Bismillah Ar-Rahmaan Ar-Raheem. Alhumdulillah. Peace and blessings on Muhammad (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam), his Noble Companions and Family. Respected and Beloved Brothers and Sisters… Audio on http://www.islamiccenterdc.com/apps/videos/videos/show/11847414-imam-muhammad-al-asi-on-the-qur-anic-message-in-durban-part-1-08-13-2009 (08-13-2010) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J_wG75FhKU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMcyMvum39g THE QUR'ANIC MESSAGE I would like to thank the moderator for his kind words in the introduction. What was said about your simple brother here is, I think, a tad bit more than what a humble brother is. We, (meaning myself, Brother Afeef and our families and also there were other members of the ICIT who were here; we think most of them have returned now but they were here in the country for a good ten-or-twelve days), come to you this evening with a further publication of this tafsir that some of you may be familiar with right now because the last volume was printed and distributed here in South Africa so those of you who obtained it have a feeling for what the rest of the tafsir will develop into. Some of you may have also familiarised yourself with this tafsir by reading the Crescent International - this is a monthly magazine of the Global Islamic Movement; it's probably the only free and independent forum for Muslims the world over to present the issues in different parts of the world- so in this news magazine every month there is a portion of the tafsir that is being printed. Some of you may read the Crescent therefore you also are familiar with the direction and the quality of this tafsir. We've been speaking about tafsir now for almost two weeks here in this part of the world and we will try this evening to add to the other general information that we presented to other dear brothers who we encountered at other areas of the country. A tafsir obviously is an attempt by a qualified person to write out the meanings of the ayaat that were revealed to the Prophet over fourteen centuries ago. That's as simple as we can put it. If we try to count the number of tafsirs in the past fourteen centuries we are probably going to count a little over a hundred that we know of. There may be… You see, the problem with Islamic literature sometimes is there are monographs/tafsirs that have been written by hand. Believe this or not, we are now in the age of printing and flash print and all of this other stuff but we still have scholars who have written many many centuries ago and there works have still not been published! So we're talking about the published works that we know of- it's probably in the area of a-hundred or a little more tafsirs in these fourteen-hundred years that have lapsed. Some of these tafsirs, it turns out, are out of print! Not all of these tafsirs are available. You may go to a well known publisher in a well known Islamic capital and ask for a certain tafsir and he says "well we don't have it." "Well- can you obtain it?" "No, we can't obtain it because we can't find it." Some of these tafsirs are not ancient tafsirs. We'll give you and example: there's a Mufassir in the turn of this century, (meaning almost eighty/ninety years ago) who wrote a tafsir; it's called At Tafsir Al Hadith and you ask about it and you can't find it. So we Muslims in the world should be ashamed of ourselves that we cannot even regenerate some of the works that some Scholars (wrote)! We mean you may not agree with everything these Scholars say and we're not supposed to agree with everything they say- it's enough that they struggled to explain to us their understanding- qualified as they are- to explain to us the meanings of these ayaat. If we take a look at the ayaat of the Qur'an- for those who do these things because in our times many of us are concerned with memorising the Qur'an- no one is concerned with mentalising the Qur'an! We send our young children to Madrassahs or to schools or to Universities or wherever and we want them to commit the Qur'an to their memory- which is fine. No one is trying to say you shouldn't do that- no; but very rarely do we find parents who are concerned with their children understanding the meanings of the Qur'an. There are many ayaat in the Qur'an that want us to understand it. … so that you may think … (Surah Al Baqarah verse 266) … for people who think. (Surah Al Ra'd verse 3) … for people who understand … (Surah Yusuf verse 2) … for those who have core thoughts… (Surah Aal Imran verse 190) Etc. etc. etc. All of these are trying to convince us that we should understand what Allah has revealed to us. Now, we don't want to get into our contemporary problems as Muslims because we have some Muslims who give more credibility, (we don't want to say give more credibility), but they emphasise the hadith more than they emphasise the Qur'an. That's like putting the cart in front of the horse but it's a fact of life and we may have another day to