Downsizing The Faithful

A renowned Pakistani English newspaper, for reasons best known to the editor, did NOT publish the following letter whose text I am reproducing here and whose title is: Downsizing The Faithful.

A prayer rug (musalla) is something that millions of Muslims use daily to offer prayers. Its ever-reducing dimensions worry me because in luxury hotels I encounter a 24”x36” size—fit only for little green men from planet Mars. Using this diminutive prayer rug, if one prostrates correctly, the feet stay out, and if one adjusts the feet, the forehead violates the boundaries. Moreover, in attempting to squeeze one’s entire body into the said dimensions makes one resemble a seated camel or a bag full of laundry.

The required ideal of being able to match one’s honesty of intention with the perfection in posture is so hard to achieve these days. Reproduced below are the Ahadith (sayings) of the messenger of Allah (peace on him) mentioned in Book 4, Hadīth 1002 of Sahih Muslim (also mentioned by Abu Awaanah, and Ibn Hibbaan):

“Maimuna reported: When the Apostle of Allah (peace on him) prostrated himself, if a lamb wanted to pass between his arms, it could pass.”

This explains how much space existed between his arms, as he prostrated, and the floor. Compare that space with the kind of miserly ‘sujood’ (prostration) we perform in our mosques because the Imams of the mosques force us to do so without correcting the situation.

In addition, in Book 4 (Sahih Muslim), Hadīth 997:
“Anas reported that the Messenger of Allah (peace on him) said: Observe moderation in prostration, and let none of you stretch out his forearms (on the ground) like a dog.”

At home, I am lucky to have a 25”x42” musalla that provides great tranquillity to my average frame. In many mosques, one finds carpets that indicate individual musalla size, but at prayer time—in an effort to squeeze Satan out of the rows of the faithful—men inconsiderately press against each other to render these markings meaningless. As a result, one finds it very difficult to raise one’s hands to pronounce the takbeer. Perhaps this is the reason we—unlike the rest of the world—love forming queues but only sideways. It seems that the musalla manufacturers calculate their profit margins carefully by downsizing us all and without considering an average Muslim’s dimensions.

Moreover, having patterns or pictures printed on a musalla is a distracting innovation (bidah). Now that five-star hotels have sprung up all around the Baitullah (House of Allah at Makkah), will we see hotel buildings or their logos on the prayer rugs of the future?

Before we forcibly turn the whole world into—well, just like ourselves—we need to get the size of the prayer rug correct by adhering to specified standards. The prayer rug needs to be of a comfortable size, neither too large nor very small, made out of decent materials (such as silk, wool, or cotton), and beautiful enough to make even a stone-hearted disbeliever fall down prostrate in praise of the Creator.

Abrogation In The Qur'an

Great confusion exists in the minds of many Muslims regarding abrogation (Nasikh, Manssokh) of the verses of the Holy Qur’an, the final message from the Creator for mankind. Invariably, even the so-called educated class, casually admit during drawing room discussions that certain verses of the Qur’an stand cancelled or replaced by other verses. This amounts to inventing a lie against Allah! Let us see exactly which verse is at the heart of their misunderstanding.

While Ibn Arabi reduced such abrogated verses considerably, Suyuti brought them down to twenty-one, Shah Waliullah down to only five:

Cancelled 2: 180, replaced by 4: 11, 12
Cancelled 2:240, replaced by 2: 234.
Cancelled 8:65, replaced by 8: 62.
Cancelled 58: 12, replaced by 58: 13.

Now let us see what the Qur’an itself says in 2:106:
“Any message which, We annul or consign to oblivion We replace with a better or a similar ones. Dost thou not know that God has the power to will anything?”

Reproduced below is the commentary by Dr. Muhammad Asad for 2: 106, and which explains the problem with the misunderstood ‘doctrine of abrogation’ because today the unbelievers use it as a beating stick against the Muslims:

“The principal laid down in this passage—relating to the suppression of the Biblical dispensation by that of the Qur'an—has given rise to an erroneous interpretation by many Muslim theologians. The word ayah (‘message’) occurring in this context is also used to denote a ‘verse’ of the Qur'an (because every one of these verses contains a message). Taking this restricted meaning of the term ayah, some scholars conclude from the above passage that certain verses of the Qur'an have been ‘abrogated’ by God’s command before the revelation of Qur'an was completed. Apart from the fancifulness of this assertion—which calls to mind the image of a human author correcting, on second thought, the proofs of his manuscript deleting one passage and replacing it with another—there does not exist a single reliable Tradition to the effect that the Prophet ever declared a verse of the Qur'an to have been ‘abrogated’.

At the root of the so-called ‘doctrine of abrogation’ may lie the inability of some of the early Commentators to reconcile one Qur’anic passage with another: a difficulty which was overcome by declaring that one of the verses in question had been ‘abrogated’.

This arbitrary procedure explains also why there is no unanimity whatsoever among the upholders of the ‘doctrine of abrogation’ as to which, and how many, Qur'an-verses have been affected by it, and, furthermore, as to whether this alleged abrogation implies a total elimination of the verse in question from the context of the Qur'an, or only a cancellation of the specific ordinance or statement contains on it. In short, the ‘doctrine of abrogation’ has no basis whatsoever in historical fact, and must be rejected. On the other hand, the apparent difficulty in interpreting the above Qur'anic passage disappears immediately if the term ayah is understood, correctly, as ‘message’, and if we read this verse in conjunction with the preceding one, which states that the Jews and the Christians refuse to accept any revelation which might supersede that of the Bible; for, if read in this way, the abrogation relates to the earlier divine messages and not to any part of the Qur'an itself.”

