Defining Islam

A Reader

Andrew Rippin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781134936274
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Ever since a group of people came into existence who called themselves Muslims and followed Islam, questions of what it means to be a member of this group - who is to be included/excluded and what the requirements for membership are - have proven to be both divisive and defining. For scholars and critics, the issue of what constitutes or defines 'Islam' - whether examining the history of the religion, its specific traditions, sectarian politics, or acts of terrorist - is central to any understanding of issues, cultures and ideas. 'Defining Islam' brings together key classic and contemporary writings on the nature of Islam to provide student readers with the ideal collection of both primary and critical sources.

PART I

THEOLOGY

1

THE EPISTLE OF ABU HANIFA TO ‘UTHMAN AL-BATTI

Abu Hanifa

This epistle is sent from Abu Hanifa to ‘Uthman al-Batti. Peace be on you. I extol God, of whom there is no other god than Him, to you. I counsel you in the fear and obedience of God; God suffices as reckoner and compensator. Your epistle has reached me and I have understood your advice in it. You say that you were moved to write it by what I had written to preserve you in good actions and to provide you with good advice. You mention that it has reached you that I belong to the Murji’a, and that I claim that a believer may err, and that this distresses you, and that there is really no excuse among the people of God for a thing which keeps one apart from God; that there is nothing by which one may be guided in what people create and innovate; that moral commands are only in found in what the Qur’an states and in what Muhammad preached and his Companions agreed upon until the people became divided; and that anything beyond this is human innovation and human creation.

You must understand what I am writing to you. Keep your thoughts to yourself and fear Satan entering upon you; God preserve us both in obedience to Him—we ask the assistance of His mercy for us both.

I can tell you that the people were idolaters before God, most high, sent Muhammad. Then He sent Muhammad to call them to Islam, and he called them to testify that there is no god but God alone who has no partner, and to profess what he brought them from God. Whoever entered Islam was a believer, freed of idolatry, and his possessions and blood inviolate, while he was entitled to the rights of a Muslim and the protection of Muslims. Whoever neglected Islam when called to it became an infidel, free of faith, his possessions and blood lawful to Muslims, from whom nothing could be accepted except his entry into Islam or his death, except for the People of the Book whom God explicitly exempted, who paid tribute-money.

Then the laws were revealed after this for people who had believed, and adoption of the laws became a work of faith. Thus God says in Qur’an 2/25 (etc.), “Those who believe and do good works,” and in Qur’an 2/62 (etc.), “He who believes in God and does good works,” and similar expressions in the Qur’an. Therefore an absence of works does not result in a loss of belief, and belief may be attained without any acts. If an absence of works involved a loss of belief, one would be taken by the absence of works from the name of faith and its continuance, just as people who lose belief move as a result from the name of faith and its continuance and truth, and revert to their former state of idolatry. One of the ways by which this may be known is the disagreement between act and belief. People do not disagree in belief and do not excel each other, but they excel each other in acts and their laws differ as well; yet the religion of the people of heaven and the religion of the prophets does not differ. Thus God says in Qur’an 12/13, “We have laid down for you as religion what was prescribed for Noah, and what We have revealed to you, and what We prescribed for Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus.”

Know that guidance in belief in God and His prophet is not like guidance in what is legislated as to acts. Why does this disturb you? You call a man a true believer for what he believes, and God calls him so in His book; and you call a man ignorant for what he does not know of the laws. He needs only to learn that of which he is ignorant. Is one who errs in knowledge of God and His prophets the same as one who errs about what people learn when they are already true believers?

God has said in His teaching about the law in Qur’an 4/176, “God explains it to you for you may err. And God is the Knower of all things.” And He says in Qur’an 2/282, “If one of you errs, then another one of you will remember” and in Qur’an 26/20, “I [Moses] did it then, when I was of those who err,” that is, among the ignorant. The proof from the book of God and the sunna for believing this is something so apparent and obvious that it does not pose a problem for someone like you. Do you not say “a wicked believer,” “a sinful believer,” “a trespassing believer,” “an uncouth believer,” “a cruel believer”? Can one be rightly guided in wickedness or error as he is rightly guided in faith? Can one be led astray from the truth while committing error?

