those who will enter Paradise are from among
them, and they will enter before all other people.
25 – Qur’ân al-kerîm is nazm-i ilâhî (the
divine verse). The lexical meaning of nazm is to string pearls. It has been
called
nazm also because words are arranged side
by side like pearls. Each poem is a nazm. The Qur’ân’s words are in Arabic.
However, Allahu ta’âlâ arranged these words side by side. These words were not
arranged by any human being. When the words inspired into his blessed heart by
Allâhu ta’âlâ were spoken by him in Arabic, they were not included in the Qur’ân al-kerîm. These words are called hadîth-i qudsî. Words
in Qur’ân al-karîm, having been arranged by Allahu ta’âlâ, descended in âyats.
An angel named Jabrâil (Gabriel) recited the âyats with these words and
letters, and Hadrat Muhammad, hearing them through his blessed ears, memorizing
them and immediately recited them to his companions. Allahu ta’âlâ sent the
Qur’ân in the language of the Quarysh tribe. The book Radd-ul-Mukhtâr says
on the subject of ‘oath’ in its third volume, “As it is said in the book Fath-ul-qadîr, Allahu
ta’âlâ sent the Qur’ân in words and letters. These
letters are creatures. The meaning of these words and letters carries the
divine word. These words and letters are called the Qur’ân. Also, the meanings indicating
the divine word are the Qur’ân. The Qur’ân, which
is the divine word, is not a creature. It is eternal in the beginning and
eternal in the end, as the other attributes of Allahu ta’âlâ are.” The Qur’ân began
to descend on the Qadr Night, and it continued to descend for twenty-three
years. As for the Tawrat (the book that descended to
Hadrat Műsa [Moses]), the Injîl (the Bible), and all other books and holy
pages, each of them had descended as a whole, all at once. All of them
resembled human words, and they were not miracles. For that reason, they were
defiled, and soon changed. But the Qur’ân is one of the greatest
miracles of Hadrat Muhammad, and it is unlike human words. These details are
written in detail in the hundredth letter of the third volume of Mektűbât by
Imâm-i Rabbânî and in the books Hujjatullâhi ’alal ’alamîn and Sharh-i Mawahib, Vol.
V, by Zarqânî.)
Hadrat Jabrâil used to come once every year
to recite the Qur’ân that had descended up to that
moment according to its order in the Lawh-ul-mahfűz [see fn. (1) Preface]. And
our master, the Prophet, used to listen to it and repeat it. In the year when
he (the Prophet) would honour the Hereafter, Jabrâil came twice, reciting the
whole of it. Hadrat Muhammad and the majority of his Ashâb memorized the whole Qur’ân. Some
of the Ashâb memorized some sections of it and wrote down most of its other
sections. In the year when Hadrat Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ honoured the next
world with his presence, Abű Bakr, the
caliph, gathering those who knew it by
heart and, uniting the written parts together, formed a committee to write down
the whole of the Qur’ân on paper. Thus, a book (a
manuscript) called a Mus-haf was formed. Thirty-three
thousand Ashâb of the Prophet decided unanimously that each letter of the
mushaf was preciesly in its correct place. The sűras (chapters) were not
separated. Hadrat Uthmân, the third caliph, separated the sűras from one another
in
There are one hundred and fourteen sűras and
six thousand two hundred and thirty-six âyats in Qur’ân-al karîm. It is also
reported that the number of âyats were sometimes more or less than 6236, but
these differences originate from the fact that one long âyat was considered
several short âyats, or that a couple of short âyats were considered one long
âyat, or that the Basmalas before the sűras were considered to be within the
sűras (by some scholars) and to be independent âyats (by others). Detailed
information exists in the book Bostân-ul-’ârifîn.
Each poet has a different method for
developing nazm. For example, if we take a poem which Mehmed Âkif wrote towards
the end of his life to an expert literary man who knows Mehmed Akif’s and
Nâbî’s poems well, and tell him that this is a poem of Nâbî’s, though he has
never heard about this poem, won’t he say upon reading it, “You are wrong! I
know Mehmed Âkif’s poetic style and that of Nâbî well. This poem is not Nâbî’s;
it is Mehmet Akif’s”? Of course, he will. As the nazm, the arrangements of the
words of the two Turkish poets are quite different from each other, so is the Qur’ân unlike
any human word. It has been proved through experiments that the Qur’ân is
not human words, and it can be proved any time. Let’s take an example from the
past. An Arabic poet wrote something displaying the delicacies of his literary
art on a sheet of paper, among which he put a few lines of hadîth and at some
other place an âyat dealing with the same things. Someone who knew nothing of
Islâm or the Qur’ân but who had a strong knowledge of Arabic was told that the
writings belonged to a certain person and was asked to read them all. While
reading, he stopped upon the hadîth, and said, “This part is unlike those
above. There is a higher art here.” When the turn
came for the âyat, he said in a bewildered
fashion, “This is unlike any word. There are meanings within meanings. It is
impossible to understand them all.”
The Qur’ân
al-kerîm cannot be translated into any language, even into
Arabic. It is impossible to translate any poem into its own language precisely.
It can only be explained, interpreted. We should not read the Qur’ân’s translation
in order to understand it. To understand the meaning of an âyat means to
understand what Allahu ta’âlâ means through this âyat. A person who reads a
translation of this âyat cannot learn murâd-i ilâhî (the divine purpose). He
learns what the translator has understood according to his level of knowledge.
And he who reads the translation written by someone ignorant or by an
irreligious translator, learns not what Allahu ta’âlâ says, but what the
translator, who assumes that he understands it, is expressing from his own
thoughts.
