I claim no special or deep knowledge of religions. My only credential is that I am a born Muslim and I have received early schooling in the family which was governed, controlled and guided by a registered document of the year 1932, termed as wakf-al-aulad. My regular schooling started in a Montessori, run under Theosophical Society established by Annie Besant, only a few years earlier. It tried to practice and propagate, as far as humanly possible, the universality of all religions.
My college education at Queens College Varanasi started in 1944. It has a superb Gothic style building where, I later learned, Syed Mahmood, Judge of the Federal Court of India also got an education. In Banaras, the foundation Committee of Aligarh Muslim College was established with a branch at Aligarh. Three of us, class fellows, came together here and remained lifelong companions but never too close. One of us, a non-Muslim, belonged to a caste known to be fluent in Urdu, Hindi, Persian, serving the Mughal dynasty at all levels. His brother and father were practicing lawyers. The other was a Muslim, son of a bureaucrat, a hundred percent reflecting all the traits of a bureaucrat, without being a bureaucrat. And then myself; I was somewhat different, introvert, reclusive, quiet, non-interfering type. Our support to each other was exceptional and nontraditional.
My non-Muslim companion friend of college and university days became a judge of Allahabad High Court. For reasons, I dare not ask him, his oath-taking as a judge was delayed over months, maybe over a year. He was appointed a judge of the Indian Supreme Court. He has written his own memoirs. My only request is that if anyone gets a copy of it please do not believe his recorded words praising me. They are all exaggerated. He is no longer in this world so I will stop here.
I have expressed my views hereunder on religion not with a view to convince others but I would repeat the most valued words of a desperate lawyer before a stubborn judge “My Lord, please read the record as I have read it.”
What others have said about religion
Religion is an amazing phenomenon that plays contradictory roles in people’s lives, it can destroy or revitalize, put to sleep or awaken, enslave or emancipate, teach docility or teach revolt.
The power of Islam by Ali Shariati
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as they do it from religious conviction
Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
My thesis is that political power is extraordinarily sensitive to cultural nuances and that therefore, cultural variations are decisive in determining the course of political development—Asian cultures idealize benevolent, paternalistic leadership legitimizing dependency.
Culture is remarkably durable and persistent factor in human affairs.
Whereas Americans feel that it is exhilatering to make decisions and being denied that choice is depressing, the calculus of pleasure and pain is reversed in some Asian Countries.
Asian Power and Politics: The Cultural Dimensions of Authority by Lucian Pye
“The biggest enemy of Islam is the ignorant Muslim, whose ignorance leads him to intolerance, whose actions destroy the true image of Islam and when the people look at them, they think that Islam is what he is.” He gives the example, a person is kicked by a donkey at station X, reaching station Y finding another donkey he kicks it in the belief that he is satisfying a religious requirement.
Islam is a living entity capable of providing pertinent modern responses based on an ethical and humane set of universal values.
Mohammad Taqi
Extremism in Islam is contrary to proper teaching of Islam. It can be eliminated by those within Islam not by outsiders from outside.
A Journey by Tony Blair
Sunni Islam has always set great store by political stability even if this involves tolerating corrupt govt, for revolt against constituted authority involves splitting the community—what the religion requires for its practice is not ideal government, efficient administration or even social justice, but a stable environment, a house with solid walls in which the furnishings stay in place.
Islam and the Destiny of man by Gai Eaton
I present my own understanding and experience of Islam. Please read every proposition in that order.
Proposition 1: Who is addressing in Quran? Answer, “Rabbul Alameen”. Rabbul means a nourisher, a provider, a sustainer, a caregiver. “Alameen” means the entire Universe, animate, inanimate, visible, invisible, dead or alive. Try to limit the meaning of the word “Rabbul”, you cannot do it. Try to extend its meaning, you can, to suit the changing environment, altered needs and unforeseen situations. Give such changes the name of modernity, if you are fond of it or pleased, with that word.
Proposition 2: What is the nature of the address in Quran? Answer: It is revealed. The assurances given are:
(a) None in the creation can replicate it (Quran 2:23)
(b) it will last intact till eternity
(c) it is only a small portion of the entire knowledge
(d) it is expressed in clear words and is also allegorical (Quran 3:6)
(e) it is expressed in the simplest words and also in very complicated words (allegorical) (Quran 2:25)
Proposition 3: Quran Chapter 1: Al Fateh: Opening words, most read, most repeated are:” Bismilla Rahman, Rahim Most Kind and Merciful. In the name of Allah who is extremely kind, generous and Merciful. Provider and sustainer of the entire universe. Rabb ul Alemeen. All seek a straight path and the bounties.
Proposition 4: Why was man created? The entire humanity could be created identical but as they were to be tried differently, each individual created has an identity of his own, very different from the other. The trial is not among equals but among unequal. Hence the evaluation, the determination has not been delegated to humanity but reserved solely for the Rabb who alone knows the nature, extent and the purpose of creating such inequality at the start.
Proposition 5: Everyone has been given an opportunity till he reaches his death bed to repent, recant and revert to the faith offered to him by Rabb. None can on his own understanding take the life of another to deprive him of such an assured extended option.