Consider the speech of the sons of Jacob to our prophet, their father, in Qur’an 12/95, “Indeed, you are in your old error.” Do you think they meant, “You are in your old disbelief’? God forbid that you, who are learned in the Qur’an, should understand it so!

2

TEN THINGS THAT NULLIFY ONE’S ISLAM

Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab

Know that the greatest matters which nullify your Islam are ten:

1. Ascribing partners (shirk) in the worship of the one God who has no partners. The indication of that is in His saying in Qur’an 4/116, “God does not forgive setting up partners with Him but He forgives whom He pleases for sins other than that.” This includes slaughtering animals in the name of someone other than God, as in slaughtering the name of the jinn or graves.

2. Setting up intermediaries between oneself and God, making supplication to them, or asking their intercession with God is unbelief by the consensus of the community.

3. Anyone who does not consider the polytheists to be unbelievers, or who has doubts concerning their unbelief, or considers their way to be correct, is an unbeliever by consensus.

4. Anyone who believes any guidance to be more perfect that the prophet’s, or a decision other than his to be better, is an unbeliever. This is like those who prefer the rule of evil (taghut) to his rule.

5. Anyone who hates any part of what the messenger of God has brought, even though he may act in accordance with it, is an unbeliever by consensus. The indication of this is that God has said in Qur’an 47/9, “This is because they hate what God has sent down, so He has made their deeds fruitless.”

6. Anyone who ridicules any aspect of the religion of God, or any of its rewards or punishments, is an unbeliever. The indication of that is in the saying of God, most high, in Qur’an 9/65–6, “Say: Was it God, and His signs and His Messenger that you were mocking? Make no excuse; you have disbelieved after you had believed.”

7. The practice of magic. Included in this, for example, causing alienation or attraction [between people]. Doing such things or getting pleasure from them is unbelief. God, most high, said in Qur’an 2/102, “But neither of these two [angels, Harut and Marut] taught anyone magic until they had said, Indeed, we are a trial; then do not disbelieve.”

8. Supporting and aiding polytheists against the Muslims. The indication of that is the saying of God, most high, in Qur’an 5/51, “Whoever among you who takes them as allies is surely one of them. Truly, God does not guide the wrongdoers.”

9. Anyone who believes that some people are not required to follow Muhammad is an unbeliever and that leaving its shari‘a is possible just as al-Khidr left the shari‘a of Moses, is an unbeliever.

10. To turn completely away from the religion of God neither learning its precepts nor acting upon it. The indication of that is the saying of God in Qur’an 32/22, “And who does greater wrong than he who is reminded of the revelations of his Lord and turns aside there from. Truly, We shall exact retribution from the guilty.”

In all of these errors, it makes no difference whether such violations are committed as a joke, in seriousness or out of fear, except when done under compulsion. All of these are the most severe perils and the worst things that can occur. Every Muslim must be one on their guard against them and fear them for the sake of his soul. We seek refuge in God from such deeds as entail His wrath and severe punishment. May the prayers of God be upon Muhammad.

Fatwa on Shirk – Ibn Baz

There are a number of things which, if Muslims succumb to them, will nullify their faith and remove them from Islam. Unfortunately, many people are ignorant of these things, even though it is incumbent on all Muslims to know them and teach them to those who are ignorant of them. Those who persist in these things while having knowledge and certainty of them and knowing the soundness of these things according to the Qur’an and the sunna are indeed seized by unbelief. On the day of resurrection they will not be included among the Muslims; may God forbid such a thing!

These things are as follows:

1. Associating partners with God in worship. “Truly, whosoever sets up partners with God, paradise is forbidden to him and the fire will be his abode. There are no helpers for the wrongdoers” (Qur’an 5/72). Calling upon the dead, asking their help, or offering them gifts or sacrifices are included in this.