The government does not send a law
concerning villagers directly to villagers because villagers cannot understand
this law even if they can read it. This law is sent to governors of cities
first. These governors, understanding it well and adding their explanations,
send it to the mayors of towns, who, explaining it more clearly, send it to
directors of districts. Directors of districts can understand the law with the
help of these explanations and can explain them to headmen of villages. Headman
of a village cannot understand it by reading it. The headman explains it to the
villagers in village dialect. By the same token, the Qur’ân al-kerîm is
divine rules. It is divine law. Allahu ta’âlâ has shown the way of happiness to
His born servants through the Qur’ân al-kerîm
and has sent His own word to the highest of mankind. Only Hadrat Muhammad can
understand the meaning of the Qur’ân al-kerîm. No other person can understand
it completely. Though the Ashâb-ý kirâm ‘alaihim-ur-ridwân’[1] knew Arabic as their native language and
were literary and eloquent, they couldn’t understand some âyats and asked
Rasűlullah to explain them.
One day, ’Umar ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ saw Rasűlullah (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ‘alaihi wa sallam) saying something to Hadrat Abű Bakr as he passed by them. He went near them and listened. Others also saw them, yet they hesitated to go and listen. The
------------------------------------
[1] A person who saw Hadrat Muhammad at
least once when he was alive, is called a ‘Sahâbî’. It goes without saying that
a Sahâbî is a Muslim. Ashâb is the plural form of Sahâbî. All the Sahâbîs are
called ‘Ashâb-ý Kirâm’.
next day, when they saw Hadrat ’Umar they
said to him, “O ’Umar, Rasűlullah (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam) was
telling you something yesterday. Tell us, so that we can know.” He (the
Prophet) always used to say, “Tell your brothers-in-Islam what you hear from me! Let one another
know!” Hadrat ’Umar said, “Yesterday Abű Bakr (radî
Allahu ’anh) had asked him about the meaning of an âyat which he couldn’t
understand, and Rasűlullah was explaining it to him. I listened for an hour,
but I couldn’t understand anything.” He was explaining everything according to
the high grade of Abű Bakr. Hadrat ’Umar was so great that Rasűlullah said, “I am the Last
Prophet. No Prophet will succeed me. If there were a prophet to succeed me,
’Umar would be that prophet.” Though he was so great and
knew Arabic very well, he was not able to understand even the explanation of
the Qur’ân. Rasűlullah
used to explain it according to the degree of the person. The degree of Abű
Bakr was much higher than Hadrat ’Umar’s. But he, too, and even Hadrat Jabrâil
used to ask Rasűlullah about the meaning, about the mysteries in the Qur’ân. [The
book al-Hadîqa, while
explaining the disasters incurred by the tongue, communicates that Imâm-i
Suyűtî wrote that Rasűlullah explained the interpretation of the whole Qur’ân to
the Ashâb-i kirâm.]
In short, only Hadrat Muhammad understood
the meaning of the Qur’ân and explained it through his
hadîths. It is he who interpreted the Qur’ân. The correct book of
interpretation is his hadîths. By not sleeping or resting, by sacrificing their
repose, our religious scholars gathered these hadîths and wrote books of
interpretation. The book of interpretation entitled Baydâwî is one of the strongest among
them. To understand even these books of interpretation, it is necessary to
learn the twenty main branches of knowledge well by working ceaselessly for
thirty years. There are eighty subdivisions that are the branches of these twenty
main branches of knowledge. One of the main branches is the knowledge of tafsîr (interpretation).
These branches of knowledge had different savants and many books. Various
Arabic words that are used today have different meanings in the knowledge of
fiqh than from the meanings which they have in the knowledge of interpretation.
Even the same word conveys different meanings according to its place in the Qur’ân and
the particles it takes. The Qur’ân’s translations by those who do
not know these vast branches of knowledge or made according to today’s Arabic
convey meanings far from the meanings in the
Qur’ân-al karîm. Everybody understands the
hints, the meanings from the symbols in the Qur’ân in proportion to the strength
of his îmân. Tafsîr is not something done simply by writing or by expressing in
words. Tafsîr is a halo (nűr) that occurs to the heart of great religious men.
The books of Tafsîr (interpretation) are the keys to this halo. As the jewels
are revealed when you unlock the drawer with the key, in a similar way does a
halo occur to the heart by reading those interpretations. Those who knew the
eighty branches of knowledge well understood the Tafsîrs and, in order to
explain them to religiously ignorant people as we are, they wrote thousands of
books suitable for people of various categories. Valuable Turkish Tafsîrs such
as Mawâkib,
Tibyân, Abu’l-Lays are among them. Tibyân is
an interpretation that was prepared in
A number of doubts and objections arise
within the young people who read them. Besides, it is unsuitable for those who,
like us, have little religious knowledge, to read tafsîrs and hadîths to learn
Islâm. It causes one to lose one’s îmân if an âyat or hadîth is misunderstood
or doubted. A tafsîr or hadîth cannot be understood only by knowing Arabic. He
who considers those who know Arabic as savants is wrong. In Beirut and in other
places there are many priests whose native language is Arabic and who know
Arabic literature well. Yet none of them understands Islâm. In a dictionary
they published in 1956 and entitled Al- Munjid, they wrote Islâmic names
incorrectly, even the name of the Bâqî cemetery in Medina, and even the
death-date of our Sayyed Rasűlullah.
A person who wants to understand, to learn
the real meaning of the Qur’ân must read religious savants’ books on kalâm[1], fiqh and morals. All these books have
been derived and written from the Qur’ân and hadîths. Books written as
translations of the Qur’ân do not convey a correct understanding. They enslave
the readers to the ideas and purposes of their authors and cause them
------------------------------------
[1] Its lexical meaning is word, speech.
It is impossible to write the Qur’ân in
the Latin alphabet. For this reason, the meaning becomes defiled. The
transliterations thus read, become a meaningless crowd of noises rather than
the Qur’ân. This
fact is written in the magazine al-Muallim, printed in 1986. For example,
salât will be fâsid (unacceptable), if one reads the word ‘ehat’ instead of
‘ehad.’