speak to those types of people. But every Muslim in the world does not dispute the fact that the Qur'an is his/her number one and only reliable reference. There may be some arguments about some books of hadith- "well this is more reliable than the other and back and forth" but there's no argument about the Book of Allah (i.e.) that there's some book that's more reliable than the Book of Allah or less reliable than the Book of Allah! We know it is the truth- the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Every Muslim will concede that. If that is the case, then why can't we have those who are qualified explain to us the meanings of this book? Obviously one of the problems are the Governments in which many qualified Muslims live or to whom they are subject. They're citizens of certain countries or certain Governments or certain States and they'll know that these Establishments are going to come down on them if they dare to express the truth about the meanings of this guiding book. Another problem is we have been loaded with centuries of a ritualistic approach to the Qur'an. This may come a surprise to some of you and it should if we're not thinking about the Qur'an, (why not), there are in the Qur'an ayaat … First let us say this: if we wanted to generalise the Qur'an into segments of meanings which a preponderant interpretation of certain ayaat overrides another understanding or interpretation of these ayaat. The Qur'an has in it verses or ayaat that speak about physical laws. Of course, the Qur'an is not a science book! Let's not go here to the extremes. Please don't misunderstand us, there are ayaat in the Qur'an that orient our thinking in a scientific direction so they deal with physical laws. There are other ayaat in the Qur'an that deal in their preponderant meaning with social laws. And there are other ayaat in the Qur'an that have been interpreted with an emphasis on fiqhi matters. If we wanted to take the number of ayaat in the Qur'an that orient our thinking towards or into a scientific direction- how many times in the Qur'an do you read As Samaawati wa al Ard- just these two words? There are ayaat in the Qur'an about ma'/water. Have you not seen or can't you pay attention to the water that you drink? Are you the ones who source or bring it down from its ecological channels or are We the One who do that? (Surah Al Waaqi'ah verse 68-69) There are ayaat in the Qur'an that speak about the embryo and the foetus. There are ayaat in the Qur'an that speak about the conception. There are ayaat in the Qur'an that speak about the wind and earthquakes and hurricanes and typhoons. There are ayaat in the Qur'an that speak about the cosmos, the galaxies, the universe. There are ayaat in the Qur'an that speak about the air or the surface of the Earth. There are ayaat in the Qur'an that speak about the human species and the species of the Jinn. And you can take the translation and the tafsir of your choice and we challenge you to try to come with Mufassireen, (they do exist, but they're not around), you're not going to go to your Masjid or your public library or to an Islamic publishing house or bookstore or wherever and find these tafsirs. So we simply don't have them readily available. Then we take a look at the ayaat that more-or-less deal with strictly fiqhi issues such as wudhu and salaah and siyaam and Hajj and these types of matters- how many ayaat in the Qur'an would you think have this component of meaning in which the Fuqaha' and our early scholars, (honourable Scholars), of Islam deduced their School of thought? How many ayaat do you think? We're not surprised if no one thought about this simply because we don't think about the Qur'an; but if a person wanted to track these ayaat in the Qur'an he comes up with around one-hundred-and-fifty ayahs! But when you take a look at the Islamic libraries and bookstores, all- we don't want to exaggerate, we're tempted to but we want to stay within our limits- the overall majority of books that are written about the Qur'an approach it with a fiqhi mentality, with a fiqhi explanation. There's only one-hundred-and-fifty ayaat in the Qur'an out of over six-thousand ayaat and all of these books about fiqh are all over the place! So that means something is wrong with us. It's alright- brothers and sisters- to say something is wrong with us." We come across some individual Muslims that at the end feel offended- "how dare you say that!" Well yeah- we're telling you why something is wrong with us. Why don't we have … The ratio here- we're just taking two thematic components in the Qur'an: the fiqhi component, the hundred-and-fifty or so fiqhi ayaat in the Qur'an and the seven-hundred-and-fifty or so, (let's call them), scientific ayaat- that's one-fifth. One-hundred-and-fifty, (if my math is correct), is one-fifth of seven-hundred-and-fifty. But this is not the balance we see in the writings and the publications and the works and the books that are all around the place! Then, what adds insult to injury is