In Defense of Abdul Rahman and Truth

By the time I’ll post this entry, Abdul Rahman would have been released and reaching Italy where he would remain under asylum. His excommunication was not facilitated through a religious process which would set some meaningful precedent for times to come. Rather it was orchestrated through judicial twists under immense pressure of international community.

Abdul Rahman, the Afghani national who was recently put on trial for his conversion to Chirstianity has asserted in his first statement to court that he is not an apostate and still believes in Allah. There has been mixed reactions from the world from subdued whispering concerns to an attitude of utter nonchalance. It would provoke a much needed amuse if MMA of Pakistan choose to favor President Karzai’s government smelling a compliance of Shariah from his strangest remark that he would not intervene. Silver lining in this cloud enshrouding Abdul Rahman was the expression of tolerance by the trial judge Ansarullah Mawlazezadah. The respected judge has all the right to throw a seemingly chesty yet undeniably tolerant statement that A. Rahman would be acquitted if he repents. He seems to be proud of the fact that he is ultimately going to decide whether the defendant has adequately defended himself to the point of turning apostate yet again – only this time, from Christianity.

Do we have some one among the ranks of ahl al-dhikr (people of knowledge) to tell these hate-mongers that they are plainly demanding ‘death’ for a Christian whose faith is 16 year old or trying to force him to commit intellectual apostasy. Is it the apprehension of going disloyal to dogmatism or lack of enough zeal, that stops the traditional Muslim scholarship to dig out their sources yet again. Especially in the light of the fact that they have been doing it in the past. I hope we are not on the verge of tearing pages from the book of history where the opinions of people like Ibrahim al-Nakha’i, Sufian al-Thawri and Ibn Taymiah are recorded?

The mere fact that there is no compulsion in religion and had Allah willed, all the people on earth would have belonged to same faith, is enough to debunk the notion that a man should be killed for sticking with what his intellect leads him to. But even from a strict pseudo-literalist perspective, if we execute a man for his conversion to any other religion, we are making a strong statement with utmost surity that he cannot come back to Islam ever again. In my opinion it is a subconscious claim for the station of omniscience for ourselves in some capacity. Anyway, the complexities are multitudinous and certainly hard to disembroil.

A running theme among the traditional Muslim clerisy is to seperate the application and the content of particular religious opinion with a big ‘BUT’. Here is a perfect outline. A bunch of Quranic verses and few ahadith from Prophet (pbuh) are usually quoted to establish the one liner ruling in the first para. The seeker sleeps well, clasping the ruling as a prized medal on his chest – persumably a nice addition to his collection of fatawa. However what he leaves behind are calm utterances that follows the ‘But’. The bass and pitch of these utterances can vary from issue to issue, and therefore the importance. Usually in case of apostasy, these utterances comprise mainly of an appeasing admonisher that only Caliph of an Islamic State can exercise this punishment and sometimes followed by a hype about a utopian Islamic environment. If they are unable to opine in favor of the ‘apostate’ due to fear of going against countless mugged up references from the past, directed towards the desired course book ruling, they can surely say ‘I dont know’, to keep alive the tradition of Imam Malik in giving religious opinions.

A contrastive motif is played by drumbeaters among skeptics, who come up with new ways to doubt everything that belongs to the tradition. Their unintentional bias usually make them escape with slogans like ‘Its not in Quran‘ or the hoopla about ‘Weakness in Hadith Chains (Isnaad)‘. Bringing about different outcomes depending upon their employment, some of these slogans are shared among the skeptics and our neo-Pharisee brethren.

