Universal Dimensions of Islam Part 4

and the Universalism of the Qur'an:

A Presentation and Translation.

of His Commentary on Verse 2:62.

Tayeb Chouiref.

Introductory Study.

The Shaykh Ahmad al-'Alawi (1869-1934) was one of the greatest spiritual masters of Islam in the 20th century. During his life, his personal radiation was immense, not only in Algeria and within the Arab world but also well-beyond, for some among his hundred thousand disciples resided in Europe and others in South-East Asia.

His intellectual radiation was no less considerable: besides the works he published on Sufism,1 he founded a newspaper, al-Balagh al-jaza'iri, where he dealt at times with spiritual matters, and at other times with social matters, always from a strictly traditional perspective.2 Among the Islamic sciences, the Shaykh al-'Alawi had a particular affinity with Qur'anic exegesis. Evoking his relationship with the Qur'an, he says of himself in a poem: It [The Qur'an] hath taken up its dwelling in our hearts and on our tongues and is mingled with our blood and our flesh and our bones and all that is in us.3 This inner relationship with the Qur'an led him to compose a commentary in which he could communicate to the reader a part of what his "spiritual opening" allowed him to grasp of the divine Word. He ent.i.tled his commentary-unfortunately unfinished-al-Bahr al-masjur,4 a Qur'anic expression that may be rendered as "the boiling ocean." This commentary distinguishes itself from cla.s.sical works in that it approaches each verse in four steps: the Commentary (tafsir) in which he explains the meaning of the words and sheds light on the circ.u.mstances of the revelation (asbab al-nuzul); the Deduction (istinbat) where he expounds the rules and principles that may be drawn from the verse; the Spiritual Allusion (ishara) that allows him to enunciate spiritual truths which appear to be far removed from the literal text; and, finally, the Language of the Spirit (lisan al-Ruh) where he provides insights into Sufi metaphysical doctrine.

The pa.s.sage of the Bahr al-masjur which we have translated below, and which we introduce here, is a commentary upon verse 2:62: Lo! Those who believe, and those who are Jews, and Christians, and Sabaeans-whoever believeth in Allah and the Last Day and doeth right-surely their reward is with their Lord, and there shall no fear come upon them neither shall they grieve.5 This verse that the Shaykh al-'Alawi characterizes as enigmatic (lughz) enunciates clearly the universal perspective of the Qur'an. It must, however, be noted that the universalism of the Book, as well as that of the Prophet, was harmed by the historical evolution of the Muslim community: political stakes, theological controversies, the social impact of the Crusades, etc. contributed greatly to the withdrawal of the universalist spirit in Islamic lands. To this must be added the complex evolution and the often ill supported extension of the theory of abrogation. In what follows, we will thus briefly remind our reader of the essential points of this theory in order better to bring to light the theological stakes that lie at the core of the Shaykh's argumentation in his commentary.

Although the Prophet expressly affirmed the right of Christians and of Jews to practice their respective religions in Islamic lands, theologians developed the theory of abrogation (naskh) according to which the Qur'anic revelation supersedes all other religions. Historically, the phenomenon of abrogation pertains, in Islam, to the very process of the revelation of the Qur'an. Certain verses were, in fact, replaced by others, thereby losing all legal import. It is in such a way that verse 2:240, stipulating that the period of abstinence ('idda) of a widow must last one year, is abrogated by verse 234 of the same surah which reduces this period to four months and ten days. One of the reasons that led theologians to affirm the abrogation of the previous revealed Laws is the Qur'anic affirmation according to which the Jews and the Christians have altered their Scriptures (tahrif). The Qur'an reproaches them, for example, for having eliminated the announcement of the coming of the prophet Muhammad.6 The diversity of the positions of theologians concerning the abrogation by Islam of the other Abrahamic religions can be summarized by four theses:7 The Law of Muhammad abrogates all others.

The Law of Abraham is still valid with the exception of what in it has been abrogated by the Law of Muhammad.

With the same exception, the Law of Moses is still valid in addition to Abraham's.

With again the same exception, the Law of Jesus is still valid in addition to Abraham's.

Those who hold the three last theses base themselves on the verses inviting Muslims to follow the "guidance" that certain ancient prophets received (Qur'an, 6:90 and 16:123).