that when some Muslim thinkers want to elaborate on what we just called the "scientific ayaat of the Qur'an", (we don't like that wording but it delivers the meaning), or explain these meanings then people begin to point to them, accusing them that you want to subject the Qur'an to science!" No! They don't want to subject the Qur'an to science. There may be one or two of them who have gone on off the deep edge but the general thrust is they don't want to subject the Qur'an to science; what they are trying to do is understand the scientific information that is out there and see how much that explains the meaning of the particular ayaat that they are talking about and what's wrong with that? There may be fluctuating meanings and we should not begin to develop a hostility among ourselves because one Mufassir had, (let's say a-hundred years ago), a certain amount of scientific information available regarding, (let's say), the moon which is another word that you'll find in many ayaat in the Qur'an and the sun which you'll find in many ayaat in the Qur'an. The scientific information pertaining to these two planets a-hundred years ago is obviously not what we have today; today we have more information. With our Islamic mind we can deduce the information that does not conflict with the meaning of the ayah and therefore subject our scientific discoveries to our scriptural revelation. This can be done in harmony. There's no conflict here unless science is running wild and if on a particular subject science runs wild, we drop it. We don't want to deal with it! If we find that there is some type of scientific theory that conflicts with the meaning of the Qur'an then we have nothing to do with it! We'll wait until the human mind develops further and brings this type of theory in line with the revealed meanings that come to us from Allah in the Holy Book. That's about the… Well, before we leave here, the one-hundred-and-fifty ayaat that have to do with the fiqhi issues that the Fuqaha' have extracted from the Qur'an there is a difference of opinion. We'll just give you a couple of examples. We are right now about less than ten days until we approach the month of Ramadhan, (may Allah accept your fasting and your good deeds in Ramadhan and throughout the rest of the year); one of the ayaat that has caused a little fiqhi variation of interpretation is … and then you maintain fasting or you complete your fast until nightfall… (Surah Al Baqarah verse 187) That's what the ayah's saying. The word layl/night is used. So some of our respected Scholars, (no one here is trying to knock one Scholar or promote another, we're just giving you their understanding of this), came and said what ila al layl/nightfall means is when the sun goes down, meaning Maghrib time/when the adhaan of Maghrib is called that's the beginning of the night; so Muslims who agree with this opinion break their fast- OK, fine. (Does) anyone have any problem? Other Scholars/Fuqaha' said no, night is actually more than just Maghrib. Maghrib is the beginning of the diminishing of day but it is not the onset of night. So they may wait twenty or thirty minutes after the sun goes down to break their fast. Does anyone have any problem with that? It's a legal and it's a legitimate and it's a reasonable understanding of Allah's words. If your heart is content with any one of these two understandings they may Allah accept from you. There shouldn't be any tension among Muslims because of this. Another ayah has to do with wudhu. We're using these ayaat because these are the ayaat that a lot of people have made a big fuss about! There's another ayah that has to do with wudhu. This ayah is in Surah Al Maa'idah, it means O you who are firmly committed to Allah: if you are motivated and in the movement to perform your salaah then you wash your face and your hands up to the elbow and then you wipe your head and then your feet to the ankles… (Surah Al Maa'idah verse 6) Now, the word and your feet does not have a verb directly before it. It says and your feet, but there are two verbs that appeared before that; one of them is wash …you wash your face and arms… (Surah Al Maa'idah verse 6) And the other verb is wipe … and wipe your head … (Surah Al Maa'idah verse 6) So when it came to the word your feet, some Muslim Scholars said, (and they explained it), and you wash your feet. OK, fine. If that's what you're satisfied with you wash your feet. Does anyone have any problem with that? Others said no, it means you wipe your feet and they also explained it very reasonably. And so, does any one have any problems with that? But we Muslims create these problems! The type of mentality among the learned elders of Islam is to make these polarising issues. They want you to feel that something is wrong with the other Muslim; he's not doing something right because he's not doing it exactly the way you are doing it- whether it has to do with fasting, whether it has to do with salaah or all these fiqh issues. They want to create bad