I am unable to yield enough energy to put myself deep into the task of drawing even succinct comparison between few traditional texts that I have read directly or undirectly. But it is pertinent to draw readers’ attention towards some contemporary efforts to understand the religion better in present circumstances. Hashim Kamali in his book Freedom of Expression in Islam has dedicated a complete section to Freedom of Religion (al-Hurriyah al-Diniyyah). Though he did not aim it to be a detailed monograph on the subject, it serves the purpose of directing us to a number of traditional sources dealing directly with the issue of temporal punishment for apostates. He has compiled the valuable conclusions that have been drawn by various traditional and contemporary scholars. Kamali asserts that there are enough incidents from Prophet’s life where he has pardoned those who renounced Islam after pledging their allegiance to him. These include people like Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh, the foster brother of Uthman Ibn Affan. Ibn Taymiyah has even claimed non deliberate consensus (ijmaa) of Companions in relation to masses of people who turned apostate immediately after the death of Prophet [1]. A list of those whom Prophet pardoned can also be seen in Sirah of Ibn Hisham as Kamali cites.

According to Kamali, an unmistakeable implication can be drawn from this verse of Quran:

Those who believe, then reject faith, then believe (again) and (again) reject faith, and go on increasing in unbelief,- Allah will not forgive them nor guide them nor guide them on the way (Al-Quran, 4: 137)

One truly wonders how Quran can accomodate the notion of repeated acts of apostasy if death is the prescription on first instance.

There are innumerable other issues directly related with the issue of dealing coercively with apostates. Again, I cannot dwell more into traditional discussions related to high treason (hirabah) and asking apostates to repent. I would just like to add that the most important point infront of Muslim jurists dealing with issue of apostasy is regarding how much time should be given to an apostate to repent and revert. Jurists take the offer for repentance in context with the re-presentation of Islam to the apostate. With how much force Islam should be posited before the apostate? For how long? and who will judge the veracity of his re-pronouncement of faith if he is eventually doing it in order to avert the obvious coercion?

These questions, in turn, create larger issues which are out of scope of this particular entry. However a hint is Imam Malik’s discussion of asking repentance from an apostate. He acknowledges the fact that the hadith ‘Whosoever changes his religion, kill him’ can be applied to a person who converts from Christianity to Judaism, if one chooses to remain perfectly literal. Abu Zahra has discussed Malik’s opinions in some length and can be found in his monograph on Malik and his methodology. This of course is must for an interested reader.

Perhaps it would be an apposite end of this brief defense of our Christian brother Abdul Rahman, whose faith we leave for Allah to judge with prayers that he may be shown the light of Islam once again, with a quote from Hanafi Jurist Shams al-Din Sarakhsi:

The prescribed penalties (Hudood) are generally not suspended because of repentance, especially when they are reported and become known to the head of state. The punishment of highway robbery, for instance, is not suspended because of repentance; it is only by the return of property to the owner prior to arrest{…}Renunciation of the faith and conversion to disbelief is admittedly the greatest of offenses, yet it is a matter between man and his Creator, and its punishment is postponed to the day of judgement. Punishments that are enforced in this life are those which protect people’s interest, such as just retaliation, which is designed to protect life…[2]

My feeling at the moment, if I am able to describe concretely, is a blend of utter sadness with optimism on fringes. Sorrow – to see humanity making unfathomable judgements against each other regarding matters which are beyond their realm and Optimism – because Allah has his own ways of bringing forth good from the worst. The canons of religion, without a smidge of doubt, are eternal. Yet the people who are ascribing to, deducing from and applying these canons are not eternal. No matter how subtle they seem to a skeptic eye, but there are methods in our traditional methodology which are a source of dynamism for all the times to come. It depends however on us whether we are ready to revisit some of the dogmas whose coarse ruling we keep so close to our hearts with its application and persumable advantage to society at our backs.
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1. Ibn Taymiyah, al-Sarim al-Maslul ‘ala Shatim al-Rasul as cited by Kamali in Freedom of Expression in Islam.
2. al-Sarakhsi, al-Mabsut as cited by Kamali in Freedom of Expression in Islam.