Today, it is seen that many people offer
such defiled translations and books under the name of The Turkish Qur’ân.
These books of dubious origin are given to
youngsters and distributed in villages. They say, “The Arabic Qur’ân is
in a foreign language. Don’t read it! Read this one, which is in our native
language.” When observed carefully, it is understood that many of those who say
do not perform namâz or fast, that they have dived into the harâms and even
into irreligiousness, and that they are bonded to Islâm only in words. Why do
these people sing and listen to Beethoven’s 9th Symphonies, Mozart’s Figaro and
Moliere’s poems in German, Italian and French on radios and in bars? Why don’t
they say, “They are in foreign languages. We should sing them in pure Turkish?”
They do Turkish versions by not translating these symphonies and comedies into
Turkish. They won’t enjoy them in Turkish. Their Turkish version cannot be said
to be Beethoven’s or Chopin’s work. By the same token, Muslims cannot enjoy
these books as they enjoy the Qur’ân; they cannot nourish their
souls.
The facts which we have reported above are
written in a splendid style in the preface of “The Turkish Ma’âl of Qur’ân-al-karîm,” prepared and published in
1381 [A.D. 1961] by the Directory of Religious Affairs in Turkey. The Director
of Religious Affairs, H.Husni Erdem, the author of this preface says, “A book
such as the Qur’ân-al-karîm,
which has the balâghat-i ilâhî (Divine Eloquence) and I’jâz-î ilâhî (Divine
Conciseness), cannot be translated, either into Turkish or any other language
properly. The explanations made under the light of former tafsîrs may be more
suitably called ma’âl. It is not permissible to consider the words used to
contain the meaning of the Qur’ân-al-karîm
as equal to the Qur’ân itself or to recite these
words in namâz (salât) or to use them to deduce hukm (Judgements) without having
first grasped the original properly. No translation of the Qur’ân is
possible. There are expressions (words) in the Qur’ân-al karîm which have various
meanings. In the process of translation all the various meanings are reduced to
one meaning
and it cannot be known if this meaning is
the meaning Allahu ta’âlâ is expressing (Murâd-i Ilâhî). Therefore, one should
not dare to call it ‘the translation of the Qur’ân.’ There are two different
thoughts here: to translate the Qur’ân into the form of a ma’âl, and
to attempt to replace the Qur’ân-al-karîm with its translation.” It is written in
the explanation after the preface (of the book we have named in the previous
paragraph) that it is not possible to translate this divine book (Qur’ân), which
is above mankind and a mu’jîz, into Turkish (or any other language) properly.
Therefore, the most correct way is perhaps to express in Turkish the meanings
and ma’âl, which is understood from the Arabic originals, instead of
translating âyats word by word. In fact, it is not possible to translate the Nazm-i Jalîl of
the Qur’ân while
preserving its original I’jaz and Balâghat, but to translate it in the
form of a ma’âl is possible. It is not possible to indicate the features of
both languages in a translation from one language into another. The first
translation of the Qur’ân in Europe was rendered into Latin in 537 (
Allahu ta’âlâ declares in the Qur’ân al-kerîm,
“My book is in Arabic.” He declares, “I sent the Qur’ân
down to Hadrat Muhammad in the Arabic language.” Then,
the total of the words, letters and meanings which Allahu ta’âlâ sent down
through an angel is the Qur’ân. The books that are not so
cannot be called “the Qur’ân.” He who calls these books
“the Qur’ân”
will lose his iman. He will become a disbeliever. If it is translated into
another language or even into Arabic it is called an explanation of the Qur’ân.
Also, if one of its letters is changed even without the meaning being defiled,
it is not the Qur’ân anymore. Moreover, if any
change is made in reading it without any letter being changed, it is not called
the Qur’ân.
This is written in Rýyâd-un-nâsihîn. The
Qur’ân which
follows the rules of Arabic grammar and which doesn’t change the
meaning, but which is unlike the one which
was collected together by Hadrat ’Uthman, is called “Qirâet-i Shâzza.” It is not permissible
to read it during namâz or at any other place; it is a sin. A few of the
Ashâb-i kirâm (radî Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anhum ajma’în) have recited the Qirâet-i
Shâzza, but there was no unanimity. It is not called “Qirâet-i Shâzza” to
recite in a fashion in which none of the Ashâb-i kirâm is said to have recited.
It is necessary to imprison or to thrash a person who recites so. It is an act
of disbelief to recite in a fashion in which none of the religious savants have
recited, even if it does not defile the meaning or the words.”
Translations of the Qur’ân in
other languages are not called the Qur’ân. They are called ma’âl or
explanations of the Qur’ân. If they have been prepared by
devout Muslims who are experts and who have good intentions towards the
subject, they can be read in order to understand the meaning of the Qur’ân. There
is nothing wrong in this. They cannot be read as the Qur’ân itself.
It is not reward-deserving to read them as the Qur’ân. It is a sin, instead. Muslims
should read the Qur’ân as Allahu ta’âlâ revealed it.
It is reward-deserving also to read it without understanding the meaning.
Certainly it is all the more reward-deserving and better to read it and to
understand the meaning.
The Arabic spoken in Egypt, Iraq, Hijâz
and Morocco is not the same in each of these countries. In which of these
dialects of Arabic will the Qur’ân be explained? For
understanding the Qur’ân, it is necessary to know
Quraysh Arabic, not today’s Arabic. For understanding the Qur’ân, it
is necessary to wear out the elbows with studying for years. We should
understand it by reading the interpretations, the explanations written by
Islâmic savants who have understood it by studying so. Youngsters who read the
jerry-made translations will consider the Qur’ân as a book consisting of
mythological stories, unnecessary and useless thoughts, or only ordinary words.
