madarij as salikin........station 3...tafakkur and tazakkur

station 3 on the path to god......
tafakkur & tazakkur,   contemplation and remembrance

[   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm9lRAIjJ3Y&t=147s  ]





more on tafakkur & tazakkur,

[   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikhzzxkwyIs&list=PLDjMooD1jjIp7S4ria0lBFmPRfb7YyiQG&index=11   ]




.......................................................

pearls & gem, revisited:
on death and dying.....sept 2008

one of my early write up 10 years back while in a pensive mood.

in a week when we send numero uno packing, and insyaallah to sungai buluh , for a long long time insyaallah, this is a good reminder for pm's , ministers and politicians , and even monarchs,especially monarchs actually.....who may think there is no tomorrow to account for!

every single cent, ill intentions and actual omissions and commissions are actuated, audited and accountable in the supreme court of yaumiddin.

there is no 'pandi' or 'arul anaconda' on that day to say things are all above board!

http://drnikisahak.blogspot.my/2008/09/pearls-gem-couple-of-milenium-forward.html






an anecdotal recollection of kota bharu in the early 60's

[  http://drnikisahak.blogspot.my/2017/05/interesting-mad-men-of-kota-bharu-in.html   ]

madarij as salikin......ranks of divine seekers.....stations

stations of path to god...
station 1: al yaqaba, the awakening

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR-8PkuNSjE





requirements of station 1, al yaqaba......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAyGelpC_rI






















episode 9:
repentance part 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqRx9U69w6c

madarij as salikin.......relationship between the outward and the inner sciences

episode 3 , of prof ovamir anjum's discourse of ibnu qayyim's opus magnum, 
madarij as salikin

[   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeVHdzxNdxk  ]

'madarij as salikin.'......ranks of divine seekers

in this series of discourse prof ovamir anjum,who holds the chair of imam al khattab  at toledo university, usa, discusses on ibnu qayyim al jauzi's  long treatise , his magnum opus,  madarij as salikin, ranks of seekers'.

madarij as salikin is about the rudiments and the basic 'SOP' of traveling light.
it is rather the "SOP' of traveling light for 'idiots'like you and me!
the more difficult book for philosophers was originally written by abu ismail al ansari in the 11th century.

ibnu qayyim al jauzi was a reformer and mujaddid of the 14th century.

madarij as salikin, was written as a lenghty commentary, a simplification and amplification of a short  but terribly difficult treatise to understand in it's original arabic, written 3 centuries earlier by an afghan scholar, a great scholar,, abu ismail al harawi al ansari, manazil as sairin.

prof anjum ovanir has further simplified  ibnu's jauzi's book and 
now he has made it available to us all, mere mortals who dont know arabic and lazy to study the english version, in the web by  a series of  discourse.

as an opening gambit to the whole series of discourse ,enjoy him here with episode 1 & 2.


episode1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5QjOFLmEog


episode 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBS1zOOjSGw

Books....key concepts in the practice of SUFISM : M Fetthullah Gulen

Fethullah Gulen,(born 27 April 1941) is a Turkish author, thinker,educator, and Muslim scholar.  Written over 60 books and currently in self exile in USA.
Over the  recent KDYMM's long holiday weekend, I had a 'bite' of him in between swimming with the fishes and pondering over-mostly dead corals off Tioman Island. [ Some 20 years back Tioman was teeming with live corrals and turtles !  ]


Fethullah Gulen has not being known to belong to any  tarekat/ tassawwuf movement and his  Islamic views are ' mainstream ' conservative  but with a  'big dose' of sufi bent.
Let us 'delve into his mind' on one of  the many sufi concepts, known in Arabic as ' huzn' [ sadness or sorrow ] :


Sufis use the word 'huzn' [ sadness ] as the opposite of rejoicing and joy, and to express the pain one suffers while fulfilling his or her duties and realizing his or her ideals. Every perfected believer will continue to suffer this pain according to the degree of belief, and weave the tissue of life with the 'threads' of sadness on the 'loom' of time. In short, one will feel sadness until the spirit of the Muhammadan Truth is breathed in all corners of the world, the sighing of Muslims and other oppressed peoples ceases, and the Divine rules are practiced in the daily lives of people.


This sadness will continue until the journey through the intermediate world of the grave is completed, safe and sound, and the believer flies to the abode of eternal happiness and blessing without being detained by the Supreme Tribunal in the Hereafter. A believer's  sorrow will never stop until the meaning of : Praise be to God, Who has put grief away from us. Surely our Lord is All-Forgiving, Bountiful [ 35 : 34 ] becomes manifest.


Sorrow or sadness arises from an individual's perception of what it means to be human, and grows in proportion to the degree of insight and discernment possessed by one who is conscious of his or her humanity. It is a necessary, significant dynamic that causes a believer to turn to the Almighty and, perceiving the realities that cause sadness, seek refuge in Him and appeal to Him for help whenever he or she is helpless.


A believer aspires to the precious and valuable things, such as God's pleasure and eternal happiness, and therefore seeks to do a "very profitable business" with the limited means in a short span of time [his or her life]. The sorrows a believer experiences due to illness and pain, as well as various afflictions and misfortunes, resemble an effective medicine that wipes away one's sins and enables the eternalization of what is temporary, as well as the expansion of one's "drop-like' merit into an ocean. It can be said that a believer whose life has been spent in continous sadness resembles, to a certain degree, the prophets, for they also spent their lives in this state. How meaningful it is that the glory of mankind, upon him be peace and blessings, who spent his life in sorrow, is rightly described as the Prophet of Sorrow by Necib Fazil, the famous Turkish poet and writer......................


The truthful and confirmed one, upon him be peace and blessings, says that grief arising from worldly misfortune causes sins to be forgiven [kaffarah]. Based on this statement, one can see how valuable and meritorious are the sorrows arising from one's sins, from the fear and love of God., and pertaining to the Hereafter. Some feel sorrow because they do not perform their duties of worship as perfectly as they showed. They are ordinary believers.
Others, who are among the distinguished, are sad because they are drawn toward that which is other than God. Still others feel sad because, while they themselves feel to be always in God's presence and never forgot Him, they are also spending time amongst people in order to guide them to the Truth. They tremble with fear that they may upset the balance between always being with God and being in the company of people. These are the purified ones who are responsible for guiding the people.


The first prophet, Adam, upon him be peace, was the father of humanity and Prophets, and the Father of Sorrow. He began his worldly life with sorrow: the fall from Paradise, Paradise lost, separation from  God, and, theafter the heavy responsibility of Prophethood. He sighed with sorrow throughout his life. Prophet Noah, upon him be peace, found himself  enveloped by sorrow  when he became a Prophet. The waves of sorrow coming from the absolute unbelief of his people and their  impending chastisement by God appeared in his chest as the waves of ocean. A day came, and those waves caused oceans to swell so high that they covered mountains and caused the earth to sink in grief. Prophet Noah  became the Prophet of the Flood.


Prophet Abraham, upon him be peace, was as though programmed according to sorrow: sorrow arising from his struggle with Nimrod, being thrown into fire and living always surrounded by "fires", leaving his wife and son in a desolate valley, being ordered to sacrifice his son, and many other sacred sorrows pertaining to the inner dimensions of reality and meanings of events. All the other Prophets, such as Mosses, David, Solomon, Zachariah, John the Baptist, and Jesus, upon them be peace, experienced life as  a series of assemblage of sorrows, and lived it enveloped with sorrow. The Greatest of the Prophets and his followers tasted the greatest sorrows.


M Fethullah Gulen's Key Concepts In The Practice of SUFISM, published and distributed locally by Saba Islamic Media, is highly readable. If you guys do not mind getting away from the dry, 'seemingly safe' and 'sanitised' version of Salafi /Wahabi  'brand' of Islam, I dare say it is a good intro into the rather  controversial  and much maligned subject  of sufism/tassawwuf.