Filed under: Debates & Disputes, Islam & Modernity, Sociology of Religion, Traditional Islam

Book Review: The Life and Work of Jalaluddin Rumi

‘Life and Work of Jalaluddin Rumi’ is among those kind of books which I keep seeing regularly on the shelves of libraries as well as the bookstalls but which couldn’t induce an uncontrollable desire within me to pick up and read. After reading it completely in just about 10-12 hours expended on well over 3 days, I am stupefied why I have taken so long to decide going for this pleasingly satisfying experience. A lot is written about Jalaluddin Rumi and his thought by experts like Forouzanfar, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Annemarie Schimmel, A.J.Arberry, R.A.Nicholson and Whinfield. Almost everything from the poet has been translated into Indo-European languages. This endeavour of Dr Afzal Iqbal is perhaps unique in a sense that it covers not only the life and poetry of the great maestro but his philosophy, personality and peculiarity of communicative import as well.

Its difficult to place the work strictly in a prticular genre of literature. Its neither a conventional biography, nor a critical analysis of the Sufi poetry but a complete monograph dealing with everything Rumi dealt with or remain connected to in his life. While exploring about the life and thought stream of Rumi elsewhere, a casual reader (like me) always finds himself into a perplexing state where the attention moves back and forth in search of focus. Dr Afzal has wisely divided the life of his subject into three periods, thereby supplying the reader with a continous method to get focussed on. It was revealed to me while turning the pages that these three periods are not so distinctively stand out as I believed at first. Interestingly author has chosen to reveal this division to the reader somewhere in the middle of the book. It seems to be an automatic point for a thoughtful reader to pause and reflect what he has learnt and assimilated about the great Sufi.

The first period titled as ‘Period of Preparation’ is used as a canvas by the author to paint the later Rumi. This is actually the time of a devoted pursuit of knowledge and intellectual activity. A fifty page description of the 13th century challenges of Christianity to Islam, Mongol Invasion, the turmoils Golden Hordes brought along and their ultimate adoption of Islam can be called a prefixed prelude to this period. Author has chosen to reflect back at times, to see what Ghazali tried to achieve two centuries ago and what Rumi was about to achieve in his own way. There is a gripping feeling of following the migrating footsteps of Rumi’s family in this part of the book. It proved to be a compelling page-turner as I read through the fixation between Bahaudddin (Rumi’s Father) and Fakhruddin Razi and the former’s hostility to philosophers and particular attraction to Ghazali’s mysticism. Author has analysed in detail the reasons why Bahauddin migrated from Balkh and moved through Nishapur, Baghdad and Syria after he finally reached Konya. With a brief account of the life of Rumi’s teacher – Burhanudin Muhaqqaq, who was perhaps the most important man in the development of his early thought, book reaches into one of my favorite parts. These are some scintillating comparisons between Rumi and others. The imports, no matter how subtle, of Ghazali, Attar, Burhanuddin and few others on Rumi’s later poetry are presented beautifully with citations. Reader should not get confused here as Rumi was not a poet in first 37 years of his life and his study of others in this ‘Period of Preparation’ made this later import possible. This period ends with the death of Burhanuddin Muhaqqiq as Rumi embarks on a career of teaching and abandons the role of student. To add a little rigidity to the context, author has chosen to border this phase between 1207 and 1244.

The second phase in the book begins with a weird figure, ‘wrapped in a coarse black felt’[1], appearing on the scene. The bloodline of this obscure figure is sufficiently dug out and a great deal of time is spent analysing accounts of Jami, Aflaki, Muhyiddin Abdul Qadir, Daulat Shah and Ibn Battuta of first meeting between Rumi and Shams. Author has cited the complete account and its effects from Mathanavi Walad (Mathnavi by Rumi’s Son), to drive home the point that chroniclers have sadly missed the actual spirit of the meeting. Nevertheless, my favorite one is from Daulat Shah, perhaps due to my ever growing love for aphorisms. However, I agree with the author that the dialogue as produced by Daulat Shah makes Rumi seem like a toddler in terms of grasping Sufi semantics. Book goes on describing the expressions of new mode of life that was adopted by Rumi in this phase. Singing, dancing and tribulations of soul as depicted in his poetry are just to name a few. Author analyses in depth the reasons of first disappearance of Shams and how Rumi’s son brought him back. The complete lyrical activity of this phase is timely cited by author to give reader an insight into the contextual importance of poetry in regards to poet’s life. This phase ends with the death of Rumi’s disciple and his second muse after Shams, Salahuddin Zarkob, in 1261. The chief product of this lyrical activity is Divan-e-Shams Tabriz and author has dedicated a sufficient portion to analyse the attribution of this title. The poetic themes, mystic metaphors and aims and ambitions of bringing out this collection are dealt with in detail.