Taking a dislike to the Qur’ân, to Islâm, they will become
disbelievers. That seems to be a new tactic, a new trick of Islâm’s enemies who
want Muslim children, martyrs’ children, to be trained irreligiously by
offering the Qur’ân’s translations to them by saying, “Read the Qur’ân in
pure Turkish. Do not read the Arabic Qur’ân, which is in a foreign
language.”
Hadrat Ibn-i Hajar-i Makkî writes on the
thirty-seventh page of his book Fatâwâ-i Fiqhiyya: “It is harâm according to the
unanimity (of savants) to write the Qur’ân in any letters other
than Arabic or to translate it into any
other language and then read it instead of Qur’ân al-karîm. Hadrat Salmân-i
Fârisî (radî Allahu ’anh) did not write the Sűrat-ul-Fâtiha in Persian for the
Iranians. He did not write its translation, either. He wrote the Persian
explanation of the Sűrat-ul-Fâtiha. It is harâm to write it in letters other
than Arabic or to read the Qur’ân which is written so. It is
harâm according to the unanimity even to change the Qur’ân by writing it in Arabic
letters as it is read. To write so would mean to dislike what the Salaf-i
sâlihîn, that is, the early Muslims did, and to regard them as ignorant. For
example, in the Qur’ân the word ribu is pronounced and read as rîba, but
it is not permissible to write it as it is pronounced. When the Qur’ân is
translated into other languages, the i’jâz of Allah’s word is defiled, and the
divine poem changes. It is harâm to change the places of the âyats in each
sűra, for the order of the âyats is certainly correct. But the correctness of
the order of the sűras is established through supposition. For this reason, it
is makrűh to read and write it by changing the order of the sűras. It is
incorrect to say that writing the Qur’ân in other letters or writing or reading
its translation will facilitate learning it. Even if it were correct, that
would not cause it to be permissible.”
It is written in Mawdű’at-ul-’Ulűm: “Teachings
in the Qur’ân are of three categories. The first category comprises facts which
He has not imparted to anybody. Nobody besides Allah Himself knows Him, His
Names and Attributes. The second type of knowledge He has intimated only to
Hadrat Muhammad. No one besides this exalted Prophet and the superior savants, who
are his inheritors, can explain this type of knowledge. Examples of this are
the âyats called ‘mutashâbih’.” The third category embodies teachings which He
has communicated to His Prophet and has commanded him to teach them to his
Ummat (Muslims). This knowledge also is of two parts. The first part contains Qisâs (histories),
which describe the states of the past people, and the Akhbâr (news),
which explains the things that He has created and will create in this and the
next worlds. These can be understood only after being explained by Rasűlullah
(sall Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam). They
cannot be understood through the mind or experimentation. The second
type can be understood through the mind, experimentation and by learning
Arabic. Such is the case with deriving rules from the Qur’ân and
understanding scientific knowledge. Imâm-i Nasafî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ aleyh’
writes in Aqâid, “Meanings
are to be given according to the Arabic
teachings. It will be ilhâd[1] and disbelief to give other meanings as
the aberrant Ismâ’îlis (one of the groups of Shîites) did.”
Those who make corrupt interpretations
according to their own minds and opinions are of five types:
1 – The ignorant who do not know the
prerequisites that are necessary for interpretation.
2 – Those who interpet âyats that are
mutashâbih [see above].
3 – Those in the aberrant groups and
religion reformers who interpret according to their corrupt thoughts and
wishes.
4 – Those who interpret without
understanding well enough through proofs and documents.
5 – Those who interpret incorrectly by
following their nafs and the devil.
26 – All the rules of Islâm are derived
from the Qur’ân. The
Qur’ân incorporates
within itself all the rules contained in the books sent to all Prophets
(salawâtullahi ’alaihim) and even more. Those with blind eyes, little knowledge
and short brains cannot see this fact. These rules in the Qur’ân are
of three types.
Men of reason and knowledge can easily
understand the first type of rules through a verse, through a signal, through
denotation, through inclusion, through necessitation and through the conclusion
of the Nass. That
is, every âyat has various meanings and edicts with respect to its sentence,
signal, denotation, inclusion, necessitation and conclusion[2]. (Nass)
------------------------------------
[1] To go out of the religion by
misunderstanding one or more parts of the Qur’ân. He who does so is called a
Mulhid.
[2] To understand this point more clearly an
example must be given: An Âyat of the Qur’ân declares, “Do not say, ‘Ugh!’ to your parents!” What this Âyat
points out through these words is:
1- The
verse: Do not use this word “ugh!” towards your parents.
2-
Signal: Do not use the words that will hurt your parents’ hearts. This is what
this âyat points out through these words.
3-
Denotation: Do not do anything that may hurt your parents’ hearts.
4-
Inclusion: Do not beat or kill your parents.
5-
Necessitation: Do favours to your parents.
6-
Conclusion: Offending your parents causes disasters; pleasing parents causes
happiness.
Six
types of meanings, as exemplified above, have been derived from each âyat that
communicates rules.
means âyats and hadîths with clear and
obvious meanings.
The second type of rules in the Qur’ân cannot
be understood clearly. They can be derived through ijtihad[1] and istinbât[2].
In the ahkâm-i ijtihâdiyya (rules of the
second type that can be understood through ijtihâd), any one of the Ashâb-i
kirâm might disagree with the Prophet. Yet these rules could not have been
defective or doubtful during the time of our Prophet because if a wrong ijtihad
was formulated, Hadrat Jabrâil would descend and the wrong ijtihâd would
immediately be corrected by Allahu ta’âlâ. In this way, right and wrong were
immediately differentiated from each other on the spot. However, rules that
were derived after our Prophet (sall Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam) honoured the
next world were not so, and the correct and incorrect ijtihâds remained mixed.
It is for this reason that it is necessary both to do and to believe in the
rules that were derived during the time of wahy[3]. It is necessary to do the rules that
were derived after our Prophet also. Yet it does not spoil one’s îmân to doubt
about an ijtihâd on which there has been no ijmâ[4].
