Blindspot!
From Issue: 563 [Read full issue]
The Door to Figurative
Closing the door to figurative expression in understanding the hadiths, and stopping at the primary (literal) meaning of the text, blocks many educated contemporaries from understanding the Sunnah, even from understanding Islam, and confronts them with doubts as to its soundness if they take the saying literally. At time they find in the figurative expression what does not please their tastes, and what their education disapproves, and they do not make a way out of this distaste in accordance with the logic of the language and the pillars of the religion.
Similarly, some of the enemies of Islam often exploit some of these primary (literal) meanings to ridicule the Islamic understanding of them, and their (apparent) contradiction of modern science and modern thought. For years one hostile Christian, relying on certain hadiths, has attacked Islamic thinking for its belief in superstitions in the age of science and progress. An example is what al-Bukhari and others have narrated: "Fever is a heat-haze from hell, so cool it with water." The hostile critic says: Fever is not some heat-haze from hell. Rather it is some heat-haze from the earth. What there is in it is some filth, assisting the generations of germs.
This critic is stupid or pretends to be stupid, is ignorant or pretends to be ignorant of the figurative meaning and purpose of the hadith. Anyone can understand it who enjoys the taste of the Arabic. For example, we say of a day of intense heat - 'this intensity opens from hell' - and speaker and listener alike understand the intended meaning of the expression.
Compiled From:
"Approaching the Sunnah: Comprehension & Controversy" - Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, pp. 166, 167