Related articles in the blog :
1. Happiness revisited,
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2012/04/happiness-revisited.html
2. Of Spiritual Winter, Spring, &  Mahabbah....
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2012/03/of-spiritual-winter-coming-of-spring.html
3. Alone In The Crowd
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2011/11/alone-in-crowd-power-of-dzikr.html
4. On Life, Dying, & Life After Death..
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2011/09/f-dying-death-and-life-after-death.html

Book :' The Messenger '

Khadijah thought of seeking the opinion of her cousin, the Christian Waraqah ibn Nawfal. She went to him [ whether alone or with the Prophet is not clear ] and told him of Muhammad's experience. Waraqah recognized the signs he had been waiting for and answered without hesitation :
"Holy ! Holy ! By He who holds Waraqah's soul, it is the sublime Namus [ the friend of the secrets of Supreme Royalty, the angel bringing the sacred revelation ] who has come to Muhammad; the same who had come to Mosses. Indeed, Muhammad is the prophet of this people."


Later, during an encounter with Muhammad near the Kaabah, Waraqah was to add:
" You will certainly be called a liar, ill-treated, banished, and attacked. If I am alive then, God knows I will support you in His cause to victory! " Aishah reports that  Waraqah also said:
"Your people will will turn you away !" This startled the Prophet, and he asked:
"Will they turn me away?" Waraqah warned him:
" Indeed they will. No man has ever brought what you have brought and not been treated as an enemy!"


The Prophet's mission had only just began, and already he was allowed to grasp some of the fundamentals of the final Revelation as well as some of the truths that had been present throughout the history of prophecies among peoples............... 


exceprt from Tariq Ramadan's 'The Messenger : The Meanings of the Life of Muhammad'
Tariq Ramadan, a leading Muslim scholar, with a large following especially among young European and American Muslims. In his book, written for a wide audience, he offers a biography of the Prophet Muhammad, highlighting the spiritual and ethical teachings of one of the most influential figures in human history.
If you ask me, 'a bloody good read', even for the non-committed.




Related topics in the blog :
..A European Muslim
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2009/09/european-muslim-prof-tariq-ramadan.html
..Tariq Mehanna
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2012/04/tarek-mehanna.html
..Tan Sri, Let Us Use The ISA !
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2008/05/pearls-and-gem-from-from-surah-abasa.html

Veils and Keys : John Herlichy

In Veils and Keys , the author reflects on the issues of faith or lack of it in this modern world, whether sprituality is still possible during these tumultuous times of heighthened secularism and the ugly face of materialism, as he explores the possibilities of an Islamic spirituality still available during this times.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1945, John Herlichy received his B. A in English from Boston University in 1967 and worked for a number of years in Europe.Obtained his Master's degree in 1974 from Columbia University and soon after journeyed to Kuwait to teach English.That soul searching journey turned out to be a prolonged spiritual journey into Islam having had earlier 'experimented' with a number of other spiritual traditions.

Let us now take a very short 'peep' at how John looks at the spiritual practice of Quranic recitation:

"At the dawn prayer[salat al fajr], the shadowy rays of the waning moon still lay across the window sill. In the pre-dawn darkness, the stars twinkle their message of the eternity of time, while the panorama of the night sky makes its final statement of the infinitude of form, just before the coming dawn. There is a hint of incense and musk in the air which capture an inner meaning that is capable of subtly influencing the mind and spirit. Heavenly scents accompany the two angels who descend to witness the Quranic recitation that occurs in one place or another every morning across the far crescent of the Islamic world.

Having performed the ritual ablution and prayer, the Muslim sits cross-legged on his prayer carpet and reaches for the Noble Quran,the Illuminated Book, a document that is 'on a tablet well preserved in heaven', as well as available in his hand. He kisses it, places it on his lips,forehead, and heart and commences to recite the letters, words and sounds of the Holy Book.'Alif, Lam, Mim', he chants sonorously as he intones and elongates the sacred sounds,'This is the Book, of which there is no doubt, and guidance for those who fear God'[ 2 : 1 ]

When he enters this world within a world as a Muslim, he brings his own world with him as a man. As a Muslim, he becomes once again primordial man and traditional man, in remembrance of the Adamic man who also received verses from his Lord and undoubtedly recited them. As simply man, he finally takes leave of his Quranic recitation and worship in order to take up once again the duties and routine of his day, but his world is no longer the same, since he takes the esssence of that inner world back out with him into this world-his existential world-in order to make the words and phrases, the knowledge and the wisdom, the advice and the warnings, an integral part of himself and his life. In return, the afterglow of the Illuminated Book lingers on as a mercy, a cure and a light, to guide him on the part and to advance with him through time on a journey of return that is identified and known"

Masahallah. Such beauty: pristine, clear and precise.....happy reading!


Dr Nik Howk

Book Review: The Qur'an, A Biography by Bruce Lawrence

Prof Bruce Lawrence, graduated from Princeton and obtained his Master in Divinity from Episcopal School of Divinity, Cambridge.Did his doctoral thesis in History of Religions at Yale. Has been at Duke University since 1971 and current holder of the chair, Nancy and Marcus Professor of Religion.The Quran: A Biography, receives rave reviews in this post 9-11 era. A small book ,very readable, can be finished in a day of continuous reading.

When I read any book, commenting on the Qur'an, I normally check and recheck the origin of the writer.Bruce Lawrence is definitely an erudite,highly qualified scholar of religions,an orientalist with definite orientalist's leanings but in The Qur'an : A biography, this was not so evident.I would say on superficial reading of the book, Prof Bruce Lawrence seem to be very fair, a rare individual indeed, initially, T thought.Nuances of awe combined with a touch of disbelief are there but very subtle.

The Qur'an : A biography is a 'selective' running commentary of man's varying perception and interpretation of the Glorious Qur'an across time. God's Book of Signs, as the good professor put it.He describes the origins of the faith in seventh-century Arabia and explains why the Qur'an needs to be memorized and recited by its followers. He emphasizes that the Qur'an is a sacred book of signs that has no single message and demands interpretation and can only be understood through history.

He went through a history of interpretations right from Prophet Muhammad himself, then suddenly moved on to an unbelieving[ probably one of the earliest starter of the science and art of orientalism!] 12th century English monk, Robert of Ketton. Writing for the Vatican, who was trying hard to find potholes here and there and chinks in the spiritual armour of Islam as Saladin Al Ayyubi seemed invincible.Bruce moved the scene to Rumi and Arabi, breezes through Sir Ahmad, an anglophile Pakistani engineer and right through to the Islamic reformist, Iqbal, bypassing Mawdudi and Syed Qutb [whom the West reckoned as the chaps sowing latter day radical Islamic discontent] and straight end up with Osama bin Laden.His present day literalist and myopic interpretation of the Qur'an on the issue of 'jihad'.

A good read for the uncommitted non Muslim or agnostic reader who wants to impress and have a lively 'dinner conversation' and show off his or her profound understanding of Islam. To me , I only noted Bruce real colour only when he came to describe the black slave girl whom the aging Sarah had given to Prophet Abraham ,Hagar.I cannot believe what I read: A concubine!

Polygamy is soo politically 'incorrect' to the Western mind they rather have misstreses or concubines!So that relegate the Arab branch of the Abrahamic faith, ie via Prophet Ismail, as a bastard lineage....then what about Muhammad who came from Ismail's lineage...not very subtle, this science of orientalism! That was the only obvious giveaway in the book.Otherwise Prof Lawrence has been fairly fair, but flippant, in his short treatment of the Qur'an. I suspect he respects and is suprisingly astounded by the immense beauty, sincerity and sublimity of the Qur'an, but there are nuances in the book that tells the reader, the writer does not want to believe it is the actual Words of God. A good read though I find his treatment or rather 'non treatment' and avoidance of the central message of Qur'an quite surprising: the central thesis of the Quran ie the unity of God, he lefft it to the reader's imgination, and he definitely stayed clear from the Qur'an frequent criticism of the concept of Trinity.To me it is like going to Restaurant Beriani Gam, ordered a beriani,but without the special rice, please!

