Protect To Be Protected
9. PROTECT TO BE PROTECTED
Even before our master Muhammad the Messenger of Allah was a prophet he was the most admired member of the Quraish tribe who were the main residents of Mecca and the traditional custodians of the Sanctified Mosque (al Masjid al Haram). Because he was so honest, so reliable and trustworthy he was called ‘al Amin’ which name covers all above moral qualities. Interestingly ‘amin’ derives from the verb ‘amana’ (with long first ‘a’) which means ‘to believe, to trust’. Some other derivations are: iman=faith, amn= security, safety, amana=trust, ta’min=guarantee, muamman=made safe, aman=relief, exemption from persecution, a refuge etc. Still, the most important derivative of verb ‘amana’, as far as Islam is concerned, is “mu’min” which in one sense means a ‘believer’ and in another
serves as another name for Allah, meaning ‘saviour’ in the sense that he rescues and establishes in safety and felicity His good servants.
Allah however has many other names which are collectively called ‘al Asma al Husna’, the Most Beautiful Names. In Arabic ‘ism’ (name) as the the singular form of ‘asma’ means more than what ‘name’ in English means: it more denotes a true adjective than a honorific one. For example because a king’s given name is ‘Victor’ it does not mean that he will win all battles. But Allah has as one of His names as ‘al Qahhar’ and that means ‘Utterly Vanquishing and Imposing’ and Allah really defeats and imposes His will on anybody or anything.
Still another Divine Name is ‘al Hafiz’ with long ‘a’, derived from the word ‘hafaza’, to keep, guard, protect, observe. This Name and its root verb are related to the Name ‘al Mu’min’ mentioned above which, in non-capitalised form applies to and describes an Islamic believer as already said. All above boil down to the following: Allah, as al Mu’min and al Hafiz, relates with great affinity and sympathy to those servants of His who (1) believe in Him (2) trust Him (3) in whom all human beings can believe and trust in, and (4) who protects any secrets, trusts and deposits deposited with them.
Our master Muhammad had all these moral qualities to the full and that is why he was ‘al Amin’. But there was more to him than that. He was also reflecting the Name/Quality of His Lord ‘al Hafiz’. Like ‘al Mu’min’ the name ‘al Hafiz’ also means two different if complementary things when applied to Allah and to man respectively. Applied to Allah it means ‘Lord Protector’ while applied to man as a servant of Allah means ‘one who observes or implements Allah’s instructions faithfully’. In this sense Allah says “Hafizu ala’ssalawati was’salatul wusta...” (2: 238) which means “Keep to, observe, do not neglect prayers (salawat), including the middle salat” that is to say afternoon/’asr’ prayer”- because it is the middle number three between number one salat the morning/fajr and the number five the night salat/eisha and coming at a busy time of the day it could be forgotten or neglected. Here ‘hafaza’ clearly means keeping Allah’s Commandments. If people don’t keep to the regular practice of salawat (and for that matter all Commandments) these practices gradually die out among people and their religion becomes an empty shell. To this effect Allah criticises, for example, His Jewish servants whom He had once preferred over all nations but who later dissipated this favour and forfeited the privilege. Read if you wish:
“At last (after the prophets and pious servants so far mentioned) followed such successors who abandoned the salat and pursued their lusts and shall therefore be dropped for good (into punishment)” (19: 59).
So, what behoves us as Allah’s recent chosen people in the capacity of Muhammadan Muslims if we do not want to be dropped for good by Allah? Is not the answer clear? We must observe all that Allah laid upon us as our pious obligations whatever their number and natures. Let us make a list of some of the more memorable ones: We must:
1.
Keep our faith alive and active at all times, taking especial care that our creed is sound both in view of Allah’s Word the Qur’an and His Messenger’s word and example, the Sunna.
2.
Faithfully and meticulously observe all our prayers and fasts and if capable the obligatory once-in-a-lifetime Pilgrimage (Hajj) to the House of Allah and the charitable duty of paying the prescribed yearly financial donation to the poor among us (zakat) if we are better off.
3.
Obey our rulers in all that do not offend Allah’s rules- short of joining them in cruel and unjust acts- and still obey them or seem to obey when their orders do not look pious enough but their power over us is too overwhelming, of course. The only alternative to such unwilling submission is emigration and not civil war. That is because all civil wars are hijacked by criminal thugs whether posturing as pious imams or mere military entrepreneurs and if the detested regime is brought down a far worse or eventually a far worse regime may collect all the spoils and prizes. Can you imagine, even the closest sahaba could not make good decisions when it came to anti-regime revolution. Can you imagine our mother Aisha, our masters Talha and Zubair could so unwisely rise against our master and more or less duly elected ruler Ali, a lot of best Muslim blood was shed as a result including Talha’s and Zubair’s and all that only helped Mu’awiya the future usurper whose successors drowned the Prophet’s descendants in blood and sacked Medina, slaughtered both many sahaba and tabe’en (followers of sahaba), then brutalised Iraq and ended up demolishing the Ka’aba and massacring its defenders!