However, the thesis of abrogation raises quasi-insoluble theoretical problems: When does the Qur'anic Revelation abrogate the other Laws? From the moment of the first revelation in the Cave of Hira? At the time of the Hegira? Upon the death of the Prophet? At which precise moment does a Jewish or Christian believer cease to practice a religion accepted by Heaven? Why would a believer be rejected by G.o.d for an event of which he may be totally unaware? For theologians seeking not to attribute to G.o.d an utter lack of mercy the only tenable position is that of the "transmission of the message" (tabligh): the religion of the Christian and the Jew ceases to be valid from the moment when he receives the message of Islam. This position allows one to prolong the validity of these religions well beyond the life of the Prophet, but it poses other problems: What should one understand by "transmission of the message"? Does knowledge of the existence of Islam necessarily mean that one has received and understood its message?

Thus, the theory of the abrogation of previous religions by Islam, as useful as it may be for the social cohesion of the Muslim community, is hardly satisfying from the point of view of spiritual coherence and the legitimate needs of thought. This theory seems more rooted in the development of a contra errores infidelium apologetics than it is the fruit of a literal reading of the sacred texts of Islam.

Moreover, Ibn Hazm (d. 1063), one of the most important representatives of the "literalist" school of jurisprudence (madhhab zahiri), gives this recommendation: Put your trust in the pious man, even if he does not share your religion, and distrust the impious, even if he belongs to your religion.8 It is not surprising, therefore, that it was above all the mystics who insisted on the universalist dimension of the Qur'anic message. They seem in this closer to the positions of the Prophet than were the theologians. In fact, far from announcing to them the abrogation of their religion, the Prophet invited a delegation of Christians from Najran to perform their rites within the very walls of the mosque of Medina, something which greatly surprised certain of the Companions.9 Concerning the att.i.tude of a Muslim faced with what may disconcert him in other religions, the Prophet recommends a pious suspension of judgment: "Do not say that what is related by the people of the Book is true, do not say either that it is false, but say: 'We believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and that which was vouchsafed unto Moses and Jesus and the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered.'"10 These words of the Prophet seem to guard the common believer against two opposite pitfalls: syncretism and peremptory rejection. Nevertheless, this hadith of the Prophet undeniably establishes a certain "right" to religious exclusivism. Exclusivism is not simply a sign of human limitation, for it also results from the divine origin of a religion: In normal times a man's religion is the religion, and in fact each religion addresses itself to a humanity which, for it, is humanity as such. The exclusivism of a religion is a symbol of its divine origin, of the fact that it comes from the Absolute, of its being in itself a total way of life.11 It is through the initiatic development and the opening of the "eye of the heart" that the Sufis will seek to avoid the two previously mentioned pitfalls: Because it is concerned with the inner meaning (ma'na) through the penetration of the outward form (nam), Sufism is by nature qualified to delve into the mysterious unity that underlies the diversity of religious forms."12 Ibrahim Ibn Adham (d. 777), a mystic belonging to the era of the Predecessors (salaf), did not hesitate to acknowledge that he had a Christian monk among his spiritual masters: I received gnosis (ma'rifa) through the teaching of a monk named Father Symeon.13 What do the first mystical commentaries of the Qur'an say about the verse of interest to us here? 'Abd al-Karim al-Qushayri (d. 1072), author of the famous Risala, comments upon it thus: The divergence of ways, since they derive from the same Principle (asl), does not endanger the obtainment of divine Acceptance. Whoever believes in the words of the Real-may He be Exalted-concerning what they teach on His Nature and His Attributes will receive divine Satisfaction (Ridwan Allah), whatever be the divine Name that he may invoke and the sacred Law that he may follow.14 A few centuries later, Isma'il Haqqi (d. 1724), in his mystical commentary of the Qur'an ent.i.tled Ruh al-bayan, will justify the universalism of his commentary on verse 2: 62 by an allusion to the immutable Religion that he calls the "Religion of Truth" (al-Din al-Haqq): Know that the beauty of the Religion of Truth is present in all souls: what leads away from it is nothing other than human limitations (afat bashariyya) and blind imitation (taqlid). In fact, every man is born in accordance with the primordial nature (fitra) as the Prophet has said, peace and blessing be upon him. . . . According to Ibn al-Malik, one must understand by "primordial nature" the "Yes" that every man, before coming into this world, answered to G.o.d's question: "Am I not your Lord?" Every man has, therefore, affirmed his faith in G.o.d following a direct contemplation of the Real.15 The forgetfulness or rejection of the universalist spirit of Islam leads to what Ibn 'Arabi (d. 1240) called the withdrawal into the worship of "the G.o.d created by beliefs." In this connection, he offers the following recommendation: Beware not to bind yourself to a particular belief by denying others, for you would lose a great good; and what is more, the true nature of things would16 inevitably elude you! Let your soul be the substance of all beliefs, for Allah the Most-High is too vast and too immense to be enclosed in one belief to the exclusion of others.17 Moreover, Ibn 'Arabi underlines that the people of the Book are shown to be integrated and protected under the Muslim Law by the per capita tax called jizya, thereby demonstrating what Michel Chodkiewicz terms a "derived validity."18 Sufi masters have sometimes accepted that non-Muslims, attracted by the aura of their sanct.i.ty, may benefit from their teachings. The great mystical poet Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273) evidenced a great openness in this domain. He himself relates the following anecdote: I was speaking one day amongst a group of people, and a party of non-Muslims were present. In the middle of my address they began to weep and to register emotion and ecstasy.