feelings among Muslims. No- brothers and sisters. There's enough mercy in the Qur'an and in the wording of the ayaat that are reasoned in a qualifying sense to exclude these bad feelings. Therefore we want to put these types of learned elders of Islam out of business so that they don't come to us and create problems from nothing. We'd love for them to be present. We wish they were here. I don't know there may be one-or-two. With all due respect, we're not trying to get personal with anyone, but we'd love to have a session with these learned elders of Islam. Have them come in the hundreds and let us discuss these matters. Why do they run away? Why do they try to boycott someone like yours truly here who's trying to explain these issues in light of the Qur'an and the Sunnah? The same references they have- we have. We shouldn't continue to be stuck in this sinkhole that we have been in for centuries now where this type of overtly and disproportionate emphasis on trivial, (we mean trivial here not in a derogatory sense), but insignificant reasoning among Muslim Scholars. This is what has chained us from latching on to the thrust and the meanings of the Qur'an so that we can begin a new tomorrow. We tell you- brothers and sisters- many of us waste our time and our life when we are domesticated into an understanding of Islam that is incapable of shedding light on our enemies. From now on, begin to count the lectures that you attend and how many of these lecturers are speaking about enemies. The word enemy doesn't figure into the normal presentation of the learned elders of Islam!? It doesn't figure in! They say "no, we want to be peaceful. Don't bring up these issues." Go and count the places in the Qur'an where the word enemy is used. Allah is saying … don't designate or don't render My enemy and your enemy as your superiors or your masters or your allies or your protégés or your sponsors … (Surah Al Mumtahanah verse 1) All of these words fall under the meaning of Awliya'. Not this word friend that has been used by some translators that has been picked up by Orientalists and by Missionaries who say "look at Muslims- they can't have Christians and Jews as their friends." That's because of either the misunderstanding or the mistranslation or both concerning just one word in the Qur'an which makes us incapable of understanding that we have real enemies. Brothers and sisters- what's wrong with us opening our eyes unto the real world and realising we really have enemies? Or else, why do we have occupations all over the Muslim world? Why can't Imperialism and Zionism get the hell out of the Muslim world? Why do they invade us? Why do they steal our resources- the oil, the precious metals- what keeps the industrial world going? They speak about China an industrial power, Europe an industrial power, the United States an industrial power, the BRIC nations- Brazil, Russia, India and China- all of this talk, and where do you think these industrial powers in the world are getting their energy from? (And the pun is intended), where do they get their energy from? We, the Muslims- you and me. They're stealing us dry! And the reason for that is at this level where we are here, we cannot factor into our minds the fact that is costing us so much in lives and in limbs and in loot. We are incapable of saying we have enemies. We will have turned this page when you begin to hear the learned Scholars of Islam begin to speak about our common enemies. We have an internal problem and that internal problem wants us to- if we are at all to think that we have enemies- think that we, the Muslims, are our own enemies! They saying to us "if you want to use that word, if you want to think that you have enemies- then you are your enemies." When they say "you are your enemies" they go back to the fiqhi inflammation that we have and therefore a Muslim who belongs to a certain School of Thought becomes the enemy of another Muslim who belongs to another School of Thought. You have this artificial animosity that is being promoted and the real enemies look down and they're satisfied with this. Can we ask if we do have enemies- who is financing these enemies? Who is giving them treasury and budgets? Where does all of this come from? Once again, it comes from our own coffers; it comes from our own resources- that's where all of this is coming from. Yes- we do have our own internal problem but it's not me and you- the average Muslim! We go to Makkah altogether and in Makkah our hearts and minds are not supposed to meet. I've never been to Makkah; I'm banned from going to Makkah; but we advise every one of you who goes there why do you feel that in Makkah itself you remain a stranger to the other Muslim? You never really get to know the other Muslims of the world! This is supposed to be the melting pot of Muslims but you are confined into enclaves! They talk about segregation- you got rid of racism here and it's popping up over there in Makkah. The South Africans are in this area; the Nigerians