Well I can truly understand that as The Qur'an: A Biography is just meant to be a 'Western Hithhiker's guide to Islam'.I am sure it is a best-seller of sort.Well written but it leaves me in no doubt of what Bruce Lawrence wanted ,in his heart of heart:to educate just a 'wee bit' but leave his Western reader's precept of the Qur'an intact. That really, Muhammad had got a repetitive, massive schizoid delusion, after brushing with the Christians in Mekkah and knowing the Gospels,and the Jews in Medinah at the same time learning and copying the Torah!.Muhammad was just a seventh-century Arabian poet, gifted wth a massive dose of delusion of grandeur! This is what the Jews and the Trinitarians would not like their flocks to 'discard'.Forget the true essense of the Message.

Reading the Qur'an ,without faith and sincerity, one will remain deaf, dumb and blind, whatever one's scholastic background!

"We have sent it down with truth,
and with truth has it come down,
And We have not sent you [Muhammad]
except as a herald and a warner."
Qur'an

"Their likeness is as the likeness of one who kindleth the fire, and when it sheddeth its light around him, Allah taketh away their light and leaveth them in darkness, where they cannot see.[2:17]
Deaf, Dumb and Blind; and they return not."[2:18]

"Do they not reflect? Their companion is not seized with madness: he is but a perspicuous warner.[7:184]
Do they see nothing in the government of the heavens and the earth and all that Allah hath created? Do they not see that it may well be that their term is nigh drawing to an end? In what message after this will they then believe?"[7:185]

Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdudi: " Let Us be Muslims"

Friends,

How can one best remember Mawdudi[1903-1979], one of the chief architects and leaders of contemporary Islamic resurgence? One very prominent Malaysian scholar whom I know personally,with a tinge of jeolousy, I suspect, described him as being mildly 'misguided'. The West and orientalists all over did not mince their words when they come to Mawdudi. They thought he was , along with Sayyid Qutb, the prime mover for Islamic radicalism.If he is still alive today he would definitely be interned in Guantanamo Bay' along with Sayyid Qutb.The West has no polemical response to intellectual discourse such as his.

Misguided' or not , his series of friday sermons initially known as 'Khutabah' as first written in Urdu have been translated into 40 languages, and millions of Muslims and non-Muslims have benefited and continue to benefit from his simple but succinct views on Islam. Certainly no complex and mind bending philosophical discourse, his 'Khutabah'!

Let us leave the ' they-themselves-misguided' orientalists and the West to their assumptions and see for ourselves who Mawdudi was from his 'Khutabah' written in Urdu and translated by the late Khurram Murad into English under the new title " Let Us Be Muslims"[ The Islamic Foundation, 1st edition 1982].It is a series of friday sermons given to peasant farmers of Darul Islam, a small village in East Punjab. Put yourselves there as one of them sometime in 1935:

"Brothers! You call yourselves Muslims and you believe that Allah showers His blessings on Muslims. But open your eyes and see if those blessings are in fact descending on you? You cannot know what will happen to you in the Hereafter until your physical death, but you can most certainly look around you and see your condition here on earth.

There are so many hundreds of millions of you in the world that if each of you were to throw a single pebble that would make a mountain. But even though there are so many Muslims and Muslim governments, the world is in the hands of those who have rebelled against God. Your necks are in their grip, to be turned to whichever side they like; your heads, which should not bow before anybody except Allah, are now bowed before human beings. Your honour, which no one dared to touch, is now being trampled upon. Your hands, which once always held high, are now lowered and stretched out before your enemies. Ignorance, dependence, poverty and indebtedness have subjected you to ignominy everywhere.

Is this the blessing of Allah? If it is not - but rather a sign of anger - then how strange it is that it is Muslims on whom it is descending! You are Muslims and yet you are wallowing in ignominy! You are Muslims and yet you are slaves! This situation is impossible as it is for an object to be white and black. If Muslims are the loved ones of God, how can they be treated disgracefully? Is your God [God forbid] so unjust that - while you, for your part, acknowledge His due and obey His orders - He allows the disobedient to rule over you, and punishes you for your disobedience to Him?

If it is an article of faith with you that God is not unjust and obedience to God can never result in disgrace, then you will have to concede that there is something wrong in your claim to be Muslims. Although you may be registered as Muslims in your birth certificates, Allah does not base His judgement on what is written on pieces of paper. God prepares His own list of obedient and disobedient servants, and it is in this list that you must search to find your true position.

Allah sent you His Book so that you may know Him and learn how to obey Him. Have you ever tried to discover what is written on it? Allah sent His Prophet to teach you how to become Muslims. Have you ever tried to find out what His Prophet has taught? Allah explicitly informed you which behaviour debases man in this world and the Hereafter. Do you avoid such behaviour? What answers do you have to these questions? If you admit that you have neither sought knowledge from God's Book and His Prophet's life nor followed the way shown by him, then how can you claim to be Muslims and to merit His reward? The reward you are getting now are in direct relation to how good Muslims you are; and your rewards in the Hereafter will be calculated on the same basis.

We have already seen that the only difference between Muslims and Kafirs is in the matter of knowledge and actions. Men who call themselves Muslims but whose knowledge and actions are the same as those Kafirs are guilty of blatant hypocrisy. Kafirs do not read the Qur'an and do not know what is written in it. If so called Muslims are equally ignorant, why should they be called Muslims? Kafirs do not know the teachings of the Prophet,blessing and peace be upon him, and the straight path he had shown to reach God. If Muslims are equally ignorant of these, how can they be Muslims? Kafirs follow their own desires instead of the commands of Allah. If Muslims are similarly wilful and undisciplined, setting their own ideas and opinion on the pedestal, indifferent to God and a slave to lust, what right have they to call themselves Muslims? Kafirs do not distinguish between Halal and Haram and make indiscriminate use of everything and anything, irrespective of whether it is Halal or Haram. If Muslims behave the same way as non- Muslims, what difference is there between them and Kafirs?

Put simply: If Muslims are devoid of knowledge about Islam as Kafirs, and if a Muslim does all those things which a kafir does, why should he be considered superior to a Kafir and and why should his fate not be the same as that of a Kafir? This is a question we all should reflect very seriously.

My dear brothers! Do not for a moment think that I am trying to brand Muslims as Kafirs. This is not my purpose at all. I ask myself and implore each one of you similarly to ask his own heart, as to why we are being denied the blessings of God. Why are tribulations of all sort descending upon us from all sides? Why are we disunited and shedding each other's blood? Why are those whom we called Kafirs [that is, the disobedient slaves of God] everywhere dominating us? And why are we, who claim to be His obedient slaves, living in servitude in so many parts of the world?

The more I reflectd on the reason for this situation, the more I have become convinced that almost the only difference now left between us and Kafirs is that of mere name; and we in no way lag behind them in neglect of God, in being devoid of fear of Him and in being disobedient to Him.

I say 'almost' because because there is, of course, a difference between us: we know that the Qur'an is the Book of God, while Kafirs do not, yet we treat it as a Kafir treat it. And this makes us all the more deserving of punishment. We know that Muhammad, blessing be upon him,is the Prophet of Allah and yet we are as unwilling as a Kafir to follow him. We know that God cursed liars, has positively declared Hell as the abode of all who give and take bribes, has denounced those who borrow and lend at interest as the worst of sinners, has condemned slander as being as bad as eating a brother's flesh, and has warned that obsence behaviour, pornography and debauchery will meet with the severest of punishment. Yet despite knowing all this we freely indulge in all these vices as if we had absolutely no fear of God's displeasure.