The longest part of the book deals with the shortest phase of poet’s life. Rumi occupied himself completely for these 12 years to dictate about 25000 verses to his disciple Husamuddin Chalapi and attributed the long poem to his name titling it Husami Nama,generally known as Mathnavi Manavi. Limitations of logic and intellect, nature of life, good and evil, experiencing God and the ultimate reality of existence, self knowledge, nature of love and innumerable sublime concepts are neatly interwoven into the lines of this work which is remembered by many Sufis as ‘Quran in Pahalvi‘. Dr Afzal has tried to touch most of these with comfortable depth and skill, relating them to the other poets, thinkers and philosophers on many occassions. He has also given some valuable insights into the overall style and construct of Mathnavi. Reader is presented with paradoxical and sometimes completely stochastic nature of anecdotes in Mathnavi, wherein ‘God is described as a Dyer, as a magician, as a hidden treasure, as a rider hidden behind the dust that he raises, as a painter or calligrapher, as a butcher, as the hunter of the soul, as a camel driver, as a mother, as a diceplayer, as a shepherd, as a vine, as the ultimate source of all good and evil and all opposites’[2]. Author has tried to dissolve many differences encountered by the reader but poetic mysticism cannot be enclosed within two covers – its a genre which is strictly for experience.

The last chapter comprises of commentary and analysis regarding some 133 lines of Mathnavi which were latinised by the esteemed Professor Nicholson for its alleged eroticism and bestiality. Dr Afzal has analysed these assertions of the Professor where he has drawn similitude between Rumi and the likes of Apuleius and Petronius. Moreover the objectionable parts are rendered by the author into English for a wider audience to judge for themselves. The author has dicussed in sufficient detail the morals behind these graphical anecdotes and suggested that Rumi is no pedlar in pornography.

From a literary point of view, author has produced an excellent work for those who are neither proficient in language nor have the energy to dig deep into original persian sources. It provides lot of answers to those who are unable to find it for themselves. However from a philosophical perspective, its not fulfilling upto satisfaction. Dr Afzal is a good teacher but to take the reader to the depth of Rumi’s heart through his poetry is a mammoth task and cannot be accomplished in one odd book. To describe it in Rumi’s words, its an elephant in the dark. The assertion gets strength as our subject is not a systematic thinker who neatly delineates the canons through which he is trying to communicate. Rumi’s philosophy is scattered all over in some 76000 lines of Divan and Mathnavi and will be taken differently by different people according to their respective disposition. Dr Afzal has done a tremondous job of seperating the grain from the chaff and the book which was first published in 1956 will keep on serving the appetite of generations of readers to come.

