New Literature for a New Era

Prophet Muhammad’s (May God Bless Him!) Earthly Role: Teaching, Demonstrating and Preparing the People

1. Wa yu’allimuhumul kitaaba.
   
2. Wal hikmah.
   
3. Wa yuzakkeehim.

Who knows how exactly to translate God’s words? I certainly don’t.

But I do have an issue with Muslim translators of the Qur’an blindly incorporating Western, Christian, Biblical ideas and traditions into translations of the Qur’an.

Not because I don’t love or respect the West, or Christians or the Bible. Quite the contrary in fact. I am perhaps as much a creature of all of the above as anything else.

My reservations spring from the fact that many of those linguistic and cultural imports are woefully inadequate for our purposes and out of touch with reality.

And some of them are plain wrong.

Therefore, for Muslims to parrot those things without understanding their limitations or their negative implications is a distortion of Islam and a disservice to humanity.

So, here is my paraphrase of the above quotes from the Qur’an:

1. And he teaches them the highest levels of knowledge – Al-Kitaab.
   
2. And he shows them the operational details and procedures of how to translate those higher-level concepts and ideas into practices of everyday life – Al-Hikmah.
   
3. And he builds their character and purifies their motives, thoughts, life and behavior and prepares them for the challenges of handling truth and being role models for humanity – Tazkiyah.

Thus, Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, showed tens of thousands of his Companions, as he called them, men as well women, in practice how they should go about doing all this in real life. He thus provided a practical demonstration – personification – of everything that he preached.

What a Miracle Indeed!

And God picks an unlettered man, as the Bible calls him, from an illiterate culture, in a desert like Arabia, at a time when books were rare, libraries rarer still, printing presses non-existing and education itself was not available and often forbidden to most but a privileged handful such as the royalty, the nobility and the clergy?

What a miracle indeed!

But isn’t that what miracles are made of? Seemingly impossible outcomes generated by an unlikely configuration of seemingly improbable events?

Let me show you in the Qur’an what a true miracle is really like.

Read the story of Moses in the Qur’an – that is right, I said “in the Qur’an” – and you will know what true miracles are made of. Read below my paraphrase of that miracle as narrated by the Qur’an.

Wa laqad mananna alaika marratan ukhraa.

Idh auhainaa ilaa ummika maa yooha.

Aniqdhifeehi fit-taabooti,

faqdhifeehi filyammi,

fal-yulqihil yammu bissaahili,

Ya’khuzhu ‘aduwwul lee wa ‘aduwwul lah.

Wa alqaitu ‘alaika mahabbatam minnee,

Wa li-tusna’a ‘alaa ‘ainee!

Here now is a paraphrase of that story of Moses in the Qur’an.

“And don’t forget, Moses, that we did you a favor on another occasion.

That was when we told your mother:

‘Throw him in a casket.

Then toss the casket in the sea.

The sea shall then deposit him on the shore.

An enemy of mine and his will then recover him.

And I wrapped around you a blanket of love from me.

And we did all this so that you can be reared and perfected right before my eyes.’”

Now, ladies and gentlemen, what do you think of this as a formula for brining up your favorite children? Hand them over as infants to your worst enemies, and keep a close eye on them as they are being reared, nurtured, educated, socialized and trained by them!

No, the Qur’an does not say: “Please do not try this at home.” But I am sure some of us would be tempted to add that.

So, you want to know what a real miracle is like, go to the Qur’an.

The miracle of God selecting an unlettered man, Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, to be an educator to humanity is no different from God selecting, earlier, one of his worst enemies, Pharaoh, to be a foster-parent, teacher, mentor and guide to one of his most beloved prophets, Moses, may God bless him.

Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, Personified the Qur’an in His Life and Character

So that is exactly what Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, did:

He personified the Qur’an in his life and character.

In other words, he was a walking, talking, living, breathing Qur’an in flesh and blood.

No one summarized this better than his wife, Aa’ishah:

Kaana khuluquhul Qur’an, she declared.

