Book Review: Even Angels Ask, by Jeffrey Lang

I enjoyed reading the author's earlier published book entitled Struggling to Surrender so got straight to this one after finishing that one! This book is similar to the previous book and there is considerable overlap between the two but I'd still highly recommend reading both. Like his previous book, there's a good mix of the author's personal experiences and stories on what it means to be an American and a Muslim together with the author's reflections on the Qur'an. I particularly enjoyed in this book the author's discussions on the relationship between culture and religion: how the two can easily be mixed up over time, how the former can influence the way a person approaches the latter, and so on and so forth. Overall this book will probably be of more interest to Muslims living as a minority in a largely non-Muslim environment but there is much benefit and insight here for all.

Below are some of my favourite short quotes from the book:

"... The question of the purpose of life is fundamental, and we can hardly know a person or a society until we understand how this question is treated..."

"... Repetition is indicative of the importance given to certain topics. It should be observed that the Arabic word for knowledge, 'ilm, and its derivatives appear 854 times in the Qur'an, placing it among the most frequently occurring words..."

"... The Qur'anic God is anything but impartial to mankind's condition. He sends prophets, answers prayers, and intervenes in and manipulates the human drama... All is under His authority, and nothing takes place without His allowing it..."

"... The Qur'an's "most beautiful names" of God imply an intense involvement in the human venture. These names, such as The Merciful, The Compassionate, The Forgiving, The Giving, The Loving, The Creator, etc., reveal a God that creates men and women in order to relate to them on an intensely personal level..."

"... the Qur'an shows that God intends to produce through this earthly experience persons that share a bond of love with Him..."

"... Trial and tribulation are held to be inevitable and essential to human development and both the believer and unbeliever will experience them..."

"... It is not surprising that the Qur'an upholds the so-called golden rule. Many do feel that it is better to give than to recieve, to be truthful rather than to live a lie, to love rather than to hate, to be compassionate rather than to ignore the suffering of others, for such experiences give life depth and beauty..."

"... in the winters of our lives, our past wordly or material achievements will seem less important to us than the relationships we had, loves and friendships that we shared, and times we spent giving of ourselves and doing good to others..."

Book Review: Struggling to Surrender, by Jeffrey Lang

Excellent read. Really enjoyed reading the author's journey to Islam and his take on what it means to be a Muslim. Also enjoyed reading the author's attempt at understanding and explaining various contentious issues such as the use of symbolism in the Qur'an, the authenticity of Hadith, the role of women in Muslim communities, apostasy, the People of the Book and many others! Of course not everyone will find the author's opinions agreeable and sometimes his opinions are not in line with the Muslim status quo but you can feel his sincerity and his strong desire to maintain objectivity throughout.

Here are some quotes from the book:

"... I learned very quickly that no one knows loneliness like an atheist. When an average person feels isolated, he can call through the depths of his soul to One who knows him and sense an answer. An atheist cannot allow himself that luxury, for he has to crush the urge and remind himself of its absurdity..."

"...'I do have one question.' I paused, not sure how to formulate it. 'Can you tell me what it feels like to be a Muslim? I mean, how do you see you relationship with God?'..."

"... To me, praying the dawn prayer in the mosque is one of the most beautiful and moving rituals in Islam. There is something mystical in arising while everyone else sleeps to hear the music of the Qur'an filling the darkness. It is as if you temporarily leave this world and commune with the angels in extolling God's praises at dawn...

"... You cannot simply read the Qur'an, not if you take it seriously. You either have surrendered to it already or you fight it. It attacks tenaciously, directly, personally; it debates, criticizes, shames, and challenges. From the outset it draws the line of battle, and I was on the other side..."

"... the Qur'an has no beginning and or end… its fundamental concepts can be ascertained regardless of the order in which it is read. But for one who is about to respond to its call, the arrangement of the Qur'an is pivotal, for the further you progress through it, in the correct order, the more intense and emotive is its expression. As a result, the closer one comes to conversion, the more magnetic is the summons..."