The third group of rules in the Qur’ân are
so profound, so well hidden that human power falls short of understanding and
deriving them. They cannot be comprehended unless they are explained by Allahu
ta’âlâ. And this fact has been shown and explained only to our Prophet (sall
Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam). It has not been explained to anybody else. These
rules also are derived from the Qur’ân, yet since they have been
explained by the Prophet (sall Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam), they are called Sunnat. Concerning
the rules of the first and third types, nobody can disagree with the Prophet.
All Muslims have to believe and follow them. But on the ahkâm-i ijtihâdiyya,
every mujtahîd[5]
has to follow the rule that he has derived. He cannot follow the rules of other
mujtahîds. A mujtahid cannot say that another mujtahîd has gone wrong, or that
he has dissented from the righteous way on
------------------------------------
[1] Ability to understand the meaning of
symbolic âyats in the Qur’ân.
[2] It means to extract the essence of
something.
[3] Allah’s commands that come to prophets
directly or through an angel. The entire Qur’ân is wahy that has come through
the angel Jabrâîl.
[4] Unanimity of the Ashâb-i-kirâm on a
religious matter that has not been explained clearly in the Qur’ân or hadîths.
[5] He who understands the hidden, symbolic
meanings in the Qur’ân.
account of his ijtihâd. For each mujtahid,
his own ijtihâd is correct and right. Our Prophet used to command his Sahâbîs
whom he sent to distant places to act according to the rules of the Qur’ân on
matters they would be confronted with, but if unable to find them in the Qur’ân, to
look them up in hadîths, and if unable to find them there, to act according to
their own opinions and ijtihâds. He used to forbid them from following others’
opinions and ijtihâds, even if they were more learned and greater than
themselves. No mujtahîd, none of the Ashâb-i kirâm (radî Allahu ta’âlâ anhum
ajma’în) has ever discounted as wrong another’s ijtihâds. They have not uttered
such evil terms as ‘sinner’ or ‘aberrant’ to those who disagreed with them.
The greatest of the mujtahids succeeding
the Ashâb-i kirâm (radî Allahu ta’âlâ anhum ajma’în) is Imâm-i a’zâm Abű Hanîfa
(radî Allahu ’anh). This great leader had wara’ and taqwâ in his every action.
In everything he did he followed our Prophet in the fullest sense of the word.
He reached such a high grade in ijtihâd and istinbât that no one else could be
compared with him.
[There had been people before him who were
more learned and greater than he. Yet during their lifetimes aberrations had
not spread; therefore, they had not prepared gauges to differentiate what was
correct from what was incorrect. Instead they had dealt with more valuable
matters].
Hadrat Imâm-i Shâfi’î[1] said, “All mujtahids are Imâm-i â’zam Abű
Hanîfa’s children.” He said this because he understood something of the genius
of this great leader of ijtihad. Hadrat ’Îsâ (Jesus), after descending from
heaven in a time close to the end of the world, will act according to Hadrat
Muhammad’s Sharî’at and will derive rules from the Qur’ân. Hadrat Muhammad Pârisâ, one of
the great Islâmic savants, says, “All the rules which such a great Prophet as
Hadrat ’Îsâ will derive through ijtihâd will be in agreement with the rules in
the Hanafî madhhab; that is, they will conform with the great leader’s
ijtihâd.” This shows how accurate and how correct the great leader’s ijtihâd
is. The awliyâ[2]
said that they saw through the heart’s eye that the Hanafî madhhab was like an
ocean, while the other maddhabs were like small rills and brooks. Hadrat Imâm-ý
â’zam Abű Hanîfa surpassed everybody also in following the sunnat in his
ijtihâd, and he took even
------------------------------------
[1] The leader of the Shâfi’î madhhab, which
is one of the four righteous madhhabs in
Islâm.
[2] Person or persons whom Allah loves.
Mursal[1] hadîths as well as Musnad[2] hadîths as documents. He also held the
words of the Ashâb-i kirâm superior to his own opinions and findings. He
understood better than anybody else the greatness of the grades which the
Ashâb-i kirâm (radî Allahu ta’âlâ anhum ajma’în) had attained by having the
honour of being together with our Prophet (sall Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam). No
other mujtahid was able to do so. Those who say that Imâm-i â’zam derived rules
from his own mind, that he was not dependent upon the Qur’ân and
hadîths are disparaging millions of Muslims, who have been worshipping for
centuries on the earth, with having been on a wrong and fabricated path and
even with having been outside of Islâm. Only block-headed and ignorant people
who are unaware of their own ignorance or the enemies of Islâm, who want to
demolish, to spoil Islâm, will say something of this sort. A few ignorant
people, a few zindiqs, memorizing a few hadîths and presuming that Islâm is no
more than that, deny the rules of which they have not heard and of which they
have no knowledge. Yes, an insect that has remained in the cavity of a rock
will consider the earth and the sky as consisting of only that hole.
The chief of the Ahl-i sunnat and the
founder of fiqh is Imâm-i â’zam Abű Hanîfa (rahmatullahu ta’âlâ ’alaih).
Three-fourths of the rules of Islâm that are carried out all over the world
belong to him. He also has a share in the remaining one-fourth. He is the host,
the chief of the family in the Islâmic Sharî’at. All the other mujtahids are
his children.
[All the rules which a mujtahid has
derived are called a Madhhab. Out of hundreds of Ahl-i
sunnat madhhabs, today, only four Imams’ maddhabs have been transferred into
books, and the others have been partly forgotten. The names and the dates of
the deaths of the four Imams are: Abű Hanîfa 150, Mâlik bin Enes Asbahî 179,
Muhammad Shafi’î 274, and Ahmad bin Hanbel 241. Non-mujtahids have to follow
one of these four madhhabs in all their actions and worships. This means to say
that our Prophet’s (sall Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam) way is the way shown by the Qur’ân, and
the hadîths, in other words, by the sunnat and by the ijtihâd of the mujtahîds.