Paraphrase: He personified the Qur’an in his life and in his conduct.

Of course, God Almighty himself had painted the same portrait of his beloved messenger, to his beloved children, of his beloved creation, Adam, earlier, but with a much broader brush.

Wa innaka la-‘alaa khuqin azeem, said the Qur’an.

Paraphrase: And what a marvelous character you possess!

And what could be more marvelous than to personify the whole Qur’an in his life, as Hazarat Aa’ishah had put it?

What a glorious miracle!

And Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, prepared those tens of thousands of his Companions for the rigors and blessings of it all by cleansing, purifying and elevating their minds, souls, bodies, clothes, abodes, food, drink and every thing else about them.

What a miracle!

Thus, he was not only a teacher and a mentor in an abstract or academic sense, but also a complete practical guide and model who helped humanity to cross the bridge between theory and reality; between precept and practice; and between the world of mere ideas and the challenges and ambiguities of real life.

Here, once again, is how the Qur’an summarizes these most amazing facts about the role of Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, in this world:

Wa yu’allimuhumul kitaaba wal hikmah. Wa yuzakkeehim.

Allah’s Creation Comes in Pairs: So Does the Kalimah Tayyibah

God Almighty’s creation does come in pairs. And a judicious juxtaposition of the positive and the negative is among them.

If the Kalimah, as it is generally called in many parts of the world, short of Kalimah Tayyibah, meaning blessed and beautiful expression or speech, comes wrapped in a twin pack of negative and positive, it is not unlike many other things in God’s big and beautiful creation.

For, Allah says that he arranged his creation in sets of pairs.

Here are his words in the Qur’an: Wa min kulli shai-in khalaqnaa zaujain.

Paraphrase: With regard to everything, we created pairs.

So, the Kalimah is not all that different.

First comes the cleaning of the heart and mind and body and soul of all spurious, false and rival commitments and loyalties and allegiances and walking away from them. Then, that is followed by a positive assertion of one’s new commitment to God Almighty.

And him alone.

The result is a new birth of faith and freedom in your bosom; a new direction to your life; a new organization of your priorities and preferences; and a redefinition and realignment of your relationships and dealings with the rest of God’s creation.

It is a deliberate and determined move from bondage to a multitude of false loyalties to the freedom of devotion to one true God.

What a Powerful Miracle: Positive-Negative Charges Produce Light and Male-Female Pair Produces Life

It is no different from the mixing of the pair of negative and positive electrical charges. Either one, without the other, leaves you in the dark. Wandering, groping, bumping against everything and often risking your life and limb.

But combine the two, and you have light.

So also, you combine the rejection of the plethora of false deities – Ilaahs – that burrow in all human hearts and minds with the affirmation of faith in the one true God, you turn on the light of faith in your soul and in your life. It illumines your whole existence and illumines the whole world for you.

You then become a beacon of light for all others.

How beautifully the Qur’an captures this concept and this imagery!

Qur’an: Kullamaa adaa-a lahum mashau feehi, wa idhaa azlama alaihim qaamoo.

Paraphrase: Whenever there is a spark of light, they move with it. But when darkness envelops them, they have no choice but to stand still.

So, you combine positive and negative electrical charges and you have light.

And you combine the male and female in creation, new life is born.

Allahu Akbar, what a powerful miracle this Miracle of the Pairs is!

Yet another Amazing Paradox: The More Islam Takes Away from You, the More It Gives You

Yet, an amazing paradox awaits new converts to Islam.

Many of them have marched away from Christianity or Judaism, only to find themselves on the horns of a new dilemma.

Except that now their challenge is not to reject but to accept. Not to walk away from, but to run toward.

Islam now sings a very different tune, which in reality is the same old song that Islam ever sang. A song that reverberated from mountain tops as God’s beloved Prophet David – May God Bless Him! – sang it.

The eternal and undying song of Islam.