This is why we are not rewarded: we are Muslims in appearance only. The fact that those who do not accept God's sovereignty rule over us and subject to ignominy on every possible occasion shows that we are being punished for ignoring Islam - God's greatest gift to us.

Dear brothers! Nothing I have said today is intended as blame. I have not come to censure. My aim is to kindle the desire in you to recover the treasure that has been lost. Such a desire arises when a man realizes exactly what has been lost and how valuable it was. I have spoken sharp and pungent words only to awaken you and compel you to think.

To become a real Muslim, as I said, the foremost requisite is knowledge of Islam. Every Muslim ought to know the teaching of the Qur'an, which ways were shown by the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, what Islam is, and what those things are which really differentiate Isalm from Kufr. Nobody can be a Muslim without this knowledge. The pity is that you show no desire to acquire this knowledge. This indicates that still you do not realize what a great gift you are being deprived of.

My brothers! A mother does not give milk to her child until he cries and demands it. When a manfeels thirsty and he searches for water, God brings him to it. If you yourselves are not concious of your thirst it will be useless if even a well brimming with water appears before you. You must first understand what a great loss you are suffering by remaining ignorant of Islam. The Book of God is with you but you do not know what is written in it. You do not even know the meaning of the Kalimah [la ilaha illa 'llah Muhammadu 'r-rasulu'llah], by reciting which you enter Islam; nor do you appreciate what responsibilities devolve on you after reciting this Kalimah. Can there be greater loss than this for a Muslim?

You know the damage caused if crops are burnt; you know the suffering which results from failure to earn a livelihood; you know the harm resulting from loss of property. But you do not know the loss of being ignorant of Islam. When you understand the nature of this loss, you will yourselves come and ask to be spared it. And when you make this request then, insya'allah, means will be available to restore this greatest gift to you.".........

My God! Ninety years later, we Muslims the world over, are still where the peasant farmers of Darul Islam were! It is never too late though to 're-energise' ourselves.

Re-energise, we have to as an ummah.Just look around us, we have Checnya,Palestine, Iraq, Iran,Bosnia Herzogovina, Libya, Sudan, Mindanao, Somalia, Patani, Afghanistan,Pakistan and all the 'Stans.Anytime 'we' have some semblance of Islamic government emerging,the Kufr West and East will find , create or covertly induce rhyme and reasons to 'invade' us. It is no longer space physics to come to this conclusion. They will do it under the name of anything 'under the sun'. We are 1.5 billions, but treated like flotsams in the ocean waves, pushed aside. Our women got raped, our men slauhtered and shot at like dogs, our voices at the UN muffled and not listened to. Puppet government set up and propped up .No wonder we still are governed by our very own people all across the world who are dictators, rulers, clowns and hangers on who should be 'lead' rather than 'leaders'.
How do we change this? Still back to my favourite maxim: Ilm, Ilm, Ilm and Ilm.Do not under-estimate the power of an enlightened masses. It is happening right infront of our very eyes back home in Malaysia.[ NTR may be out of job if he does not take stock of the changes around him ]

Read Maududi's "Let Us Be Muslims".You will generally find, as I did as I go through the chapters, that you are not doing too badly as a Muslim, until you reach the climax in the last chapter. Then, It feels like falling down a steep cliff!This sense of finality and inadequacy in one's faith and the need to get on further to a higher spiritual plane, is what I think make many and especially the West abhors him. They would rather have our ummah be permanently subserviant and permanent slaves to them rather than to God.

Read.... Read..Read in the name of thy Lord..Iqra!!! Masha'allah.

Muhammad al Ghazali : Al Saff, Surah 61[ The Rank ]

Friends ,

Reading the Quran this morning and counterchecking it's meaning and tafsir with Muhammad al Ghazali's treatment of Surah al Saff, yet again gave me pleasure, for indeed there are more similarities and shared virtues between us Muslims and our Christian brothers, than differences. Why they are still 'continuing in their crusading and aggresive mode' against Islam and Muslims all across the globe escaped me! Of course they say they dont but to yet again pararaphrase Colonel Muamar Gaddafi, "all of us are not donkeys!".Let us ponder how Al Ghazali look at surah Al Saff, a short surah of 14 ayats:....................

************

"Great missions require strong support and sincerity and cannot be upheld and defended with mere lip service. Cowards and feeble minded people have no leadership role to play. Falsehood is usually supported by audacious self-serving individuals[ we have been seeing too many of this locally here lately...my comment ], and can only be defeated by strong self-sacrifying believers who give all they have for the sake of upholding the truth and establishing the divine world order on this earth.

The Qur'an tells us: "Had he willed, God could have punished them , butHe ordained that He might test you by means of one another"[Muhammad:4]

Empty threats and false claims acheive nothing. hencethe reproach: "Believers, why do you profess what you never do? It is most odious in God's sight that you should say what you do not do"[2-3]. A believer devotes his whole life to the service of God. He blends with the world around him and acts in total harmony with his environment to sing the praises of God Almighty. Skeptics, on the other hand, are dissenters who represent an abberation, an anomaly, in God's vision of the world.

The surah opens with the assertion: "All that is in the heavens and on earth glorifies God. He is the Almighty, the Wise'[1]. It then goes on to condemn those whose actions contradict their words, denouncing those communities that rejected God's guidance and showed hostility towards His messengers.

At the forefront of such communities were the early Israelites who antagonized Moses and caused him no end of hardship. They lost their nerves when it came to facing their enemies and soon squandered the scriptures that were revealed to them. The surah elaborates:

And remember Moses who said to his people, "My people, why do you seek to harm me when you know well that I am a messenger from God to you?" And when they went astray, God let their hearts go astray.[5]

They were castigated for their betrayal of Moses and their refusal to face their enemies.

The surah then goes on to state that Jesus had come with a message from God that was specific to a predetermined time and place. he was sent to lead the Israelites back to God's path, remind them of the Torah they had abandoned, treat their psychological and social ills, and pave the way for a universal message that would address the whole of humanity with the divine world order. It says:

And remember Jesus the son of Mary, who said to the Israelites, "I am a messenger from God to you to confirm the Torah that was revealed before me and to bring you news of a messenger who will come after me whose name shall be Ahmad....."[6]

The books of the New Testament, written several years after Jesus, make curious reference to the same effect. Matthews 24 reads:

And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because wickedness is multiplied, most men's love will grow old. But he who endured to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come.

John 14 reports that Jesus had said: " If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be wth you forever..."

Who would preach the word of God throughout the world until the end? Who would this "Counsellor" be whose message would endure for ever? Does this description fit any personality in history other than that of Muhammad?

I follow Muhammad because the Book he brought agrees with my instinct and with my conscience. I came to know God through my rational powers, having reflected on my own being and the world around me. The Qur'an is not in need of verification or authenticity from any other scriptures or prophecies. It contains the proof for its geniousness; it is totally self evident.

The surah goes on:

And who is more wicked than a man who invents falsehood about God even as he is being invited to Islam? God does not guide the wrong doers. They seek to extinguish the light of God [by blowing at it] with their mouths, but God will complete His light however much the disbelievers may dislike it.[7-8]

The human mind is the greatest gift God has given to man. Any belief or faith that is not founded on a rational and intelligent basis is worthless. Nevertheless, many people would rather close their minds and suspend their rational faculties altogether.

The surah closes with two important concept that reinforce what it had already emphasized at the beginning. The first is that life is based on faith and hard work: "Believe in God and His messenger and strive for the cause of God with your wealth and your souls"[11]. The second is that believers must be ready at all times to uphold and defend the word of God. Just as Muslims respond immediately to the call for prayer, they must be prepared to serve the cause of God at all times using everything in their power.