Ja'far Ibn Abi Talib's summary of Islam for the Negus

"... we were a people in a state of ignorance and immorality,

worshipping idols and eating the flesh of dead animals,

committing all sorts of abomination and shameful deeds,

breaking the ties of kinship,

treating guests badly

and the strong among us exploited the weak.

We remained in this state until God sent us a Prophet,

one of our own people

whose lineage, truthfulness and integrity were well known to us.

He called us to worship God alone

and to renounce the stones and the idols

which we and our ancestors used to worship besides God.

He commanded us to speak the truth,

to honour our promises,

to be kind to our relations,

to be helpful to our neighbours,

to cease all forbidden acts,

to abstain from bloodshed,

to avoid obscenities and false witness,

not to appropriate an orphan's property

nor slander chaste women.

He ordered us to worship God alone

and not to associate anything with Him,

to uphold Salah,

to give Zakah,

and fast in the month of Ramadan.

We believed in him

and what he brought to us from God

and we follow him in what he has asked us to do

and we keep away from what he forbade us from doing..."

Jesus

He ate.

He slept.

He prayed.

He was, a man.

Is my God different to your God?

"Say, 'He is Allah, [who is] One. Allah, the Eternal Refuge. He neither begets nor is born. Nor is there to Him any equivalent'." (Al-Qur'an, Chapter 112, Verses 1-4)

It's pretty fundamental, one's understanding of God. There are those who don't believe in God and those who do. As for those who do, do they each believe in a different God or the same God, or multiple Gods even? It's a question often put forward by those of no faith, or of uncertain faith: "Let's say I am to believe in God, which do I believe in?!"

The problem, like a lot of things in life (!!), lies in a dependence on names over definitions. Call a God "God" or "Allah" or "Jehovah" or "Krishna" or whatever, but it matters little as compared to what one takes these names to mean. So, let's try our hands at a definition: God is the Originator of creation (the "universe" as we know it and the "angels" and so forth of which we know little), Who has no beginning and no end. What do you think? You like? You agree?

Now, let's work with that definition - of God being the Originator, Who has no beginning and no end - it's then impossible for there to be multiple Gods or for each of us to believe in a different God, i.e. assuming there is such a God, there can only be one such God and we each believe in and call out to that one same God. From this basis does all interesting discussion begin: is there such a God? Did God then create us and the world around us with a purpose? Are we to figure out this purpose ourselves or has God communicated it to us? Of those to have claimed such revelation ("prophethood"), how can we distinguish the truthful from the opportunist from the mistaken? How do we know that the teachings with us today attributed to these "prophets" are indeed the teachings of these prophets? And so on and so forth...

Ma'ariful Qur'an: The Prophet's Miracle

To celebrate the start of Ramadhan - the month of Qur'an - let's have a think to enumerate some of the Qur'an's distinctive qualities:

1. When listened to with even the slightest courtesy, the recitation of the Qur'an - the melody and rhythm alone - takes a hold of the heart of the listener – Muslim or non-Muslim, Arab or non-Arab – in a strange, undeniable, incomparable manner.
2. The more one recites, studies and ponders a passage of the Qur'an – any passage of the Qur'an – the more eager one becomes to recite it and to understand it in yet greater depth. Few other books – if any – can retain their charm beyond a fourth or fifth reading for even the most fervent admirer.
3. No other book or comprehensive collection of teachings is so easy to memorise and memorised by so many people.

H2O and The Trinity

On my way home last night, I bumped into two gentlemen standing outside a Church handing out leaflets and inviting people in for coffee. I got talking to them on the topic of the Trinity which I struggle to get my head around. And, despite the lengthy discussion, I still cannot get my head around it. So: God is composed of three elements – the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost – just like water is composed of three elements – two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. And: God changes form – sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son and sometimes the Holy Ghost – just like water changes form – sometimes liquid, sometimes solid and sometimes gas.