You want Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, it seems to say, well, you cannot have him unless and until you are willing to wholeheartedly and without reservation also embrace Jesus, God bless him.

And Moses, and David, and Solomon, and Abraham, and Jacob, God bless them all.

Nor can you lay any claim to Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, without also asserting a blanket love and loyalty to all his other brother prophets and messengers of God, regardless of where or when they came – in what land or culture; amid what people, tribes, nations or societies; and at what particular period of time – before the advent of Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam.

But Now You Do Things the Islamic Way, Not the Old Christian or Jewish or Hindu or Atheist Way

But now it is no longer holding on to your old love that is important; it is no longer doing things the old way; but it is learning to love Islam and do things the Islamic way – the new way.

So also, you want the Qur’an?

Well, you cannot have it without your opening your heart and mind and the very depths of your soul to the Torah of Moses, to the Injeel of Jesus and to the Zabur of David, may God bless them all.

That means to the extent you move toward Islam, to that extent you move away from their moorings in Christianity or Judaism or Hinduism or Atheism or something else.

This they must do even though they will find in Islam an echo of some of the core teachings of their own former faiths in their original form, in the pristine state they should have been.

Thus, Christian converts to Islam will discover that Islam teaches them to love Jesus and his mother Mary more than their own parents; that they cannot be Muslim without first believing in Jesus as a prophet and messenger of God; and that they must also affirm the miraculous virgin birth of Jesus, son of Mary, may God bless them both.

But they will do this not because they brought in snatches of their former faith of Christianity with them, but because that is what their new faith, Islam, has offered them. Thus, their love for Jesus or Mary now is not their leftover Christianity but their newfound Islam. And they must embrace and execute their love of Jesus or Mary now not their old Christian way but strictly using the new guidelines of Islam.

Converts to Islam from Judaism, Buddhism, Some Other Faith – Or from a Background of No Faith at All

So also, Jewish converts to Islam will find that Islam wants them to be even stronger in their age-old monotheistic belief in one God. Not because it is a legacy of Judaism, but because it is a blessing of Islam.

So also, Hindu converts will be encouraged by Islam’s emphasis on truth and devotion, while Buddhist converts will find Islam’s positive and caring approach to human suffering and worldly temptations quite refreshing and life-giving. Not because that is what their old faiths taught them, but because that is what their new faith of Islam offers them.

Even Atheist and Agnostic converts to Islam may be pleasantly surprised to see that Islam, far from being a rigid, closed and doctrinaire system, is quite open in inviting human beings to vigorously pursue the path of personal investigation and scientific analysis and inquiry with regard to all things.

Yet, in spite of all these similarities and overlaps, Islam remains Islam, while the various forms of non-Islam that these converts left behind continue to be what they always were before these people accepted Islam: non-Islam.

Therefore, there is no such thing in Islam as “Hindu Muslims” or “Christian Muslims” or “Jewish Muslims” or “Atheistic or Agnostic Muslims.”

What Islam offers instead is a clear choice between Islam and non-Islam, beginning with a clean sweep of non-Islam prior to entering the fold of Islam, as symbolized by the statement: Laa.

Whatever good elements are contained in any individual form of non-Islam, they are all already encompassed by the divine blanket of Islam. This obviates the need for these new converts to Islam to pack any of their old stuff as they make their move from non-Islam to Islam.

All this stems from and symbolizes the inclusiveness and flexibility of Islam. And not a throw back to what they have left behind in the form of their Christian, Jewish, Hindu or Atheist or Agnostic past.

That means when you have Islam, you have everything else.

You are now the heirs, through the intermediacy of Islam, of the entire legacy of divine guidance and goodness that humanity has either received from above – heaven – or developed through science and research from below – right here on earth.

END

© 2007 Syed Husain Pasha

Dr. Pasha is an educator and scholar of exceptional 
talent, training and experience. He can be reached at DrSyedPasha [at] 
AOL [dot] com or www.IslamicSolutions.com .

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