The surah tells us that when he needed the support of followers, Jesus evoked their faith in God. It says:

Believers, be supporters of God's cause, just as Jesus the son of Mary said to the disciples, " Who will support me for the cause of God?". The disciples replied. " We will support the cause of God."[14]

Like Muhammad's Companions, the disciples of Jesus provided him with the strength he needed to propagate his message and fulfill his mission. Today, Islam is in greater need for Muslims to understand and appreciate the true meaning of the words: "Be supporters of God's cause"[14].

****************

.............................The current 'holier than thou' precept and hypocritical as well as self-deceptive 'War on Terror' by the now 'secular Christians' West who themselves have lost the' right direction' that was originally shown by our prophet, Jesus, has to end. Like that Paulian's concept of Trinity, this thing about 'War on Terror' when repeated over and over more than a 'zillion' times, will be accepted as Gospel truth, even though in reality, it is just an exercise in mass deception. A New World Order has to be pursued collectively on more solid foundation of Justice,Fairness and Truth.Out of these we have Forgiveness and Peace.

Dr Nik Howk

PS: That concludes my 'campaign' to get you guys 'friendly' with one of the great ulama' of our time, who has since gone on to join his 'Lover' into the 'Realm of the Unseen': Shaykh Muhammad al Ghazali[ circa Sept 1917-March 1996, former Chairman of Academic Council, of the International Institute of Islamic Thought, Cairo. Author of "A Thematic Commentary On The Qur'an].

A Thematic Commentary On The Qu'ran: Al Ikhlas [Purity of Faith ]

Friends,

....If you guys have not got your own copy of Shaykh Muhammad al Ghazali's seminal work, "A Thematic Commentary On The Quran" , yet, perhaps this short thematic commentary by him on Surah Al Ikhlas [ 112 : 1-4 ] could persuade you to grab yours from www.ibtbooks.com ...

GOD IS ONE. He is neither two or three. He has no spouse or offspring. He is Supreme and Omnipotent. The Qur'an tells us: " God says, 'Do not take two gods; He is the One God, so fear Me "[al-Nahl: 51] Elsewhere in the Qur'an, we read: "Do not say 'three gods.' Refrain from saying so for your own good. God is but One God; far too highly glorified is He to have a son" [al- Nisa: 171]

The principle of tawhid is the very soul of Islam. In comparision to God, as we come to know Him through the Qur'an, everything and everyone else is utterly powerless and helpless. The Qur'an abounds with strong arguments supporting this principle:

Never has God begotten a son, nor has there ever been any other god besides Him. Were the opposite to be true, each god would govern his own creation, and some would have overwhelmed others. Exalted be God above their falsehood. He knows the unknown as well as the manifest.[al-Mu'minun: 91-92]

Were there other gods in the heavens and earth besides God, both heavens and earth would have been ruined. None shall question Him regarding His works, but all else shall be questioned.[al-Anbiya: 22-23]

Advocates of the doctrine of Trinity believe in three coequal partners in the godhead, who are in fact one: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, existing in total harmony.

They also believe in the crucifixion of Jesus, which raises the question: who was actually crucified: one of the three or all three? If the three are one, and the 'one' was crucified, does that mean that God was out of existence for a time before He came back to the world? But if the Son only was crucified, how could he be 'God'?

People are, of course, free to believe what they wish to believe, and this surah, which is said to be equivalent to'one third' of the Qur'an, gives a most concise definition of the essence of Islamic belief. "Say, God is one.The Eternal God. He begot none, nor was He begotten. None is equal to Him."[112: 1-4] God is unique, and there is nothing that can be likened to Him. There is nothing that can be equal to Him. He could, therefore, have neither been a father nor a son. He is the Eternal to whom all creation refers and will return.

The very nature of the cosmic structure does not allow for multiple gods. It is nonsensical to believe that there is an independent god for the sun and another for the earth, or one for the animal kingdom and another for the plants, or one for the African continent and another for Europe. The cosmic order is an integrated whole, set up, designed, run, and controlled by a single self-sufficient power. This power regulates the operation of the human digestive system and the orbiting of planets and stars in the infinite universe. The plants grow out of the ground, the dawn breaks every day, and the sun and the moon move in their charted courses in accordance with His will.

Rational and sensible contemplation of these issues could only lead us to believe that there is only the one God, without a partner, the Sovereign, to Whom belongs all the praise, the All-Powerful and Omnipotent.

A Thematic Commentary On The Qu'ran: Prof Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali

Friends ,

If you recall I have already written an article on Prof Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali [ distinct and not related to Imam al-Ghazali , another of my favourite Guru ]under 'Personalities Section' on 21st April 2009. First and foremost I must reveal I have a vested interest in literally encouraging you guys to lay your hands on his seminal work, 'A Thematic Commentary on The Quran'. Whatever good that comes out from that read I have been guaranteed a 'percentage'cut.

Seriously it is a damn good read: for those of us too lazy to embark on a personal adventure in starting on a long, arduous 'tafseer work' [ Tafsir Al Azhar for example which comes in a 10 volume hard bound cover, at a dirt cheap price of less than RM 280 , published by Pustaka Nasional, and can easily be obtained from one of those bookstalls along Jalan Masjid India: You can claim from me if it cost more!], or for those who had gone through and know the Quran like the back of their hands, Prof al-Ghazali's is still a great read. 'Amatuer' or 'pro' ,can still gain something from this great writer and Islamic scholar 'whose contribution here is somewhat unique and contemporary in the sense that he focusses on the organic unity of each surah highlighting the logic or inherrent reasoning that courses through each surah and unifies its various components and images'.

Let us just go through his treatment of surah al-Baqarah:

"Following the Muslims' emigration from Makkah and their settlement in Madinah around 622 AC, all attention was focussed on building the first Muslim autonomous community there. By embracing the new religion, members of that community had, each in his/her own right, succeeded in breaking away from idolatry, polytheism, and other forms of pagan traditions and practice of Arabia. They had now found security and safety in their new sanctuary where they could group together and set up a state of their own.

Nevertheless , they were to face fresh hostilities from a rather unexpected source. The Jewish rabbis had always believed that religion was the preorgative of their own people and a monopoly of their 'Chosen Race'. Predictably they were somewhat ruffled and unhappy at the arrival in Madinah ofProphet Muhammad and his followers preaching Islam. They quickly embarked on preparations for how to react to that threat and for the best way to deal with it. Scheming, overt and covert,began.

The Hebrew tribes who had settled in Madinah, or Yatrib as it was known then, in the fertile northwestern part of the Hijaz, had gone there as refugees to escape the oppression and persecution of Byzantine, the eastern Roman Empire whose capital was Constantinople. Although welcomed to live among the illiterate Arab tribes, they rather looked down upon them. The Jews made no effort to combat idol worship, which was widespread in the area; nor did they feel the need to pass on the teachings of their religion to their native hosts. They recognised no obligation to propagate God's message or establish His order to replace the existing man-made one. Their view of the Arabs was wholly sanctimonious, adopting the proverbial 'holier than thou' attitude, holding jeolously onto their religious heritage, and totally beholden to the erroneous belief that religion was their privelege and theirs alone.

What then, was their [ or, more specifically, their elders ] reaction to Islam? They rejected it. They began to distort, conceal and otherwise obliterate religious and historical facts in order to preempt the spread of the new religion.{ How very true even 1400 years later, now more so with the help of the now so called secular 'Trinitarians': This is mine,not al-Ghazali's }

In contrast, Prophet Muhammad, the last of God's prophets and the benefactor of the new religion, spared no effort in appealing to them and soliciting their understanding and cooperation. However their malaise was deep and irrepressible, and increasingly their hostile intentions began to be reflected in their behaviour. In view of this Muslims found themselves, in their new sanctuary, building their community on the one hand and defending it on the other hand. They were laying the foundations of their nascent state, under the guidance and direction of the divine Revelations being received by Muhammad, while at the same time having to ward off the inpending threat posed by enemies living in their midst, who were intent on undermining their existence and everything they were building.