I cannot understand how people who are otherwise brilliant, smart and intellectual feed on this. I mean: if water changes to liquid, solid or gas, it's still always wholly water, just in a different form (i.e. liquid, solid or gas). Likewise, if God were to change form to be the Father, the Son or the Holy Ghost, God is still God, just in a different form. However, if God is wholly the Father, wholly the Son or wholly the Holy Ghost, then God cannot simultaneously be a fractional composition of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. This is like saying one hydrogen or oxygen atom is water. It's not the case. The simile doesn't work.

Lastly, there's the question which I can never find a convincing response to: if Jesus is God or a fraction of God even, is it not a bit strange that Jesus (when on this earth) was supplicating and praying to God? And by "convincing response" I mean consistent with sense and reason. Because: whilst we find that revelation from God is oftentimes outside the realm of sense and reason (e.g. being taught that we have a soul or how to make ablution for prayer), it is never inconsistent with sense and reason. Well, at least I haven't been able to find an example of revelation which is inconsistent with sense and reason. I am happy to retract this belief of mine if there is a counter-example. It is not central to my argument about the Trinity being a mathematical absurdity. It's just a side point.

It's all restrictions... is it not

"No gambling.

No alcohol.

No interest.

No pork... and that's the tastiest meat!

So, surely then,

with all these restrictions,

there must be things that you can do which we can't?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

Looking at it from the wrong angle

it didn't hit me at the time:

Life's a test is what it is.

Nothing more.

The joy is in accepting it,

in knowing from where we came and to where we're gone.

Warn your families and guard your selves

"And enjoin upon your family prayer, and be constant on it."

Strange, no?
We are commanded first to enjoin prayer upon our family
and thereafter to regularly observe it ourselves.
The other way around in sequence I would have expected it.
One to think about and investigate.

That's verse number 132 of Surah Taa-Haa by the way; the 20th Surah.

Conditions of Debates

Just found a beautiful characterisation of debates and the debater in Imam Ghazzali's Ihya-Ulum-Id-Deen. Imam Ghazzali specifies eight conditions which provide a good means of identifying when we are debating for the sake of God and when we are debating for other purposes. Here's the fifth and sixth conditions:

"(5)... the debate should be held in private in preference to open meetings in presence of noted people and in grandeur because privacy is more suitable for clear thinking and to examine what is right and what is wrong."

"(6)... the debater should like truth in the same spirit as a lost thing is searched for. He should not mind whether the truth is found by him or by his adversary. When Hazrat Umar was once given sermon, a woman pointed out to him his mistake to which he submitted. At another time, Hazrat Ali was asked a question by a man and he replied. When the man pointed out his mistake, he admitted it."

8.2, Calling to Islam and Giving Counsel

In the Name of Allah, the Most Glorified and Exalted, who says in the Qur’an, “The believers are nothing else than brothers (in Islamic religion).” (49:10)

Allah also informs us in the Qur’an, “(Nuh said) I give sincere advice to you.” (7:62)

And in another place, “(And Huud said) And I am a trustworthy adviser (or well-wisher) for you.” (7:68)

Islam is a religion that teaches unselfishness. We want what is best not only for our selves but also for those around us; our family, friends, colleagues, neighbours and everyone else in contact with us, and what better treasure to share than that of Islam; a complete system of life that brings with it the ultimate contentment of heart, mind and soul.

Tameem bin Aus Ad-Daaree (RA) reported that the Prophet (SAW) said, “Ad-Deen is sincerity.” We asked, “For whom?” He (SAW) replied, “For Allah, His Book, His Messenger and for the leaders of the Muslims and their masses.” (Muslim)

This short conversation stresses the importance and merits of general sincerity.

The goodwill (i.e. sincerity) for the Muslim rulers stands here for co-operating with them in their lawful orders. If they deviate from the Straight Path they should be counselled and persuaded to return to virtue.

The goodwill (i.e. sincerity) for the Muslim masses means that we should work for the betterment of their life in this world and the Hereafter. They should be provided right guidance, induced to perform good deeds and deterred from evils.