Besides these three documents, there is Ijma’-i ummat, which is, as it is
written under the subject of ‘Imprisonment’ in Ibni Abidîn, the words of the
Ashâb-i kirâm
------------------------------------
[1] Kinds of hadîths are explained in the
second fascicle of Endless Bliss.
[2] Kinds of hadîths are explained in the
second fascicle of Endless Bliss.
(rahmat Allahu ta’âlâ ’alaihim ajma’în)
and those of the Tâbi’în[1].
That is, they are the things which none of them refuted or denied upon seeing
them. The Shiites’ claim in the book Minhâj-us-sâlihîn is not correct. They
say it is not permissible to adapt ourselves to a dead person.]
Islamic religion has come to us through
these four documents. These four documents are called “Adilla-i
shar’iyya.” Everything outside these are bid’at,
irreligiousness, and false. The inspirations and the kashfs that occur to the
hearts of great men of tasawwuf [see articles 35 and 40, respectively] cannot
be proofs or documents for the rules of the sharî’at. [Kashf will be explained
in the following pages.] Correctness of kashfs and inspirations is judged by
their compatibility with the Sharî’at. An Awliyâ who is in high grade of the
tarîqat or wilâyat has to follow a mujtahid, like Muslims in lower grades. The
Awliya such as Bistamî, Junayd, Celâleddîn-i Rűmî and Muhyiddîn-i Arabî were
raised in rank by adapting themselves to a madhhab as everybody did. Sticking
to the rules of the Sharî’at is like planting a tree. The knowledge, the
ma’rifat, the kashfs and tajallîs, the divine love and muhabbat-i zâtiyya[2] that occur to the Awliya are like the
fruits of this tree. Yes, the purpose in planting the tree is to get the fruit.
But, it is necessary to first plant the tree for obtaining the fruit. That is,
unless there is îmân and the rules of the sharî’at are carried out, there can
be no tasawwuf, tarîqat or awliya. Those who claim so are zindîqs[3] and irreligious. We should be aware of
such people
------------------------------------
[1] A person who saw the Prophet at least
once when he was alive is called a Sahabî. It goes without saying that a
disbeliever could not be a Sahabî or Ashâb. Ashâb means Muslims who saw the
Prophet at least once. All of the Ashâb are called Ashâb-i-kirâm. When we say
Ashâb-i-kirâm, we mean all the Muslims who were with him, spoke to him,
listened to him, or, at least, saw him. If a person did not see the Prophet,
but if he saw one of the Ashâb-i-kirâm, he is called a Tâbi’. The plural form
of Tâbi’ is Tâbi’în. When we say the Tâbi’în, we mean all the Muslims each of
whom saw one Sahabî at least once. A person who saw one of the Tâbi’în is
called Taba’-i-tâbi’în. When we say Salaf-i-sâlihîn, we mean the Ashâb-i-kirâm,
the Tâbi’în and the Taba’-i-tâbi’în.
[2] Love for only Allah without including
His atributes. Divine love is love for Allah together with His attributes.
[3] A person who endeavors to defend and
spread his own thoughts under the name of Islâm, though they are, in fact,
incompatible with Islâm.
more than we would be of a lion. A lion
will only take away our life. But such people will take away our faith and
îmân. [It is written in the book Maraj-ul-Bahrayn, which quotes Ahmad Zerrűq as
saying that Imâm-i Mâlîk (rahmat Allahu ta’âlâ ’alaih) said: “Anybody who dives
into tasawwuf without learning fiqh becomes a zindîq (renegade); and anybody
who learns fiqh and yet is not aware of tasawwuf, goes astray; but those who
obtain knowledge of both fiqh and tasawwuf attain the truth. Anybody who learns
fiqh correctly and who tastes the sweetness of tasawwuf becomes a ‘perfect
kâmil’.” All the early men of tasawwuf were in the madhhab of a scholar of fiqh
before they attained perfection. The statement, “People of tasawwuf don’t have
a madhhab” does not mean that they left their madhhabs, but rather it means
that they knew all the madhhabs and that they always took into consideration
all of them. They performed their duties according to what was best and what
was on the safe side. Junayd-i Baghdadî was in the madhhab of Sufyân-i Sawrî;
Abdul Qâdir Geylanî was a Hanbalî; Abű Bakr Shiblî was a Mâlikî; Imam-i Rabbânî
and Jarîrî were in the madhhab of Hanafî; Harîs-i Muhasibî was a Shâfi’î
(Qaddasallâhu ta’âlâ Asrarahum/may Allahu ta’âlâ make their secrets very
sacred.)]
27 – Sayyid Abdulhakîm Arwâsî (rahmatullahi
’alaih)[1] says in his book Ashâb-i kirâm, “Ýjtihâd means
to work with all one’s might, to strive and to take pains. In other words, it
is to strive to derive the rules to solve problems that have not been explained
clearly and openly in the Qur’ân or in the hadîths by likening
them to matters that have been explained clearly and in detail. This can be
done only by our Prophet (sall Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam), by all his Ashâb and,
from among other Muslims, by those who have been promoted to the grade of
ijtihâd; these exalted people are called Mujtahid. Allahu ta’âlâ commands us to
perform ijtihâd in many places of the Qur’ân. Then, it is a binding rule for
mujtahids to perform ijtihâd. These are the great people who can understand the
rules of the Sharî’at and religious matters lying in the depths of the âyats
and hadîths that do not have clearly understandable meanings by using their
understanding of the text and the meaning that can be inferred from the text.