All rebellion to established governments are unblessed enterprises and if successful the prizes go to new thugs while the true mujahids are made to carry the oil can and then be trapped and liquidated by the new ruling thugs. Remember what happened to Abu Muslim: he was the power behind the Abbasid success against that of the brutal Umayyad regime. As soon as the first Abbasid caliph al Saffah attained the throne he trapped Abu Muslim and had him executed. You see, like all tyrants he did not entertain persons to whom he was expected to feel indebted. Although the Abbasid rule was less vile than the Umayyad overall, its occasional brutalities more than compensated for its unstable docility. What is more, it was only reasonably less brutal in its treatment of the Prophet’s grandsons but still many times treasonable and brutal all the same. Not only a few of the Prophet’s grandsons were despatched by various Abbasid state conspiracies. What more proof of the unblessedness of political ambition you need in view of the following Word of Allah which should be infallible if anything: “Thus we appointed in each community its great ones from among its criminals in order that they conspire therein” (6: 123).
If a reader happens to be too politically ambitious too bad. It is take it or leave it. Allah has spoken. The only exception to this rule can be one’s being desperately invited to take over the government while for his part he could not have less political ambition. Our master Abu Bakr and then Umar succeeded spectacularly because both were not politically ambitious, had not desired the rulership but it was pushed to them. But this rule is not limited to Muslim community; among the best rulers we find elsewhere are those few peaceful geniuses who were almost dragged to the throne where they did spectacularly well but could not wait coming down and return to their philosophical or scientific studies or hobbies like vegetable gardening or angling. Both ancient Greece and Rome had such few rulers, for example. Ottoman sultan Bayazid I was so much interested in Sufism that he twice abdicated in favour of his son Muhammad II and when things got too tough for the young lad he had to order his father back to the throne. In politics the rule of true success is universal begging for one to take up the reins of government and not bombing your way in. You must also know when to come down before you overstay your welcome. The same ‘being desired rather than the desirer’ rule applies to all power structures including Sufism. Best sheikhs are those who don’t want and don’t work for becoming a sheikh. They just busy themselves with personal salvation and are just pushed to leadership when the time comes and against their will.
4.
Never forget that the ultimate aim of Islam is the cultivation of persons endowed with noblest morality and most graceful social manners and therefore measure both your and others’ standing with Allah from their moral and social graces and not from their formal devotions and moving rhetoric. Many ambitious men are superb actors who can put up such pious role-playings that even prophets may look less attractive than them. Said the Messenger of Allah “The one from among my community (umma) whom I fear most on their behalf is a hypocrite who talks well”. No doubt talk includes body language and body language is superbly amenable to the manipulations of a good actor. They roar, shed tears etc., so as to move people to frenzied states and then steer them towards their less than holy destinations. Therefore fear as nothing else than being insincere in your piety, a hypocrite or you will be the easiest prey for the Satan and deceive others, as you are deceived by the arch enemy of Allah.
5.
Lastly, seek the company of wise and pious men and shun the insincere and the ignorant except in a social duties and good manners context. Said Allah’s Messenger “Man is on the path of his bosom companion.” Go for the humblest, most charitable and graceful fellows and see what and how much good will come your way in this word and the next.
The above are some of the more important considerations to adjust your feelings and acts and all lead you to protect yourself and others you may help from the risks in life to your and their piety. When you protect yours and others best interests under Allah’s Rule Allah protects you back with His invincible protection together with whom you piously and dutifully protected.
Keep all such advice as above and any similarly good advice you find anywhere and Allah will be with you at all times and guide you. Amen.
10. HUBRIS- THE GREATEST SIN
Hubris is that kind of arrogant, cock-sure pride that when noticed, makes the observer feel a freeze all over his body and inside out. Nobody can create more alarm and antipathy in others than a person suffering from hubris: the person concerned has a very inflated sense of his own importance and the belief that he can and should dominate others and that those others ‘should know their places before him’. This term’s origin goes back to classical Greek tragedy where the theme is the eventual destructive effects of too much pride in and too high ambition of one of the main characters. The Arabic word for hubris is ‘takabbur’ and one with takabbur is called ‘mutakabbir’. Incidentally ‘al Mutakabbir’ is one of the Asma al Husna’ (Most Beautiful Names of Allah) and in this case it is not meant as a negative qualification but the very opposite: Allah is Truly and Really Great and being Mutakabbir is His inalienable right. Of course we should recognise Allah’s incomparable greatness and should know our place before Him. His Takabbur is not meant to threaten any good servants on whom Allah looks with loving compassion but to inspire terror in and to humiliate the human mutakabbirs so as to heal the wounds of the victims who suffer under the domination of these human mutakabbirs seeing that justice is done. Allah vowed to humble to dust and throw into roasting fire all mutakabbirs while forgiving and honouring all humble-at-heart servants of His.