Please carefully read what the Qur'an says about 'strong drinks and games of chance'.

The ayahs concerning drinking and usury came in two stages: initially as mild prohibitions (to make the unbelievers-turning-into-believers feel repulsed) and finally as firm commands (to make real believers want to give up the vices entirely). Indeed Allah knows that alcohol contains ‘some benefit’ for mankind but notice how drunkards allow themselves the benefit of the doubt (doubt and confusion within themselves) by misusing the merciful revelation to ruin their lungs or to look good amongst drinking buddies. As human beings we possess the potential to justify all our demands, and in this ability resides our TEST.

The changes or the annulments actually refer to entire revelations (Torah, Zaboor, Injeel), one following the other through God’s prophets and meant for different times and nations. Stoning to death was prescribed for scores of spiritual and social offences in the Old Testament but a lenient view was taken in the final revelation, the Qur’an, keeping in view mankind’s material and spiritual states.

May Allah have mercy on those who think He sits on the heavenly throne changing His mind or that He cancels ayahs (messages) midstream during revelation.

And in 35:43, Allah says:
Thus [it is]: no change wilt thou ever find in God's way (sunnah Allah); yea, no deviation wilt thou ever find in God's way!

Indeed Allah is neither like us, nor thinks or acts like us.

Anti-Militant Muslim Project: PREVENT

Just to make itself look grand in American eyes, Britain willingly teamed up with that government’s warmongers to benefit from G-WOE (global war of error) and to promote radicalization of Muslims. The Crown has now got its hands in a pie called Prevent, which is an anti-radicalisation campaign tailored to prevent Al Qaeda attacks on Her Majesty’s Indian origin family jewels.

The Prevent project, aimed mainly at Muslim communities, has justifiably been labelled Provoke. The officials are grappling to stifle the unrest generated by this programme among Muslim communities, through which it hopes to identify people vulnerable to recruitment by Al Qaeda-aligned death-dance groups.

The allegations of spying on Muslims could be true because Prevent is a multi-faceted project that uses many arms of the state including police, local government, teachers and youth workers to help neighbourhoods counter Al Qaeda’s anti-Western message. But then is not the West guilty of radicalising Muslim freedom fighters of Afghanistan and then promoting anti-East bias? Is it not out to destroy those it funded and created to break up the Soviet Union? Need it be considered strange behaviour if Al Qaeda is out to lash out against its former sponsors? Oddly enough, each party now wants the other destroyed.

Some have justifiably objected to the British government’s effort by commenting that ‘there is no point trying something as sensitive as Prevent before you’ve improved community cohesion, because the trust won’t be there’.

Many Muslim families are hesitant to join hands with the authorities for fear of ‘getting a police boot kicked through our door’. However, officials think the Muslims are being unnecessarily defensive and are, hence, fine-tuning the campaign to win the trust of more Muslims and to get communities to share their grass-roots understanding of the threats.

The National Association of Muslim Police, which represents more than 2,000 officers, complained that ‘Prevent has stigmatised Muslims and may have seriously damaged relations between the 1.8 million Muslims and the rest of the British population.’

Since hatred towards Muslims has grown to an illogical level, Prevent is an affront to British values—whatever they might be. It is said that Prevent focuses too much on Islamic extremism and not enough on threats from far right groups who have caused the Muslim communities to live in an atmosphere of siege. Because the British system has not made communities feel part of the British identity, people continue to live parallel lives.

Perhaps the Muslims need to speak up more against the satanic forces bent upon radicalising them. Fifty-two percent of Britons fear Britain stands deeply divided on religious lines; they are particularly worried about Islam compared with other faiths.

Problems and suspicions arise when civil servants trying to boost community relations also use the relationship to discuss a family’s worries about a pro-Al Qaeda son. Prevent Director Debbie Gupta told Royal United Services Institute think tank, “There is great confusion about Prevent’s link to wider efforts to strengthen Muslim communities. Prevent spying is a myth. Prevent is focused on Muslims because that is where Al Qaeda’s focus is. They deploy their distorted version of Islam onto Muslims.”

All sensible Britons fear Prevent and they are not entirely wrong in interpreting it as spying. If you have seen the film Minority Report, you will recall how the authorities loved tracking down people by prying into their lives and arresting them prior to committing alleged crimes. George Orwell’s soul would now be in great distress watching his country turn into the dreaded Big Brother—a concept created in his fictional novel ‘1984’ which he wrote in 1949.

It appears that a universal law will soon be passed that will punish Muslims for merely thinking about their own state of affairs reached through systematic economic subjugation and physical destruction. Hollywood proposes and the American government disposes; the rest of the nations merely queue up for this big business called war; those who stand up to protest are labelled terrorists or rogue states.

Catholics and Protestants have had many shooting matches and bombing sprees in Ireland but nobody blamed Jesus or the Bible. Now consider the case of Muslims: Danish newspapers have repeatedly printed insulting cartoons of the Messenger of God and loads of books have been written against Islam and the Qur’an to further antagonize and radicalize Muslims globally. But why?—most thinking Muslims already know why. Complete submission to His Will is the answer to our problems, as promised by God. After the sad demise of godless Soviet Communism, Islam is the only system left that the satanic forces perceive as a global threat.

Wars profit those who make and sell weapons of mass destruction to both the sides in a conflict. We live in times of global provocation and sponsored instability. Human beings will not sail smoothly in a boat called Global Peace, unless the cowards stop dropping bombs on the innocent from 35,000 feet using drone aircrafts or chasing after genies they released from sealed bottles.