Somebody asked: What do they understand and what do they know? Only one Muslim in a thousand understands this kind of talk. What did they understand, that they should weep?

I answered: . . . After all, everyone acknowledges that He is the Creator and the One who provides for everything, that He is the Master of all, that to Him all things shall return, that it is He who punishes and forgives. When anyone hears these words, which are a description and a remembrance of G.o.d, a universal commotion and ecstatic pa.s.sion supervenes, for the fragrance of their Beloved emanates from these words.19 For his part, the Shaykh al-'Alawi always showed a keen interest in all religions, and we know that he particularly appreciated the Gospel of John.

Expressing himself in Algeria, where Muslims were suffering greatly from French colonization, the Shaykh had to be careful in his formulations concerning his approach to other religions, and particularly so with respect to Christianity. Indeed, for the Algerian movements of reformist Islam (islah),20 any universalist perspective was nothing but a disguised form of a willingness to collaborate with the enemy. The Shaykh's prudence, however, does not exclude clarity: the translation of the following commentary is one more proof of the religious universality of the Shaykh and one of the expressions of his profound understanding of the Qur'an.

Translation.

21.

Qur'an (2:62).

Lo! Those who believe, and those who are Jews, and Christians, and Sabaeans-whoever believeth in Allah and the Last Day and doeth right-surely their reward is with their Lord, and there shall no fear come upon them neither shall they grieve. (Qur'an 2:62) Commentary (tafsir): Whoever meditates on the Qur'an realizes that G.o.d is more merciful toward the servant than the latter could be toward himself. Thus G.o.d, after having struck the sons of Israel with deafness as a punishment for their unfaithfulness, describes these men in all of their perversity. But He then shows Himself under His Attribute of Mercy, for this prevails over His Wrath.22 Henceforth the sons of Israel were encompa.s.sed in this Mercy and placed among the number of those who have faith among other traditional communities: there is no greater sweetness than that! . . .

Deduction (istinbat): We can draw three deductions from this verse: The traditional communities (firaq)23-including Islam-are, in themselves, equal since they form the object, in this verse, of a single enumeration.

A man having faith in what is taught by Islam could be considered as belonging to the people of the Book, even if he does not accomplish the pious actions that must, in principle, accompany his faith. This will not be the case if his actions are contrary to his faith.

The Sabaeans possess a sacred Law since they are mentioned among the traditional com munities who possess one.

Spiritual Allusion (ishara): The fact of mentioning side-by-side the different traditional communities while not distinguishing Muslim believers from other believers must lead us to consider no one, be he a Muslim or an infidel (kafir), pious or sinful, as being inferior to us, and this throughout our entire life. In fact, our destiny is unknown to us and it is our state at the moment of death that matters: such is the lot of all mankind.

Language of the Spirit (lisan al-Ruh): Thus I have understood from this enigmatic verse that all aforementioned traditional communities possess a genuine validity in Religion (makana fi l-Din). One may draw from the order of the enumeration a certain preeminence of the first over the last, but it remains nonetheless that a traditional community will always be of an incomparably higher rank than pagan cults.

Translated by Patrick Laude and Joseph Fitzgerald Earnest for truth, I thought on the religions (tafakkartu fi al-adyan):

They are, I found, one root with many a branch.

Therefore impose on no man a religion,

Lest it should bar him from the firm-set root.

Let the root claim him, a root wherein all heights

And meanings are made clear, for him to grasp.

Mansur al-Hallaj

Footnotes

1 See the list of his works as edited and commented on by Martin Lings in A Sufi Saint in the Twentieth Century: Shaikh Ahmad al-Alawi, His Spiritual Heritage and Legacy (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 1993), p. 230.

2 A large number of thee articles were included in two volumes: al-Balagh al-jaza'iri (Mustaghanim, 1986).

3 Quoted by Martin Lings in Sufi Saint, p. 23.

4 al-Bahr al-masjur fi tafsir al-Qur'an bi-mahd al-nur, 2 vols. (Mustaghanim, 1995).