To be
------------------------------------
[1] He was a great and profound religious
savant. His name was mentioned in the preface of our book. His letter to a
university student radiates knowledge. It was translated into English and
published as a brochure. Our book includes that letter. He died in
a mujtahîd it is necessary to know the
high branches of Arabic thoroughly, to know the Qur’ân by heart, to know what
each âyat means, the meanings that it indicates, the meanings lying hidden in
it, the meanings that must be given according to the subject, to know when
âyats descended, why they descended, about what they descended, if they are
general or particular, if they are nâsih or mansűh,[1] if they are conditioned[2] or unconditional, how they have been
derived from Qiraât-i Sab’a and Qiraât-i Shâzza[3], to know by heart the hundreds of
thousands of hadîths that are in Qutub-i sitta[4] and other hadîth books, to know when and
why each hadîth was said and how comprehensive its meaning is, which hadîth is
before or after the other, the events that have to do with it and upon which
events and happenings it was said, by whom they were communicated or narrated
and the state of the morality of the persons who communicate it, to know the
methods and rules of the knowledge of fiqh, to comprehend the twelve branches
of knowledge and the indications and symbols of the Qur’ân and hadîths and their clear
and hidden meanings while having these meanings fixed in the heart, and to have
strong îmân and a bright, pure heart and a conscience possessing superior
qualities and tranquility.
“All these superior qualities could exist
only in the Ashâb-i kirâm and, later, in some of the great awliya who lived
within two hundred years of the period after them. Later, opinions and
preferences became wide spread and bid’ats started to appear. Day by day such
auspicious people decreased in number and by
------------------------------------
[1] Some âyats were changed by some other
âyats that descended later. The former are called mansűh, which means
‘changed.’ The latter are called nâsih, which means ‘the one that has changed
the other.’ The âyat about wine is an example.
[2] Some âyats depend on some conditions,
e.g. the âyat “O believers, perform namâz,” is conditioned, because to perform
namâz one has to be sane and pubert, and has to have a ritual ablution, etc.
But the âyat “O people, have îmân,” is unconditional because everybody has to
have îmân.
[3] Some âyats in the Qur’ân are read in
seven different ways. Each reading has a different meaning. Qiraât-i Shâzze
means the word which a few of the Prophet’s companions used to recite in an
uncommon manner.
[4] The six hadith books which all Islâmic
savants have confirmed to be correct.
is, who was a mutlaq (absolute) mujtahid.
28 – The actions that Rasűlullah (sall
Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam) did or abstained from are of two types. The first
type of actions is the ones which he did or did not do as forms of worship.
Every Muslim has to adapt himself to these performances and avoidances. Actions
which do not conform with them are bid’âts. The second ones are the actions
done as customs by the people of the cities and the countries in which he
lived. He who dislikes them and says that they are unpleasant becomes a
disbeliever. But it is not obligatory to do them. An action not conforming with
them is not a bid’ât. Doing or not doing them depends on the customs of one’s
country and nation. They are categorized as mubâh. They do not have anything to
do with the religion. Each country has different customes. In fact, customs of
a country may change in the course of time.
Ibni Abidîn (rahmat Allahi ta’âlâ ’alaih),
while explaining the sunnats of ablution, writes: “Mashrű’at, namely ’ibâdât, i.e. things
which Muslims were commanded to do, are of four categories: fard, wâjib, sunnat
and nâfila. Plain commandments by Allahu
ta’âlâ are called fard. Allahu ta’âlâ’s commandments that are not as clear as a
fard, but are inferred through deduction are called wâjib. Those worships which are
neither fard nor wâjîb but which Rasűlullah himself advised or practised, or if
he did not say anything to those who omitted them, are called sunnat-i hudâ or
sunnat-i
muakkada. They are the shi’âr (symptoms) of the Islâmic
religion. [That is, they are peculiar to this religion; they don’t exist in
other religions.] When he saw someone omit a wâjib, he used to prevent him from
omitting it. If he himself omitted it from time to time, it is called sunnat-i ghayr-i
muakkada. It is makrűh to omit a sunnat-i muakkada. It is a venial sin.
Allahu ta’âlâ promised to give thawâbs for all worships. But, it is
necessary to intend for a worship in order to be rewarded for it. To intend is
to obey the commandments and to remember the fact that the worship is being
done to attain the ridâ (consent) of Allahu ta’âlâ. To perform
these three categories of worships in their due times is called adâ. (Not
to perform them in their due times, but to perform them after their due times
are over is called qadâ. To perform them again upon one’s own wish
after adâ or qadâ is called nâfila worship.) It is more blessed
to perform fards and wajîbs as nâfila than performing
sunnat-i muakkadas. Things which Rasűlullah (sallallahu ’alaihi wa sallam) has
done continuously not as ’ibâdat (worship) but as ’âdat (habit) are
called sunnat-i zawâid. His style of
attirement, his sitting and standing and his beginning from the right hand side while doing good things are in this
category. Those who do them are also rewarded. It is not necessary to intend to
get a reward for them. If they are intended, then they become acts of worship.
Their blessing increases. It is not makrűh to omit the sunnat-i zawâid and
the nâfila worships.” Nevertheless, following Rasűlullah (sall Allahu ’alaihi
wa sallam) also in things pertaining to customs supplies one with many
advantages and causes much happiness in this and the next worlds.
29 – Ibni ’Abidîn ‘rahmatullâhi aleyh’ in
discussing the makrűhs of namâz says: “Things which disbelievers do and use are
of two types: The first ones are things which they do as customs, that is,
things which each nation, each country does as its customs. Out of these, doing
or using things that are not harâm and that are useful is never a sin. [Using
trousers, fez, different types of shoes, spoons and forks, eating meals at a
table, putting each person’s meal in a dish in front of him, cutting the bread
in slices with a knife, and using various tools and gadgets are all behaviours
concerning customs and are mubâh. It is not a bid’at or a sin to use them.]