are in that area; the Malaysian are in that area; the Turks are over there… How did this happen? Where did this come from? We have segregation zones in the Hajj instead of celebrating our unity in the Hajj?! No! You go there and you stay among your own group of people. That's fine if people want to stay- no one says you can't stay with your own but who says you can't go and participate with other Muslims in their qira'ah of the Qur'an? Or their dhikr? Where did this come from? But this is what happens when we take the one-hundred-and-fifty ayaat of the Qur'an and for hundreds of years we dwell on them at the expense of the other over-six-thousand ayaat in the Qur'an. This is what happens! This is what we get! This is what we got! If we ask ourselves how did this happen… Just like at the Battle of Uhud the Muslims did not win militarily and they looked around when the dust of Uhud settled and they looked at the Prophet and they said … how can this happen … (Surah Aal Imran verse 165) Aren't we the Muslims and aren't these Mushriks of Makkah the enemy? And the obvious answer is yes. So how can something like this happen? How can Muslims be on the verge of defeat and the Mushriks claiming victory? And the answer to that was Allah is telling the Prophet to … say (to this public enquiry/this psychology that now expressed itself): it has come from your own selves … (Surah Aal Imran verse 165) What we have today has come from our own selves! A Shafi'ee and a Hanafi should not be enemies. We had at one time this back-and-forth between Hanafis and Shafi'ees in the Muslim world- a Hanafi would say a Shafi'ee is not sure of his Imaan. His Imaan is mashkuk. If you ask a Hanafi why are you saying this about another Muslims he says well- they, the Shafi'ees permit themselves to say insha'Allah/God-willing/if God decrees I am a committed Muslim." On the other hand you have the Shafi'ees of being less than true Muslims. We don't want to use the word- the bogey word- which right now is being used all over the place; the four letter word. It's not the four letter word that the English speaking world speaks about it's the four letter word that we Muslims have. This is one of these hypothetical things that a lot of Scholars assume- what if I had some food that was contaminated with wine… A Shafi'ee Scholar is asking another Shafi'ee Scholar what if my food was contaminated with wine? He says well you can toss it to the dog or you can toss it to the Hanafi. For those of you who may not be know some of the details here, that is because in the Hanafi School of Thought the fermentation of grape juice borders on that liquid becoming wine. It's not wine, (we're trying to make a long story short, there's a lot of details to this), but it has to do with the fermentation process; so the Shafi'ee takes something like this and begins to… We don't know if you've gone to some Masajid; (we've seen this with our own eyes in one of the biggest Masajid in the Middle East- a historical Masjid), where you have Dhuhr adhaan that has just been announced and then you have a long line of prayer attendees/Musalleen beginning their prayers and other Muslims- there may be about a-hundred or two-hundred praying adh dhuhr and there may be another one-hundred or two-hundred sitting down- not participating in the salaah. When the salaah is over then they say their iqamah and then they begin performing their salaah. You look around at this and you say "what is going on here!?" So you ask "why are these praying by themselves and those praying (by themselves) and both of them are there at the same time?" They tell you "well one of them belongs to the Hanafi School of Thought and the others belong to the Shafi'ee School of Thought." This is just an example. What type of excuse do these people have to violate the unity of the Muslims when they speak about the fermentation of grape juice which is not spoken about in this manner in the Qur'an. Allah clearly speaks about our unity. … this Ummah of yours is one Ummah … (Surah Al Anbiya' verse 92) Why are you showing signs and behaviour of division? Once again, because we go back to the emphasis on a-hundred-and-fifty-odd ayaat in the Qur'an that are legitimate and reasonable and no-ones speaking anything against this- astaghfirullah; but it's the mentality that has locked itself on a-hundred-and-fifty ayaat or so at the expense of the rest of the Qur'an. This is the problem and we have Establishments and we have Ministries and we have Governments that are feeding this. In the continent of Africa, (I used to say this in the US when I wasn't in Africa, but now I'm in Africa), there's a low intensity war that's going on and has been going on for many years between At Tasawwuf and Af Tasalluf- the Sufis and the Salafis. (Can) anyone deny this? It's a fact. Because of what? Why can't we get along? Hey- let's bury the hatchet. What's the big issue here that has polarised us? Who cannot tolerate the other? Open your eyes! Think! (Take a) look at these. We're