5 All English translations of the Qur'an appearing in this article are taken from Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall's cla.s.sic The Meaning of the Glorious Koran.

6 See verse 4:46.

7 We draw this summary from Eric Chaumont's article "Abrogation", in Dictionnaire du Coran, ed. Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi (Paris: Robert Laffont, 2007), pp. 14-17.

8 Quoted by Eric Geoffroy in Initiation au soufisme (Paris: Fayard, 2003), p. 273.

9 Concerning this event, see Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1995), p. 326.

10 Hadith transmitted by Abu Hurayra and validated by Bukhari; and quoting the Qur'an verse 3:84.

11 Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Sufi Essays (Albany, NY: SUNY, 1973), p. 175.

12 Ibid., p. 123.

13 Concerning his teaching see Tayeb Chouiref, Les Enseignements spirituels du Prophete (Lille: Editions Tasnim, 2008), vol. I, p. 183.

14 Lata'if al-isharat (Dar al-kutub al-'ilmiyya), vol. I, p. 50.

15 Ruh al-Bayan (Dar al-fikr), vol. I, p. 153.

16 al-'ilm bi-l-amr 'ala ma huwa 'alayhi.

17 Fusus al-hikam, p. 113.

18 See Michel Chodkiewicz, Le Sceau des saints (Paris: Gallimard, 1986), p. 101.

19 Quoted by Seyyed Hossein Nasr in Sufi Essays, p. 149. We have slightly modified the translation of Rumi's text.

20 On the relationships of the Shaykh with these movements see Martin Lings, Sufi Saint, pp. 114-116.

21 See al-Bahr al-masjur, vol. I, pp. 145-148.

22 Allusion to a famous hadith: "Indeed, G.o.d Most-High wrote for Himself, when He created the world: 'Indeed, My Mercy prevails over My Wrath'" (quoted by Tirmidhi).

23 The term refers here to revealed religions and therefore to those which possess a holy Scripture.

Religion Is One in Its Essence:

The Spiritual Teaching of Tierno Bokar1

Amadou Hampate Ba Tierno rebelled against the idea that any being could be excluded from G.o.d's love. He scorned the distinctions made by those "attached to the letter" and chose to ignore those who make this love the privilege of only orthodox believers.

For my own part, I could not understand how only Muslims could be the beneficiaries of the mercy of G.o.d. I reflected on the smallness of their number in relation to the whole of humanity, both in time and in s.p.a.ce, and I said to myself: "How could G.o.d, in front of a mound of seeds, take only one handful of these seeds and reject all the others, saying: 'Only these are my favorites'?"

I had often heard around me, especially from certain marabouts, that non-Muslims were kuffar (infidels) and that they would go to h.e.l.l. This angered me, as if I myself had been one of those unhappy infidels. So one day I took advantage of a cla.s.s to ask him about this subject that was troubling me: Does G.o.d Love Infidels?

"Tierno, you always speak of G.o.d's love which embraces everything. But does G.o.d also love infidels?" He answered: G.o.d is Love and Power. The creation of beings comes from His love and not from some constraint. To detest that which is the result of the Divine Will acting through love, is to take a position against the Divine Will and dispute His wisdom. To imagine the exclusion of a being from primordial Love is proof of fundamental ignorance. Life and perfection are contained in Divine Love, which manifests Itself in a radiating Force, in the Creative Word that brings the living Void to life.2 From this living Void, He makes forms appear that He divides into kingdoms.

May our love not be centered upon ourselves! May this love not incite us to love only those who are like us or to espouse ideas that are similar to our own! To only love that which resembles us is to love oneself; this is not how to love.

Being a man, the infidel cannot be excluded from the Divine love. Why should he be excluded from ours? He occupies the rank which G.o.d has a.s.signed to him. The act of a man debasing himself can bring about a punishment for him, but without thereby provoking an exclusion from the Source from which he came.

It is necessary to reflect upon the legend of Korah and Moses.3 Korah was the most perverse of beings. He had received his share of the finest riches that a man can enjoy on earth. From these, he had made a paradise for himself, access to which, he said, was forbidden to Moses and to his G.o.d. Moses asked G.o.d to chasten Korah.

G.o.d replied, "I have entrusted the earth to you. Act as you see fit."

The Prophet Moses then addressed Korah, "O infidel! Mend your ways and return to your Lord, otherwise you shall receive a punishment that will be cited as an example."

"Call upon me all the misfortunes you want, I fear nothing," replied Korah.

So Moses ordered that the earth swallow up Korah and all of his possessions. Korah, ensnared by his feet and unable to loosen the hold, understood that he was lost. He repented and asked Moses to forgive him.