Rasűlullah put on shoes especially made for priests.” Among them, doing or
using the ones that are unpleasant and loathsome and which are not useful is
harâm. But, after two Muslims use them, they become (Islâmic customs) and are not harâm for
the third Muslim who uses them. The first and second Muslim become sinful, but
not the others. In the book Qâműs-ul-â’lam, in the passage giving
information about Timurtaţ Paţa, it is written: “Timurtaţ Paţa is the person
who designed the color of the Ottoman Banner. [Also, the shape of today’s
Turkish flag with its crescent and star.] He also colored the faz red, which
had been white up until that time.” The colour of the Abbâside State’s flag was
black. It was changed to white during the time of khalifa Maműn. As it can be
seen, the fez was not taken from the Hungarian people, but rather, it was
developed by the Turks.
It is written in Birgiwî
Wasiyyetnâmesi Ţerhi[1],
“The second type of things which disbelievers use are the things which are
symptoms of disbelief, symptoms of denying and disbelieving the
------------------------------------
[1] Muhammad Birgivî Bey’s father is Alî. He
was born in Balýkesir in 928 and died of the plague in
sharî’at and Islâm, and it is wâjib for us
to debase them. One who does or uses them becomes a disbeliever. They cannot be
used unless one is threatened with death or with the cutting off of one’s limbs
or some other reasons causing these results such as severe thrashing or
imprisonment or the taking away of all one’s property. Also, he who does or
uses one of them, which is commonly known, without knowing or as a joke in
order to make people laugh, becomes a disbeliever. For example, it is kufr to
wear (or use) things specially worn or used by priests during their worships.
This is called Kufr-i hukmî.” It is written in the basic
books of fiqh by Islâmic ’âlims that to wear the ‘things that are peculiar to
disbelievers is kufr. (See Ibn-i ’Abidîn, Vol. V, page 481). The enemies
of Islâm, in order to deceive Muslims, try to hide the fact that it is kufr to
adopt the customs of the disbelievers and to celebrate their festivals. They
call these customs ‘Islâmic customs’ and these days ‘sacred days’. They
represent the Noel (Christmas), which was introduced into Christianity by the
Great Constantine, and Nawruz, which was invented by Jamshîd as a national
celebration; and they want Muslims to accept the same things. Young and
innocent Muslims should not fall for these things. They should learn the truth
by asking those sincere Muslims they trust, their relatives who perform namâz,
and those family friends who know their religion. Today, no matter where in the
world, not to know what is îmân and what is kufr or how to perform ’ibâdâts
correctly is inexcusable. He who is deceived because he does not know his dîn
will not be saved from Hell. Today, Allahu ta’âlâ has made His dîn known
everywhere in the world, and He has made learning îmân, the fards, the harâms
and the halâls, beautiful morals very easy. Everybody should learn as much as
necessary and this is a fard. One who does not learn them is deemed to have
disobeyed the fard. But a person who says there is no need to learn them or who
gives no importance to them becomes a disbeliever.
30 – There are seven grades in following
Rasűlullah (sall Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam). The first one is to learn, believe
and do the rules of Islâm. All Muslims, savants, zâhids[1] and, âbids[2] following Rasűlullah (sall Allahu ’alaihi
wa sallam) are in this
------------------------------------
[1] Those people who do not set their hearts
on worldly possessions.
[2] People who try to perform all kinds of
worships.
grade. Their nafs[1] haven’t fully believed or surrendered to
Allah. Allahu ta’âlâ, with His great pity, accepts only the belief in their
hearts.
The second grade, together with doing the
commands, is to follow all the instructions and habits of Rasűlullah (sall
Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam) and to purify the heart from evil inclinations. Those
who walk on the path of tasawwuf are in this grade.
The third grade involves conforming
oneself to all the states, spiritual pleasures, and things that come to the
heart which occurred to Rasűlullah (sall Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam). This grade
is obtained in the rank which tasawwuf calls wilâyat-i hassa. Here, the nafs, too,
believes and obeys and all worships become real and perfect.
The fourth level consists of being real
and faultless in all auspicious deeds as well as in all acts of worship. This
is peculiar to the great ones who are called ’Ulamâ-i Râsihîn. These savants with
perfect knowledge understand the deep meanings and denotations in the Qur’ân and
hadîths. Such were the Ashâb (radî Allahu ta’âlâ anhum ajmâ’în) of all the
Prophets. The nafs of all of them believed and became obedient. Blessings of
this sort falls to the lot of either those who advance in the way of tasawwuf
and wilâyat or those who obey all the sunnats and abstain from all the bid’ats.
Today, bid’ats have invaded the whole world, and sunnats have been lost; so
much so that it is beyond possibility to recover the sunnats and adhere to them
and to save oneself from this ocean of bid’ats. However, customs cannot build
up the religion or the Sharî’at, no matter how widely they have settled and
spread or how beautiful they look. Things that are harâm or cause disbelief can
never be halâl or jâiz (permitted), even if they are customarily done or used.
[This means that to reach this grade it is obligatory today to advance on the
way of tasawwuf. In the early centuries of Islâm it was easy to follow all the
sunnat. There was no specific need for tasawwuf then.]
The fifth grade is to adapt oneself to the
perfect, high qualities peculiar to Rasűlullah (sall Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam).
These qualities cannot be obtained through knowledge or worshipping. They come
only through Allah’s blessing. In this grade are great Prophets (salâwâtullahi
ta’âlâ ’alaihim ajma’în) and very few
------------------------------------
[1] Amalignant power in man that forces him
to do what Allah prohibits and not to do what Allah commands.
great ones of the ummât of Rasűlullah
(sall Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam).
The sixth grade is to adapt oneself to the
perfect qualities of mahbűbiyyat[1]
and ma’shűqiyyat[2]
in Rasűlullah (sall Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam). This is peculiar to those whom
Allahu ta’âlâ loves very much; it cannot be obtained through blessings,
muhabbat (love) is necessary.
The seventh grade involves all the motes
of a man’s body adapting themselves to him. The follower is so similar to the
one followed that a state of imitation no longer exists. He, too, as if like
Rasűlullah, takes everything from the same source.