So important is this concept of giving counsel to one another that Jareer bin ‘Abdullah (RA) reported: "I made my covenant with the Messenger of Allah (SAW) on the observance of Salah, payment of Zakah, and giving counsel to the Muslims." (Bukhari and Muslim)

This Hadith emphasizes the importance of goodwill to all the Muslims to the extent that the Prophet (SAW) would require his Companions to vow for their goodwill giving counsel to each other in the same way as he did in the case of Salat and Zakat.

Lastly, Anas (RA) reported that the Prophet (SAW) said, “None of you becomes a true believer until he likes for his brother what he likes for himself.” (Bukhari and Muslim)

We learn from this the importance and virtue of mutual love among the Muslims. If we were to act upon the injunctions mentioned in this Hadith we would be purged immediately of the evils like exploitation, bribery, dishonesty, falsehood, cheating, forgery, etc., which are rampant in our societies. Islam has taught us golden principles but because we do not live according to them and assist one another to do so we lead lives of disgrace and moral shame. May Allah guide us to the Straight Path.

8.1, Calling to Islam and Giving Counsel

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Gracious, who says in the Qur’an, “And invite (men) to (believe in) your Rubb (i.e., in the Oneness of Allah).” (28:87)

In another place, Allah says, “Invite (mankind, O Muhammad (SAW)) to the way of your Rubb (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Revelation, the Qur’an and fair preaching).” (16:125)

Also, Allah says, “Help you one another in Al-Birr and At-Taqwa (virtue, righteousness and piety).” (5:2)

And Allah says, “Let there arise out of you a group of people inviting to all that is good (Islam).” (3:104)

We see in these verses commandments for us to call one another to the submission of One God and to help one another in living according to the way that He has prescribed. The reward for doing so is as the Messenger of Allah (SAW) said, “Whoever guides someone to virtue will be rewarded equivalent to him who practices that good action.” (Muslim)

Similarly, Abu Hurairah (RA) reported that the Messenger of Allah (SAW) said, “If anyone calls others to follow right guidance, his reward will be equivalent to those who follow him (in righteousness) without their reward being diminished in any respect, and if anyone invites others to follow error, the sin, will be equivalent to that of the people who follow him (in sinfulness) without their sins being diminished in any respect.” (Muslim)

‘Invitation’ or ‘Call’ here stand to mean that we induce others to virtue or seduce others to sin by means of our speech or actions.

How we induce others to virtue or seduce others to sin by our speech is easy to understand; it could be by explaining the merits of a particular action, persuading about the goodness of a particular action, stating the joys that some action brings, and so on.

How we induce others to virtue or seduce others to sin by our actions is a little bit trickier to understand and best explained by example. Suppose you have children and are always telling them that they should pray, but you yourself do not pray, then your action, or lack of it, will speak volumes in their decision as to whether to pray or not. On the other hand, if from a young age your children see you praying and gaining much satisfaction from your prayer then there is a very good chance that they will also adopt the prayer in their lives. Similarly, a celebrity-type figure that others look up to can convince thousands to start or stop smoking, to give to a certain charitable cause, to dress a certain way, to speak a certain way, or to generally act a certain way by simply being seen doing that act, and that is the essence of modern day advertising.

We come to know from the previous Hadith that one who becomes a medium for either virtue or sin is given a reward or punishment accordingly by Allah.

On the day of the Battle of Khaibar when the Messenger of Allah (SAW) conferred upon Ali (RA) the banner, Ali (RA) said: “O Messenger of Allah, shall I fight against them until they are like us?” Thereupon he (the Prophet (SAW)) said, “Advance cautiously until you reach their open places; thereafter, invite them to Islam and inform them what is obligatory for them from the Rights of Allah, for, by Allah, if Allah guides even one person through you that is better for you than possessing a whole lot of red camels.” (Bukhari and Muslim)

We see here the huge reward for assisting towards righteousness and piety, and it is just as Allah, the Exalted, swore in the Qur’an, “By Al-‘Asr (the time). Verily, man is in loss. Except those who believe (in Islamic Monotheism) and do righteous good deeds, and recommend one another to the truth, and recommend one another to patience.” (103:1-3)