The first to entertain and display hubris has been none other than the Iblis Satan and all people with hubris are his disciples and servants. A display of hubris was the very first sin ever to be committed in Allah’s Kingdom when Iblis refused point-blank to Allah’s Face that he was not going to bow to Adam as Allah’s chosen caliph. Our Christian cousins speak about an Original Sin: For them it is sex which is wrong. Sex, legitimately indulged is a great and indispensable blessing of Allah on us Who created us not for dying as solitary virgins but marrying and producing more servants for Him to bless. Perhaps without being a parent one cannot appreciate what loving mercy (rahmet) means: nothing can more simulate the relation of Allah to His creatures than a good parent’s relation to his or her offspring. This should be bad news for celibate ascetics and no doubt they cannot achieve the spiritual growth possible for good parents simply because good parents know best what rahmat is and have a long, nourishing experience bestowing it on their children. The real Original Sin, although never made into a theory among Muslims is- HUB-RIS!
And guess what, at least sometimes, the greatest hubris is not among worldly too ambitious too proud people but among the spiritually too ambitious and totally misguided souls, who, for example, supposedly abandon the world and live the life of an ascetic as they formulate it. Among non-Muslims the first and foremost element of an ascetic life is celibacy, followed by deliberate starvation, social isolation and other deprivations including living in filth and with as many diseases as possible. Most such ascetics are clearly mad and if often harmless (and also useless as well) and can be left alone. But some are not as mad as they are bad; motivated by a very successfully concealed hubris their aim is becoming partners of Allah under various saintly titles they invented each with its own particular cosmic power and authority portfolio. For example ‘saint’ X (St. X) cures leprosy, St Y finds husbands for girls while St Z fights on behalf of Christian armies against the enemies of the Cross etc. That creatures, whoever and however accomplished they are should not be seen as gods and even quasi gods is one of the most central messages of the Qur’an and below, among the many verses to that effect we are quoting two:
“Say (o My Messenger Muhammad): Pray to those who you suppose (to be divine)- they cannot relieve your hardships nor can they modify them. Those whom they (the idolizers of creatures) pray to, themselves seek means to excel each other in achieving closeness (to Allah) while at the same time fearing His punishment. Thy Lord’s punishment is something to fearfully avoid (17: 56- 57).
Probably the most admired classical commentators of the Qur’an, namely Qadi Baydawi states that the beings so idolized and prayed to are some prophets like the Christ and Ezra and other servants very highly regarded for some reason. And that stands to reason: throughout history less well guided people so much idolised some greats or perceived greats among them that they gladly idolised and worshipped them. Allah is saying that praying to such idolised greats or seemingly greats is both blasphemous and futile: these greats themselves are broken beggars in front of Allah, competing for His favours and fearing His wrath. Jesus Christ has perhaps been the greatest victim of such idolisation and Allah is telling us that on the Day of Judgment he will be questioned about his culpability in this idolisation which unfortunately amounted to deification (see 5: 116).
None of such of course has the slightest authority from either the Christian Bible or in the case of Muslims, from, the Qur’an or sound Sunna. On the contrary, both faiths, scripturally speaking, are squarely based on humility and are totally inimical to hubris. Read if you wish:
“Nearest to the (Muslim) believers in affection you will find those who say ‘We are Christians’. That is because among them are monks and priests and because they do not show hubris” (5: 82).
The combination of the existence of monks and priests with the lack of hubris among Christians indicates that even if monkish and priestly practices are current, Allah’s approval goes to those elements which do not involve or show hubris. Among Muslims a semblance of monks exists in the form of some ascetic Sufis and priests in the form of some ulama who live entirely by giving religious instruction, judging the cases of disputants and blessing marriages etc and may serve in the mosques although their authority and standing are never as exaggerated as those of Christian monks and priests. Islam has an in-built immunity against the exaggeration of religious figures from prophets down and all habits to the contrary among Muslims are informed by habits among non-Muslims. Rather, Islam teaches the appreciation of each Muslim to be based on his glaring personal piety and not on race, tribe, family or official title. Accordingly Allah says “The noblest (most worthy of respect) among you is the most pious of you” (49: 13).
Piety cannot be conferred by titles or established by self-evaluation but Allah in His kindness makes people with reasonable judgment to recognise those among them who fear and respect Allah more. Liars and pretenders do exist but at least in the eyes of better inspired Muslims they are seen as possible liars and pretenders. The measuring stick is each candidate’s humility as reinforced by his obvious lack of worldly greed and ambition which lack makes him an extremely sociable, charitable and through and through humble towards yet very dignified among people.
My humble advice to all my readers is being on their alert to hubris both in themselves and others: Hubris in one’s own self is indicated by that person’s taking offence easily and beginning to hold an almost incurable and unconsolable grudge against the offender. A pure heart illuminated by Allah’s light is like gold- it cannot acquire the rust that grudge is. So is jealousy, so is hubris. None such negative emotions can accumulate on a true believers’s heart. Like his Lord Allah this true believer forgives any and every offender against his person at the first indication of regret, just like the Prophet did. As for their response to people suffering from hubris, it is cold and affected respect with a view to not stirring the Satan in the proud person into punitive action against the humble servant. After all, allowing the proud person one less sin is a charitable act towards him. And who knows, maybe the proud person’s armour of hubris will be breached and his deep soft centre of godliness as sustained by Allah’s Spirit in him shall be penetrated. If that happens we have another debuting saint basking in Allah’s Light, both a good friend of Allah and a good friend of ours. Amen.