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1. R.A. Nicholson, Selected Poems from the Diwani Shamsi Tabriz, Introduction
2. Dr Afzal Iqbal, Life and Works of Jalaluddin Rumi, P 252

Filed under: Books & Reviews

Amal-e-Ahle Madina (1) – Imam Malik’s Rationale

The principle of ‘practice of Madinites’ (amal-e-ahle-Madina) is arguably one of the most important sources in Imam Malik’s methodology of deducing legal opinions and perhaps the most talked about concept in Maliki school in times that immediately followed. Malik’s strong reliance on this principle cannot be doubted by any serious student of Islamic jurisprudence and its sources. The best description of Malik’s unparalleled reliance on practice as a source of law, that I have came across, is found in his letter to al-Laith bin Saad. He writes after the usual prayers and titles of respect:

May Allah have mercy on you. I have been informed that you give religious opinions (fatwa) in response to people’s queries and many a times these opinions are against our practice – the practice of Madinites. You are keeper (ameen) and you have superior station (in terms of knowledge) in your city. People turn to you with their questions and completely trust what you say. It is mendatory for you to have fear in your heart and you must follow the path which relieves you of burden in the hereafter. Allah says in Quran that the first of Muhajireen and Ansar are the vanguard (of Islam). He also said to His Prophet that give glad tidings to my men who hear your talk and follow the good. People certainly follow the footsteps of Madinites, migration was towards Madina and Quran was revealed here. It was Madina where lawful (halal) was made lawful and unlawful (haram) was made unlawful. Prophet’s life was infront of their eyes and Quran was revealed in their presence. Prophet conveyed the orders directly to them and taught them the practice which they followed. The process continued in the same fashion until the Prophet died and transmitted everything. May Allah shower his blessings upon him.

People then started following those who had more command (in knowledge) in the Ummah, left all – whom they considered inferior (in knowledge). They enquired what they were oblivious of, followed the strongest juridic opinion (Ijtihad) in the new matters that came up. If a stronger opinion came later, they mended their previous practice accordingly. Then came the times of Tabi’een (the second generation of early Muslims) who remain consistent on the similar course and
followed the similar Sunnah. Every practice was inherited by the people of Madina and nobody contradicted it ever without going unnoticed. All of them practiced as such and it is not valid to go against it though the people in other cities claim that the way of their city is different.

You should ponder and reflect upon this. May Allah have mercy on you. Whatever I have written to you is for no other reason except the good advice solely for the pleasure of Allah. Now its upon you to consider it. Put my letter at its deserved station and if you practiced upon it, you would know what this advice actually contains. May Allah grant you and me the abilities to obey Him and His Prophet in all the matters and in all circumstances [1].

The principle described in the letter above has been used extensively by Imam Malik throughout his juridical arguments and counter arguments in response to his peers’. There are plenty of instances where the use of this principle as a source of law can be seen easily. The most glaring ones are the occassions like permissibility of Tarjee’ (vocalisation) in call for prayers and the correct quantity of a Saa’ (a weighing unit) where Abu Yusuf changed his decision in favor of Malik after the latter’s presentation of practice as evidence. On the other hand it might be construed as a blatant oversimplification if Malik’s use of this principle in his overall methodology is infered simply as a case of unquestionable validity of any ‘regional practice’ – may it belong to Prophet’s city – and for all the times to come.

There are numerous vantage points to analyze and reflect upon this methodology to find out whether it has any value today and how it has shaped up important concepts like ‘Sunnah of Prophet’. How and when the transmission of documentary evidence of something Prophet did or taught replaced the transmission of practice itself? Is the authenticity of perpetual transmission of practice since generations from Prophet independant of time that has come in between? Orientalists as well as some leading traditional and modern Muslim scholars have written a lot about these and other such questions. Few have even tried to present a whole new look of Islamic Methodology. Perhaps the first stepping stone for the new generation of students is to understand Malik’s rationale behind the consideration of this percept at first place before they make themselves ready to dwell further into questions like whether it defines the Sunnah of Prophet differently, analyze the contrasting arguments for instance Shafii’s and whether it necessiates the displacement of Hadith from its percieved traditional position.
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1. Qadi Ayaz, Tarteeb al-Madarak and part of this letter can also be found in Ibn Qayyim’s Ailaa’m al-Muwaqieen. Translation is mine from the text given in Abu Zuhra’s work on Imam Malik.

Filed under: Ilm al-Ikhtilaf, Traditional Islam