Today's Reminder
April 24, 2024 | Shawwal 15, 1445
Living The Quran
Signs of The Truth
Al Zumar (The Companies) - Chapter 39: Verse 63
"His are the keys of the heavens and the earth. So those who disbelieve in God's Revelations and signs - such are they who are the losers."
God has two different sets of laws: those that govern the universe, including the aspects of human life independent of humankind (which are God's signs of the truth, and which we wrongly call the "laws of nature" - these are the subject matter of the natural sciences); and the other being the Religion. Both require obedience. Results for the latter usually are deferred to the Hereafter, while the returns of obedience or disobedience to the former usually come in this life.
For example, the reward for patience is success, while the punishment for indolence is privation. Industry brings wealth, and steadfastness brings victory. So being a sincere believing Muslim requires obedience to both of these laws. When Muslims, in addition to their failings in the religious life, neglect to fulfill the requirements of obedience to God's laws of life and the universe (God's signs of truth), they become losers in the world relatively to those unbelievers who have obeyed them. However, those who reject God's Revelations (which are also God's signs of the truth) will be eternal losers, as they will lose in the Hereafter.
Compiled From:
"The Quran: Annotated Interpretation in Modern English" - Ali Unal, pp. 958
From Issue: 648 [Read original issue]
Understanding The Prophet's Life
Argumentation
Khusamah (Argumentation), accompanied by a violation of the right of another and comprising discourteous and hostile speech, is undoubtedly reprehensible and must be avoided. The enormity of such argumentation is accentuated in the Hadith where the Prophet, peace be upon him, proclaims, "The most disliked of men before God Most High is one who is most stubborn during argumentation." [Tirmidhi]
This Hadith primarily applies to those who engage in disputes either in pursuit of falsehood, or over matters of which they have little knowledge. For example, the disputant may be a lawyer who has not studied a case, or has studied it and knows his side is in the wrong but still chooses to fight for it. Also included in this category are people who deliberately defend false views and beliefs in order to influence the feeble minded.
An individual who disputes on behalf of a good cause, and yet exceeds the limits of propriety by engaging in abusive language, is also blameworthy, although to a lesser degree than the one who argues in pursuit of falsehood.
Source:
"Freedom of Expression in Islam" - Mohammad Hashim Kamali, p. 153
From Issue: 623 [Read original issue]
Blindspot!
The Family
The family remains the constitutive point of reference for everyone. Equally, the modern epoch is characterised by the will for independence, freedom and individualism. One must make oneself on one's own, fly with one's own wings as soon as possible, and in this sense the familial space becomes something of a prison. Yet, to listen to any mother or father, we are persuaded that what everyone wants as best for their children is a balanced, open and serene familial environment. Daily life today, however, makes things increasingly difficult: couples are separating, break-ups are multiplying and imbalances increasing. No one is pleased at this state of affairs, any reading of divorce, and single-parent family statistics can only be accompanied by bitterness and anxiety.
The Islamic point of references is, in the most clearest of fashions, opposed to this splintering process. If modernity can only be obtained at this price, then we understand why the Quran and the Sunna reject the actualisation of such modernisation. Similarly, if the whole world is caught in the rising of this vogue, being ashamed to refer to the family, then the Muslim, wherever he is, should remind others of its importance, its meaning and its finality. The family makes the human being. To ask man to be without family is tantamount to asking an orphan to give birth to his own parents. How can man do it?
Islam does not depart from the sense of this priority. It is an obligation for all Muslim societies not to spare anything in their effort to preserve those structures which allow for respect of family life. This includes work, education, taxes and allowances and even policies of urbanisation which we know today can have a huge impact on the private lives of city dwellers.
Compiled From:
"Islam, the West and the Challenges of Modernity" - Tariq Ramadan, pp. 36, 37
From Issue: 610 [Read original issue]