taking examples. This list can go on and on- Sunnis and Shi'is and others. All of these are in the picture. We're just giving examples here. Is it a Sufi who cannot tolerate a Salafi or is it a Salafi who cannot tolerate a Sufi in the majority of cases? Everything has its exceptions but in the majority of cases who turns out to be the fanatical type? Where does this fanaticism come from? Can they quote us an ayah or a hadith that substantiates fanaticism? The Prophet of Allah was open even with the Kafirs for dialogue but they were the ones who were turning fanatical against him and Allah wasn't saying here for the sake of getting along don't say that they are not enemies. Regardless of who the outward Muslim is with his over-emphasis on his self-centred fiqh he has stepped outside of the teachings of the Qur'an and the behaviour of the Prophet. We don't find any of that there. There are social laws in the Qur'an just like there are physical laws- social laws. An ayah in the Qur'an says … many of them, them here is in reference to the opponents, adversaries, foes and enemies of the Muslims… (Surah Al Maa'idah verse 68) Now can we get this straight? The Qur'an is speaking about enemies and it's not speaking about historical enemies, it's not speaking about abstract enemies, it's not speaking about fairy tale enemies, it's not speaking about other worldly enemies; it's speaking about enemies in the here and the now and it says … many of these enemies are going to be exacerbated and intensify their abuse of power and their denial of Allah … (Surah Al Maa'idah verse 68) Why? … because of what has come down to you, because of the Qur'an… (Surah Al Maa'idah verse 68) In today's world, taking the average Muslim- who is subject to the programs of organising Muslims- they'd say no-no-no-no-no. Don't rock the boat. You know- we want to have good relations with.." With whom? They say "… with Christians and Jews." Verily We have brought down to your attention, (O man), this dhikr and indeed We are to preserve it. (Surah Al Hijr verse 9) Allah has guaranteed us that no one is going to be able to change even one syllable, not one letter in this Qur'an- that's impossible; but the meaning is where we are lacking. We don't grasp the original and the range of meanings that come to us from Allah. This tafsir of the Qur'an helps you; it's an extended hand to help you try to overcome centuries of ignorance, centuries of unfounded traditions, centuries of fanaticism, centuries of division, centuries of Orientalism and Missionaries and armies and militaries- all of them doing to us what they did and we falling victims to our own ignorance and becoming what we are today. We are approaching the month of Ramadhan; for the month of Ramadhan it is highly recommended, highly encouraged to read the Qur'an- not to read the Qur'an like a machine or a parrot- but to read the Qur'an with your mind to understand what Allah is saying. This is an opportune time to obtain this tafsir and if you know a friend or a relative or an acquaintance who you think may potentially understand and is willing to understand the meanings of this Qur'an this is the opportune time also to introduce him to something that will teach him much about Islam- whether he's a Muslim or not a Muslim is another issue. The writing of this Qur'an was done taking into consideration that this going to be read by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. There's a glossary, there's a breakdown of the meanings, there are footnotes, there are so many things that go into this to try to make it's meanings available to you without much of a sweat. I think this is as far as we're going to go in speaking to you this evening. There's always a follow up to presentations like this. If you have any comments or feedback or concerns or criticism, whatever it may be, on your mind please express it. We will listen to it and we will receive it with an open mind and with a brotherly attitude. Wa Thank you for your patience and we want to apologise for being late this evening. Please forgive us for that. It's something beyond us. The plan was to be here earlier but I could not make it earlier but I did come as soon as I could. Don't forget us from you good du'a and your sincere thoughts. May Allah's peace and blessings be upon you all. This presentation was presented by Imam Muhammad Al Asi on the occasion of the launch of the tafsir in |
Trying To Build Society based on Peace and Justice
The one who love Imam e zaman(a.t.f.s) must be prepared to struggle and
labour his self, his pen and his wealth in the way of Imam e
zaman(a.t.f.s)
I remember the words of Imam (a.s), that we are responsible for the
duty, and not for the result. A warm smile washes away the tension of
confusion, as I thank Allah for the presence of my friend, whom Allah
may protect, and guide
IMAM E ZAMANA (a.f.t.s) Bless you And All Your Family those help others
and learn islam.
Syed Mohamad Masoom Abidi
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