It was in this atmosphere that al-Baqarah, the longest and the most wide-ranging chapter in the Quran, was received. The surah obliquely cited the fallacy of Jewish claims of exclusivity by describing the Qu'ran as "the Book over which there is no doubts, a guidance to those who fear God"[2], thereby highlighting the view that other 'Books' or scriptures were less viable as sources of guidance and law, less authoritative as references for or expressions of the divine will.

In over thirty different places, the surah elaborates extensively on the features and merits of the God-fearing category of human beings. This aspect is unique to the surah,Fear [ alternatively, awareness ] of God is a quality required of human beings by all religions. God say in the Qu'ran: "To God belongs all that is in the heavens and on the earth; and We have recommended to those who have received the Book before you, as We have recommended to you, that you should all fear God" [ al-Nisa' : 131 ]

The surah is also remarkable for referring to all the five principles of the religion of Islam in the following verses:

Tawhid:"People: worship your Lord who has created you and those before you" [21]

Salah :"Observe salah, especially the middle one, and submit to God" [238]

Zakah :"Believers; spend of what We have given you before a day comes when there will be no
trade and no friendship and no intercession" [254]

Sawm :"Believers, sawm has been prescribed for you as it had been for your predecessors
" [183]

Hajj :"Complete the Hajj and the Umrah for God's sake" [196]

Reading through the early part of the surah, we find that it describes God-fearing people in three verses, the unbelievers in two, and the hypocrites in thirteen, an indication of the last's wickedness and the threat they pose to the whole Muslim community."........{ Mashaallah, begitu sekali berat nya' hypocrites ini ! Yet again ,my exclamation, not al Ghazali }

On the issue of women......The treatment of women in certain Muslim soceities has been a soft target for the enemies of Islam , and has proved a dangerous breach through which they relentlessly attacked its teachings and laws. This issue has been the trojan horse for those who want to undermine Islam and Muslim soceities by calling for the ''liberation' of Muslim women from the injustice and cruelty of Islam!'' This has led to a bandwagon of opinion among sections of the intelligentsia in some Muslim countries, especially amongst women, who have taken up this issue with great enthusiasm. But certainly, some of those who claim to speak for Islam and grossly misrepresent it or are ignorant of the spirit of its legislation, are partly to blame.[ SOS in Malaysia , is a good example: Dr Nik's opinion,not al-Ghazali ]........

.............{ al Ghazali when on further, to finally conclude his 'thematic discourse' of al-Baqarah with the following poignant remarks }...

Muslims have no race to be biased towards, nor a homeland to identify with, because their allegiance is to the universal God, the Creator and Lord of all. They have no advantage over other nations or human groups except by what they passed on to them of the religion of Islam, and they are distinguised by their piety and sincere faith. The special reputation and place gained by the city of Madinah in the history of Islam are directly linked to the fact that it was the cradle of revelation and the first city of the great Islamic nation that has since emerged. In it was created the first Muslim families, market-places, government cadres,center of learning, trade enterprise, farms, legislative councils; all under the guidance of divine revelation and the enlightened leadership of the exponent of that revelation, Muhammad. History tells us that the Prophet had once selected a very young man for a leadership post because he had memorized and learnt this surah well, indicating its distinguishd and prestigious status in the Qu'ran.


Finally, as we look at the last verse in the surah, our attention is drawn to the historic phenomenon that nations which attain ascendancy and supremacy usually display arrogance and conceit, and look down upon other weaker nations. Today's domineering, vainglorious civilisation, which has encompassed both east and west, is a vivid living example- a culture of decadence and gross injustice thriving on the great acheivements and glory of a genius elite who have split the atom and made inroads into outer space. When the Muslims were a leading nation, however, and at the height of their acheivement, they were overwhelmed by a sense of submission to God and a need for His support and guidance. They have always sought God's forgiveness and looked up to His grace, praying:

Our Lord, do not take us to task if we forget or make mistakes.
Our Lord, do not lay upon us a burden such as You had laid upon those before us,
Our Lord, do not burden us with more than what we can bear.
Pardon us, forgive us our sins, and have mercy upon us.
You are our Lord.
Grant us victory over the unbelievers. [al Baqarah, 2 : 286]


{ Footnote 1: Muhammad al-Ghazali, by virtue of space and theme of his book deals only with the tangible, rational aspect of the Qu'ran. Some 'mufassirun' elsewhere stated that when ayat 284 to 286 , and surah Al Fatihah were brought down to earth by an angel, Gibrael who was then with The Messenger of God, looked up to the sky, and told the Messenger that that door in the heaven up till then had never been opened until that instance. That reflect the significance and 'weight; of the last three ayat of surah al Baqarah along with al Fatihah, the umul Qu'ran. This constitute the 'intangible', 'alam ghaib' part of the Qu'ran. Along with Ayatul Kursi [ 2 ; 255 ], also from surah al-Baqarah, understandably, these ayats are my favourites during my prayers. They encompase amongst the most 'heavyweight' ayat of the Qu'ran and 'divinely' taught do'a at the same time.}

{Footnote 2: My almost daily routine nowadays to be 'reminded' and be 'in contact', to ensure that at least I could be motivated enough to move one scale up from the 'totally engrossed with this world' to 'the penitent' individual is quite simple [ see earlier blog on Imam Ghazali's Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife ]. In this days and age of connectivity and IT, I do not need to open or touch a Qu'ran!.

I usually read a short chapter on say, surah al-Baqarah from Muhammad al-Ghazali's Thematic Commentary, to get a general overview of the surah. Then 'attack' the Qu'ran via the 'Quranexplorer' [ see Link ] on the same surah, say at a snail-pace rate of 25 'ayats' a day , in the wee hours of the morning after 'suboh', before work, or 'isyak' before sleep.The lilting voice of qari Mishari Rashid or the haunting rendition by Abdul Baasit with a background transliteration into old English, by Pickthal, directly after each 'ayat', the Divine letter cannot come any better. When I come to an 'ayat' or two which requires further elaboration, I would go to Hamka's Tafsir al-Azhar to get further clarification . Prof Hamka, my Asian and contemporary 'guru' will definitely connect me to a host of other expert 'mufassirun' like Ibn Katsir, Shaykh Muhammad Rashid Rida in al Manar,Sayyid Qutb, Ibn Abbas etc and etc and also illuminate with examples of hadiths hassan,sahih and otherwise, further 'spiced' with his own anecdotal comments. Hamka was a worldly man. I enjoy his many anecdotes which were 'nusantara' in nuances and easily understood. I must concede that his tafsir al Azhar [... part of his tafsir you can get online now, see Link ] has been very much underated in this part of the world. [This is typical of us Malays, always unable to see 'nuggets' within our midst! ]

[ I tried reading Kathir's tafsir on recommendation of many friends, on the basis that he was a 'salaf' ulama' ie the period just after Prophet Muhammad .I found him too 'dry'. Hamka was more 'alived' and his anecdotes, and examples he put forward ,we in this region can easily 'connect'. JMHO ]

This way I get to meet all my rather illustrious 'gurus' who transcend Time, Age and Space in one morning! Now who is that clown who says you have to learn from your Ustaz 'face to face' to learn 'ugama' in this days and age of connectivity????
Just a feeble attempt by one individual, weak in both spirit and flesh and surrounded by 'the evil whisperers of both men and jinn' to progress a wee bit upward to be somewhere near 'The Sublime'. The Divine letter, coming in regular , mini-doses like this, is a very 'liberating' experience. Liberates one from the cudgel of human frailties, pretensions and inconsequential inter-human reverance. A definitive way to scrap slowly at that mountain of 'karat2 jahiliah' that has accumulated over years of spiritual neglect. Try that for size my friend! Allahualam. }

"Lo! We are Allah's and Lo! unto Him we are returning." [ 2 : 156 ]

.
A Thematic Commentary on The Qu'ran
Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali
Translated from Arabic by Ashur A. Shamis
First published in 2000 by The International Institutue of Islamic Thought, USA
Malaysian Edition:Islamic Book Trust
http://www.ibtbooks.com/

Al Ghazali : Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife

Friends,

I was browsing through my old 'blog' perspective on the issue of 'Longevity' while thinking to write further on the subject, with some philosophical bent.
[Longevity: Some Random Thots, Health section, July 11th and 12th, 2008]
[Longevity: A Muslim's Perspective, health section, July 14th,2008]
I found a third discourse superfluous as the subject matter I want to discuss was already fairly well covered in ' Exercise: Mixing the Profane and the Sublime', Health section, Friday, March 20th, 2009.