Proposition 6: Each individual human being has been imbued with certain faculties in varying degrees, enumerated and explained separately, leaving no scope for their being mixed up or of one drawing the color and meaning of the other. These faculties are of
(a) an inherent inborn capacity to sustain and survive physically and to slowly develop the capacity to distinguish justice and fairness from injustice and unfairness. It can be called conscience, inner voice, and inspiration. Like all other faculties, these have also to be identified, trained and developed.
(b) Reading
(c) Writing
(d) Thinking
(e) Speaking
(f) Judging
(g) Acting.
Most important, each faculty has been made accountable separately, independent of the other, no intermediary howsoever high or close playing any part in it.
Proposition 7: Utmost assurance has been given that none of our relatives, friends, guide or intermediaries will be allowed to help or be of avail to any one of us at any stage of our final accountability.
Proposition 8: Three tiers of duties have been assigned to the entire creation. First, innate, inherent duty to come in the world and sustain to survive, followed by submission to the unity of Rabb in the form of rituals or other procedures. The second tier is a duty to self, remain modest helpful and Rabb is so near you that you cannot even imagine, always attending to your call, whatever its form or words. Rabb has his own timing to attend to them to suit best. Do not ever despair. The third is the duty towards everything around you, animate or inanimate. Maintain the balance in the world, a balance so craftily created for you. You can maintain this balance only by doing justice with fairness,
Proposition 9: Knowing well that you may not be able to do justice always and may appear to be a fool to some, at times, Rabb is delegating to you the power and authority by appointing you viceregent on earth (Khalifatul Arz).The limits and the boundaries of your delegated authority are clearly indicated.
Proposition 10: Do not ever pitch your little, very small, imparted knowledge (Quran 17:85) against vast unrevealed knowledge kept beyond your comprehension and reach. (Quran 19:109)
Proposition 11: Every community has been sent a prophet to communicate in their own language, the unrevealed message for their guidance and understanding (Quran 14:4)
My Conclusions
- Being the delegate of Rabbul Alemeen, try always and ever to maintain His reach of universality, globalization, overlaid with his extensive and pervasive qualities of mercy and forgiveness Just as much as you expect from Him in your case.
In literature, it is mentioned about Imam Malik that he prepared a very authoritative review of the revealed message as recorded in the Quran. It had the approval of all scholars who then mattered. It is known as Mutawa. The Caliph wanted to approve it as the final version of the Quran with a seal of his approval. The Imam refused it even though threatened with life imprisonment. His reasoning was that the Quran is to last till eternity It cannot be frozen in time and space. As people move globally, experience a variety of modernity, they will have to adopt the principles enunciated therein.
My difficulty with Mutawa has been that It first mentions a series of names whose credentials I do not know and in the end enunciates the principle that they support. The reverse order would have been better for the modern reader.
2. Rabb has in more than one way informed that he wants to establish direct personal relationships excluding altogether the intermediaries. I have already cited scripture to show how close he is and how quickly he registers every request or grievance and responds at a time and in a manner best suited to His design.
Humanity is committing, on a large scale few serious mistakes in understanding and practicing the revealed message.
First Mistake: With a small, trivial knowledge imparted to humanity it wants to comprehend, select and complete in its own imperfect ways the vast, far more extensive area of knowledge kept out of its reach. The basic principle of human knowledge (logic) is totally ignored, that whole can include the part but the part can never include the whole. Humanity wants to comprehend and solve problems like those lying in the grave, having never been confronted with those problems, in its own lifetime and has to offer only time and space frozen solutions. For this the hard-hitting accusation, that humanity creates its own God and then wants to worship it.
Second Mistake: In understanding and interpreting the revealed message the humanity has adopted a self-serving standard. I have provided numerous examples of it. (i) An imam mentioning that in divorcing the wife we cannot show dignity and grace to her sending her out of the house (ii) injunctions regarding observation of equality among more than one wives cannot be practiced because Rabb in the revealed message discloses that you cannot observe such equality.
Third Mistake: A very convenient but unreasonable method of declaring the revealed message in portions as mandatory or directory, compulsory or optional has been adopted, at times violating the express commands of revealed message. The clerics as a group receiving Zakat money for distribution to deserving refused to get their accounts audited. Accountability is the core essence of all trust power. Another group then got exemption on the ground that Zakat is a personal obligation and the state should not take over the responsibility of collection and distribution of it. The third clear violation came when religious institutions or individuals started usurping the property of others for their purposes claiming it all as a religious duty. For the present, if nothing else can be done, let a list of all violators be maintained as a requirement of self-accountability, as a part of our history for lessons to be learned, for improving our own future course of action.
Fourth Mistake: The Governance structure of the country has converted its own duty, purely inquisitorial in nature, into totally adversary system. A simple but very illustrative case is that of firing at Bhawalpur circuit house fully described elsewhere. A serving judge of the High Court and a retired judged of the same court were thrown into the arena by the police deliberately while keeping itself outside the arena, a sure indication of a reign of vigilante and public itself creeping in and taking over.
