لطفا منتظر باشید ...
The Politics of Using the Quran
In the name of Allah, the Beneficient, the
Merciful
It is now some thirteen centuries that the politics of "holding the Qur'an
upon a spear" has been more or less prevalent among the Muslims. It
becomes especially rife among those who wish to profit from it whenever
sanctimoniousness and exotericism increases and it becomes fashionable to
display one's piety and asceticism. There are two lessons to be learnt
from this.
Firstly, whenever the ignorant, the unknowing and the uninformed put on
a show of sanctity and piety, and people take them to be the symbol of the
practicing Muslim, an excellent tool is available for unscrupulous
schemers. Such schemers always turn these people into an instrument for
their own ends, and make their presence a strong hindrance to the ideas of
real reformers. It is quite common to see anti-Islamic elements making
quite open use of this means, that is to say, setting the power of Islam
itself to work against Islam. Western colonialism has had much experience
in the use of this means, and has in its turn profited from deceitful
arousal of the sentiments of the Muslims, especially in the field of the
creation of schisms between them. What a disgrace it is when, for example,
afflicted Muslims plan to drive out foreign influence, and then see the
very people they wanted to save turn into a barrier in their path in the
name, and under the banner, of religion. Indeed, if the masses of the
people are ignorant and uninformed, hypocrites will use the fortress of
Islam itself. In Iran, where the people have the honour to love and follow
the Household of the Prophet (Ahlu'l-bayt), hypocrites are creating a
fortress against the Qur'an, Islam and the Household of the Prophet to
help the usurping Jews, out of the holy fortress of love of the House-
hold of the Prophet, and in their sacred name, and this is the most
abominable part of the injustice against Islam, the Qur'an, the Prophet
and his Household. The Prophet said:
I am not anxious about the incursion of poverty among my
community; that about which I am afraid for them is crooked thinking.
That which poverty of thought will bring my community is much worse than
that which economic poverty will bring them. Secondly, we
must try to make our methodology of derivation from the Qur'an a true one.
The Qur'an is a leader and a guide when it is subjected to true
reflection, when it is interpreted wisely, when guidance is taken from the
people who really know the Qur'an, who are firmly rooted in the sciences
of the Qur'an. As long as our methodology is wrong, and as long as we do
not learn how to benefit from the Qur'an, we shall not drive any profit
from it. Profiteers or ignorant people sometimes read the Qur'an, and then
follow up an incorrect possibility. Just as you have probably heard in the
words of Nahjul Balaghah " they say the word "truth", and then set their
minds of falsehood ! " This is not practicing the Qur'an or bringing it to
life, this is putting it to death. The Qur'an is put into practice when it
is understood with a true understanding.
The Qur'an always presents its project in a general and fundamental
form, but the deduction and harmonization of the particular to the
universal depends on our correct understanding and conceptualization. For
example, we do not find written in the Qur'an that in a war that took
place on a certain day between 'Ali and Mu'awiyah, 'Ali was in the right;
all we find in the Qur'an is that;
If two parties of believers fight, put things right between
them; then, if one of them is insolent against the other, fight the
insolent one till it reverts to Allah's commandment. (al-Hujarat, 49
- 9) This is the Qur'an and its way of explanation; but
it does not say in such-and-such a war so-and-so was in the right and the
other was in the wrong.
The Qur'an does not spell out names; it does not say: after forty
years, more or less, a man called Mu'awiyah will appear who will fight
with 'Ali, and you should fight in that war for 'Ali. And neither should
it enter into particulars. The Qur'an's task is not to make a list of
subjects and point out which is right and which is wrong; such a thing
would be impossible. The Qur'an came to stay for ever, so it has to make
fundamental and universal things clear, so that falsehood can take its
place face to face with truth in every age and people can act according to
the criterion of these universalities. It is therefore a duty for people
to open their eyes to the basic advice: "of two parties of believers
fight. . .", and distinguish between the party doing the terrorizing and
the one that is being terrorized; and to accept if the unruly party ceases
to be unruly. But if they stop, and try to be cunning so as to save
themselves from defeat, and prepare themselves for a new attack, and
become unruly again, and, in the words of the Qur'an, "if one of them is
insolent against the other", be firm, and do not give way to their
cunning.
It is up to the people themselves to discriminate in all these matters.
The Qur'an seeks that the Muslims should be intellectually and socially
mature, and a necessary consequence of such intellectual maturity is the
ability to differentiate between the just man and the unjust man. The
Qur'an did not come to be always for people like a guardian over a
juvenile, to carry out the particular details of their lives like a
personal protector, and to specify each special case by a material sign
and indicator.
Actually, knowing people, the degree of their competence, the limits to
their fitness for, and relationship to, Islam and Islamic realities is
itself a duty, and frequently we neglect this duty.
'Ali, may peace be upon him, said:
You will never know truth and follow the right way unless
you know the person who has abandoned it. Knowing the
principles and the generalities is alone not enough unless their
correspondence and reference to particulars has been found, for it is
possible that, through an error of judgement concerning persons and
individuals or through ignorance of the situation, one will act in the
name of truth and Islam and under the banner of Islam against Islam and
truth and for falsehood.
Injustice and the unjust, justice and the just are mentioned in the
Qur'an, but their applications must be sought out. We must not mistake
injustice and justice for injustice, and then cut off the head of justice
and truth in the name of what we imagine to be a universal principle and
the judgement of the Qur'an.
Refreence: Polarization around the Character of Ali ibn Abi
Talib, by Murtaza Mutahhari. W.O.F.I.S World Organization For Islamic
Services, Tehran - Iran.
Contributed by Br. Ali Abbas, abbas@seas.gwu.edu