Giving the subject of Longevity some further thought, I cannot but come to the paradoxical conclusion that if one wants to live a long, fruitful,carefree, less'kufr'' and ideally 'kufr'less life [for want of better terminology], one invariably has to think a lot about one's imminent death.Paradoxical indeed: If one can readily accept this life's impermanence, one's stress level cascade would significantly decrease, and that contributes to longevity!

When I think deeper on the subject of Death, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali's treatise, 'The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife' come to mind. It represent a key section of al-Ghazali's Revival of the Religious Sciences, [Ihya' Ulum al-Din], widely regarded as the greatest work of Muslim spirituality.

I got my English copy of the book some 26 years ago at a small book store off busy Praed Street London, near St Mary's Hospital. Ironically I was then a young research registrar in cardiology, a field about prolonging the human life, 24/7,364 days a year.Cardiologywise, heady days: Andreas Gruntzieg, a radiologist from Zurich just discovered angioplasty,Spurrel et al at St Bartholomews down the road from St Mary's, able to put wires in people's hearts with palpitaion problem and burning their 'naughthy extra circuits' with radio-frequency sound wave......'gay' young men dying left ,right and centre in Southern California from 'godknowswhatdisease'. AIDS then was still not yet on the 'radar screen'....etc etc

Imagine Praed Street, off Edgeware Road in gay and liberal London 1981: full of young English 'roses' on the prowl,tugging on to your coat pocket asking for 'business': time was bad in London but I was much younger, vital and full of testosterone! Iman was running thin. I had no choice but to bury myself in al-Ghazali!

Let us friends look at what al-Ghazali had said in the opening chapter of his lenghty discourse on death:

''Know that the heart of the man who is engrossed in this world and is given to its vanities and harbours love for its appetites must certainly be neglectful of the remembrance of death.Thus failing to recall it, when reminded of it he finds it odious and shies away. Such are the people of whom God has said: Say: Lo! the death from which ye shrink will surely meet you, and afterward ye will be returned unto the Knower of the Invisible and the Visible, and he will tell you what ye used to do.

Now, men may be either engrossed [in this world], penitent beginners, or arrived gnostics. The man engrossed does not remember death, or if he does, it is with regret for his world, and he busies himself disparaging death. The remembrance of death increases such a one nothing but distance from God.

The penitent man recalls death frequently, so that fear and apprehension might thereby proceed from his heart, making his repentance complete. It may be that he is in fear of death lest it carry him off before his repentance is complete and before his provisions for the journey are replenished; he is excusable in his aversion to death, and is not included in the saying of the Prophet [may God bless him and grant him peace]: 'Whosoever would abhor meeting with God, God abhors meeting with him'. Such a man does not abhor death and meeting with God, but only fears the meeting with God passing him by as a result of his deficiency and remissness. He is like the man who is made late for a meeting with his beloved by busying himself with preparation for the encounter in a way that will find approval: he is not deemed to be reluctant about the meeting! The distinguishing mark of the penitent man is his constant preparation for this matter and his lack of any other concern. Were he to be otherwise he would associate with the man engrossed in the world.

As for the gnostic, he remembers death constantly, because for him it is a tryst with his Beloved, and a lover never forgets the appointed time for meeting the one he loves. Usually such a man considers death slow in coming and is happy upon its advent, that he might have done with the abode of sinners and be borne away into the presence of the Lord of the Worlds. Such was the case with Hudhayfa, of whom it is related that when death came he said: ' A dear friend has come at a time of poverty. Whoever repents [at such a moment as this] shall not succeed. O Lord God! Should You know that poverty is dearer to me than wealth, and sickness more beloved to me than health, and death more dear to me than life, then make my death easy for me until I meet You.'

Thus it is that the penitent man may be excused the aversion he feels for death, while another is excusable in loving it and longing for it. And higher than either of them is the degree of he that has entrusted his affair to God [Exalted is He!] and no longer prefers death or life for himself, for the dearest of things to him is that which is beloved in the sight of his Lord. By virtue of profound love and loyalty this man has arrived at the station of absolute surrender and contentment, which is the goal, and the utmost limit.

But whatever the situation may be, in the recollection of death there is reward and merit. For even the man engrossed in the world benefits from it by acquiring an aversion to this world since it spoils his contentment and the fullness of his pleasure; and everything which spoils for man his pleasures and appetites is one of the means of deliverance."

Many Muslims amongst us nowadays decry al-Ghazali for his 'excessive
use of 'hadith hasan' and'hadith dhaif' in his seminal work 'Ihya' ulum al-din' .Al-Ghazali stands above the rest because he started as a 'fuqaha'[ an expert in Islamic jurisprudence] and in his later life 'strayed' into sufism. 'Strayed' is definitely the wrong word, in his case, 'progress' would be the right term.

I am no expert but I feel his'maqam' from us is like that of someone doing a post ,post-doctoral thesis while we are just in post basic. In post post-doctoral situations, the nuances and application of relevant hadiths, be it 'Hasan' or 'Dhaif', are steeped with depth of knowledge and the best of intentions.Even hadith Dhaif, if these do not go against the grain of quranic verses and spirit, who are we, mere midgets as we are then, in a position to pass judgment on a 'fountain of knowledge' like al-Ghazali?

As he rightly put it, we are afterall a spectrum of 'the engrossed, the penitent and the gnostic'. As if these are not enough, there is still the question of 'the already arrived'. So friends, hold your criticism, just enjoy him and then, 'tepuk dada tanya selera'. Allahualam !

[ Al-Ghazali : The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife . Kitab dhikr al-maut wa-ma ba'dahu . Book XL of The Revival Of The Religious Sciences [Ihya' ulum al-din]
Introduction and translated by T.J.Winter]

The Straight Path :.....of Judaism, Christianity and Islam..

Friends,

I find, London based Hussain M Abbara's " The Straight Path " a good, worthwhile read. I think this book that come in two volumes, is easily available here since the publisher is KL based. Try, http://www.hikmahmedia.net/ or editor@hikmah.net

I reproduce here an exceprt from chapter three of the book, in which the author did a short discourse on the similarities and differences of Judaism, Christianity and Islam for your 'sample' reading.

Dr Nik Howk

*********************************

Muslims admit that there are certain similarities between them, since they believe that all Divine Revelations came from the same Source, the One Universal God. They also believe that there was relationships between authentic original Scriptures, but those Sciptures in the present form have been adapted to changing beliefs and conceptions. The Bible, for instance, is found in several versions.

Some parallels are bound to exist in the various moral systems but there are nevertheless certain basic points of discord. As Dr G. Badawi has pointed out, some of these many essential differences refute the thesis of the Judaeo-Christian origin of Islam.

Such differences cover a wide spectrum of topics, including the concept of " original sin ", the necessity of blood sacrifice, forgiveness of one's sins through someone else, the question of intermediaries between man and God, the necessity for the authority of a religious hierarchy, the concept of the sabbath, the concept of prophethood, essential information about previous prophets, the presence or absence of an inherent conflict between matter and spirit, and between body and soul, the concept of man's role on earth and the meaning of "religion", and whether religion covers just the spiritual aspect of man's life or the totality of it.