The progressive elements awaiting identification. recognition, adoption, and practice.
What I am writing hereunder is mostly for the layman, those not properly initiated in Islamic values, particularly those who want to understand Quran in the existing time frame and space, and want to see it frozen for everyone, for generations yet to come, a sort of guidance from those lying in their graves, not exposed to such problems.
- Quran is exceptional, all of it, a revealed message, no touch of the human hand. (Quran 2:2 and 2:23)
- It has been already revealed through Messengers to different people in their own language. The entire humanity is well informed and properly guided (Quran 14:4)
- It has used language highly ornate and extremely seemingly simple. So are the illustrations and examples, to make the meaning clear to everyone. It is repetitive at times to emphasize the command. (Quran 39:23 and 3:6)
- It places allegorical language, and parable (usually of unknown, variable dimensions) has been used (Quran 3:6). My personal experiences of allegorical language: (a) a seasoned, educated politician of oriental culture on being appointed Interior Minister of the country made a loud and clear announcement on the global TV that he will not be a Puppet Minister. So far as the locals were concerned, they understood that he will be a puppet Minster because he dared not disclose who was his puppeteer. The view abroad was that one with quixotic oddities could also be Minister of Interior in some country which is moving towards stone age in modern attire, (b) Every husband understands, whatever his language, two allegoric references to his authority over his wife, whom otherwise he considers weak and fragile, inferior in all respects. The first is that husbands are “Khuda Majazi” for their wives. The second is in Persian “ghurba ra kushtan Roze Awwal”, meaning strike the kitten the first day. The wife is taken to be nuclear weapon always to be kept under command and control of the husband. Majazi means unreal, fictitious, nonexistent. Surprising, over the years the wife takes over and the husband becomes a real Majazi.
I found the most profound definition and purpose of allegory in what follows
Struggling to Surrender: Some Impressions of an American Convert to Islam by Dr. Jeffrey Lang
Allegory: Asad (The message of Quran (7:989 to 7:991). Asad offers the extremely plausible explanation that the verses that are to be understood in the symbolic sense correspond to those aspects of the reality that are beyond the reach of human experience and perception which the Quran designates as al ghaib (the hidden, unseen or imperceptible)— we can come to an intuitive perception of realities beyond the reach of our perception
5. In order to show only a glimpse of knowledge for the time being withheld from the creation examples of miracles, magic, supernatural, divine intervention, all are described in detail, dispersed all over, pointing out that the knowledge bestowed on humans is small, very small(Quran 17:85) leaving out a vast, very vast, (Quran 19:109) outside his reach and understanding. If Burk and Carlyle went outside the clearly defined boundaries then they are to blame rather than what they could not understand or found confusing. The area was prohibited for them for the present. They violated a basic principle of law and common sense that the whole can contain the part but the part can never contain the whole.
6. What appears to the humans, contradictory, incapable of being implemented together, can be treated as redundancy, For example permitting up to four wives requiring that they be treated equally, the same time indicating that you cannot treat them equally, implying that equality is not important, not so much required, not always to be insisted upon, all the time, in every case. It is a convenient self-serving attitude to training, preparatory and transcendental exercise for attaining the heights that Rabb expected of the delegates of the trust entrusted to them, rewarding them ten times more for every good deed done and counting only in singles their omissions. (Quran 6:160)
Few Progressive Commands of Revealed Message ignored or violated
- The power conferred is expressed to be a trust. A trust has the boundaries set out, the conditions laid, the purpose indicated, all to be observed in letter and spirit. Delegation is to the entire humanity. We have tried to restrict it to a class, to a faith, to a tribe and to a sex. The trustee is required to lead a simple life, discharge the trust honestly, competently, and remain accountable all the time.
- There is an express direction to not abuse, demean, or belittle the deities and gods of other faiths because then others will react or reciprocate against yours (Quran 6:108). There is a further command for every individual to be a witness against himself. One can be a witness against himself by being accountable to self all the time.
- Rabb restrained all his prophets from placing any limit on Rabb’s power of mercy and forgiveness. Humanity has as a delegate started introducing all sorts of rigor, restrictions, and exclusions.
- Use of force, extortion, and oppression in any and every form is strongly disapproved for achieving any object, howsoever laudable. We are resorting to it more and more.
- A wonderful leap forward has been taken in the nature of Casus Omisus by assuming a compulsory will in favor of the heirs of a deceased son.
- Another principle of Cy-près universally applied to charitable trusts is totally ignored.
- The principle of tauba (repentance) is not fully understood and properly practiced. It involves a clear awareness of the mistake committed, the wrong done, the loss or hurt caused to others. It is practiced by appropriate, graceful compensation to the victim of the wrong done and then a commitment never to commit such a mistake. In some cultures, a bare apology is considered an aggravation, so it must be accompanied by an appropriate compensatory gift.
- Finally comes kaffara prescribed, fully controlled by the principle of Cy-près. No intermediaries are required at any stage. Who knows and practices it? Hardly anyone.
Experiences of a Lifetime 