A discussion of such differences could extend to almost any lengths.

Islam reaffirms all previous Messengers, including both Moses and Jesus, as proponents of Islam, since they preached the worship of One God. Muslims, therefore, are urged by their faith to respect all prophets and revere all of them in equal measure, giving them as much reverence as they give Prophet Muhammad. " And verily We gave unto Moses the Scripture and We caused a train of Messengers to follow him and We gave unto Jesus, the son of Mary, clear proof of [ God's ] Sovereignty and We supported him with the Holy Spirit. Is it ever so, that, when there cometh unto you a Messenger [ from God ] with that which ye yourselves desire not, you grow arrogant? Some ye disbelieve and some ye slay. " [ 2 : 87 ].

Christians believe that Christianity is the only true religion, with Judaism as its precursor. " Both Jews and Christains say, " We are God's children and His beloved ones.' Say: ' Why then does He cause you to suffer from your sins? Nay, you are but human beings of His creations." [ 5 : 18 ]

The Jews believe that God chose the Children of Israel of all races and people for the purpose of revealing His religion. It is confirmed by the Quran that God blessed them and favoured them above all other people, and sent Prophets to them, but when they rejected the message of Jesus because it was not according to their desires, they denied the Truth. All who deny the truth are rejected by God. " Shame and misery were stamped upon them and they incurred Wrath of God. This is because they were rejecting the Signs of God." [ 2 : 61 ].

The Jews did not accept Muhammad, the Last prophet of God, any more than the Christians do. The Muslim believes in the Divine Origin of the other two monotheistic religions, viz. Judaism and Christianity, and in their Prophets, and has a profound love and respect for both Moses and Jesus, believing that God is the loving Creator of all the peoples of the world without discrimination.

"Verily, the noblest of you in the Sight of God is the one who is most deeply concious of Him." [ 49 : 13 ]. This verse refers to people of all religions and places, not just Arabs or those who call themselves Muslims but are without true belief and piety.

There are many uncertainties in the New Testament. The Gospels tell the life of Jesus in different ways. " He has left no written law. His Gospel was written on the tablet of his heart and he delivered his Message of 'Good news', not in script, but orally." The Children's Encyclopaedia Britannica teaches us that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, were written for Christians who did not know the full story of the life of Christ.

John, who wrote his Gospel last, took it for granted that the story was well known. The Books of the New Testament began to be collected together in the second century and were finally declared to be Word of God in 397 C. E. [ after the Roman Empire had become Christians ]. They were probably written in Greek, though Jesus himself spoke Aramaic. This may be why, in many places, the Gospels conflict with one another. There is no Gospel extant which is written in the language Jesus spoke.

The Old testament was written in the 10th Century B.C.E. and additions were made to it over the next few centuries.

The Quran, on the other hand, was immediately memorised and written down by Muhammad's companions and remains the same to this day. In any case, the very words of the Quran are, in terms of form and content , beyond the ability of the highest scholar, in so far as its content observes the genuine previous content of the Old and New Testaments.

As God is the Author of the Quran, its words are superior to those of the previous Books. It has been preserved intact, rather than collected by different scholars in different languages, and this is especially important since spiritual literature cannot meaningfully be translated into another language. For example, if any translator could translate the Quran from Arabic to English, his work would fall short by several degrees of the original.

The Old Testament and the Quran condemn the doctrine of Three Persons in God: God the father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The New Testament does not expressly hold or defend it, but, even if it contains hints or traces concerning the Trinity, this is no authority at all, because it was neither seen nor written by Christ himself, nor was it in the language he spoke. For at least the first two centuries after him it did not exist in its present form and content.

The idea of Trinity conflicts with 'Jesus' teaching, for Mark[ 12, 29-30 ] says "Hear O Israel! The Lord thy God is One God." In the Old Testament, God is called the Father because of His being a loving Creator and Protector, but, as Churches have abused the Name, the Quran has justly refrained from using it.

The Quran preaches the plain, simple Unity of God. "Say: He is the One God, the Eternal, the Uncaused, Cause of all being, He begets not neither is He begotten; and there is nothing that can be compared with Him" [112:1-4]. The Quran adresses in different places an appeal not merely to the Christians, who attribute divinity to Jesus and certain aspects of divinity to their saints, but also to the Jews of Arabia, who assign quasi-divine authority to Ezra and even to some of their great Talmudic scholars.

It says, "Say: 'O followers of earlier Revelations! Come unto that tenet which we and you hold in common: that we shall worship none but God, and that we shall not ascribe divinity to aught beside Him, and that we shall not take human beings for our Lords beside God.'" [3: 64]

The ascribing of divinity to others besides God is levelled against both Jews and Christians to add to the statement that they "do not follow the religion of Truth which God has enjoined upon them. The Quran elucidates their intention when it says, "And the Jews say, 'Ezra is God's Son,' while the Christians say, 'The Christ is God's Son.'" That is what they say with their mouths, following in spirit assertions made in earlier times by people who denied the Truth. They have taken their Rabbis and their priests- as well as the Christ, son of Mary- for their lords besides God, although they have been commanded to worship none but the One God, save Whom there is no deity: the One Who is utterly remote, in His Limitless Glory, from anything to which they may ascribe a share in His Divinity." [9:30-1]

" God is He save Whom there is no deity; the One Who knows all that is beyond the reach of a created being's perception, as well as all that can be witnessed by a creature's senses or mind. He is the Most Gracious, the Dispenser of Grace. God is He save Whom there is no deity; The Sovereign Supreme. The Holy, the One with Whom all salvation rests, the Giver of Faith, the One Who determines what is true and false, the Almighty, Who subdues wrong and restores right, the One to Whom all Greatness belongs. Utterly removed is God, in His limitless Glory, from anything to which men may ascribe a share in His Divinity. He is God, the Creator, the Maker, Who shapes all forms and appearances. His [alone] are the Attributes of Perfection. All that is in the heavens and on earth extol His Limitless Glory, for he alone is Almighty, Truly Wise." [59: 22-24]

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There you are, an exceprt from Hussain M Abbara's " The Straight Path ', certainly not a short read. Two volumes. Highly readable for all: discerning 'lovers', ritual Muslims [ as that Petra guy puts it. By the way where is he now? ], doubters, and dissenters.

For millions of 'ritual Muslims', myself included,extra knowledge is certainly not harmful. 'Lucifers' everywhere , at the work place, at home, during prayers , after prayers, during play and most importantly even during our death throes, for while our relatives and family 'surround' us with the 'proverbial' safety net of the 'much abused' Surah Yasin [..... a Malay phenomenon whereby we commit Yasin to memory without even knowing the meaning and leave the rest of the Quran high and dry on the shelf... ] and we are elsewhere 'fighting' our inner battles with Lucifer. Our 'amalan and 'faith' will no doubt, to some degree insyallah, be able to keep them apart, insyaallah[ how far apart Allahualam ], but only through 'knowledge' and more 'knowledge' our 'amalan' and 'faith' could be further strenghtened. Knowledge is the ultimate 'vitamin' and elixir to 'amalan' and 'faith'.Our 'amalan' and 'faith' waxes and wane like the changing tide, knowledge will energise them further. There is a 'sahih' hadith in fact, correct me if I am wrong, ,quantifying the difference between the prayer of the 'learned' from one who just follow blindly: The difference is between the Sun and the Earth! Mashaallah ! Allahualam.

[ Cross-link in Pearls & Gem : Wednesday, May 14th 2008...Trinity, Surah An Nisa { 4 : 171 } ]

[ 18th May, 2008 under 'personalities' : A day in the life of a Ritual Muslim ]