2. Setting up intermediaries or intercessors between oneself and God, making supplication to them, and asking for their intercession is certainly unbelief. God, most high, says in Qur’an 39/43–4, “Have they taken others as intercessors besides God? Say: Is that so, even if they have no power over anything and know nothing? Say: To God belongs all intercession!” He also says in Qur’an 2/48, “Fear the day when people will not help one another at all, nor will intercession be accepted from them,” and He says in Qur’an 6/94, “Indeed, you have come to Us alone just as We created you for the first time. You have left behind you all that We bestowed on you. We do not see your intercessors, whom you claimed to be partners, with you.”

3. Not declaring the polytheists to be unbelievers (among the Jews and the Christians and so forth [see Qur’an 98/1]), or having doubts concerning their unbelief, or considering their way to be correct, or saying that it is possible that they will enter paradise, is unbelief. This is due to the inconsistency of such claims with the clear sense of the text of the Qur’an about the unbelief of all those who do not enter Islam after the prophethood of Muhammad. Confirming this is the statement of God, most high, in Qur’an 4/150–1, “Those who disbelieve in God and His messengers and want to make a distinction between God and His messengers and say, ‘We believe in some and disbelieve in others,’ wanting to find a way between them, they are the true unbelievers.” It is clear from this verse that God is saying that whoever disbelieves in one prophet while believing in all the other prophets is most certainly an unbeliever. This applies to the Jews and the Christians because of their disbelief in the prophethood of Muhammad (and the disbelief of the Jews in Jesus as well). Confirming this is the statement of Muhammad, “By He who has the soul of Muhammad before Him, whoever is from the community of the Jews or the Christians and hears about me, but does not affirm his belief in that with which I have been sent and dies in this state [of disbelief], will be one of the companions of the fire [of hell]” (transmitted by Muslim and Ahmad [ibn Hanbal]). Additionally, the Christians of today are divided into two groups. First are the Jacobites (the Catholics and the Protestants) who believe that God has three parts, the Messiah being one of them. The following verse (Qur’an 5/73) indicates their unbelief: “Those who say that God is the third of three and not that there is no god other than the one God, disbelieve.” The other group is the Nestorians (the Orthodox) who believe that the Messiah is fully divine. Their unbelief is indicated by the following verse (Qur’an 5/72): “Those who say that the messiah, the son of Mary, is God, disbelieve.” Qur’an 5/17 also confirms this. As for the Jews, they were unbelievers during the time of Jesus. “When Jesus came to know of their disbelief, he said, ‘Who will be my helpers towards God?’ The disciples said, ‘We are the helpers of God. We believe in God and we bear witness that we have submitted [become Muslims]’” (Qur’an 3/52). Similar is the statement of God, most high, in Qur’an 2/40–1, “O children of Israel, remember My blessing which I bestowed on you. Fulfil your covenant and I will fulfil My covenant. I alone should you fear. Believe in what has been sent down confirming what you have and do not be the first to disbelieve in it.”

4. Anyone who holds that there is guidance better, more perfect or more complete than that of the Prophet is an unbeliever. This includes those who hold that Islam obligates one to give into or blend in with communism, capitalism, populism or even democracy. Islam is a complete and perfect religion. “Today I have perfected your religion for you, completed My grace on you, and approved Islam as a religion for you” (Qur’an 5/3). It is a religion that has nothing extra in it. “Whoever introduces something into this matter that was previously not there is an apostate” (transmitted by al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, Ibn Maja and Ahmad). It is perfect for all times and places.

As for these ways, they are the product of the thought of the unbelievers such as Marx or George Washington. God rules over and has power over any of their systems of thought. This includes whoever holds that the Islamic system is not suitable for the twentieth century or that it is the cause of the backwardness of the Muslims, or that secular laws are better that those of Islam, or that it is necessary that Islam be limited to a relationship between the individual and their Lord that does not enter into the affairs of life in the hereafter, or that stoning of an adulterer or cutting off of the hand of the thief or the execution of an apostate is not suitable for this day and age. All this is unbelief.

5. Anyone who hates any part of the sunna of the prophet Muhammad, “This is because they hate what God has sent down, so he has made their deeds fruitless” (Qur’an 47/9).

6. Anyone who ridicules God or his prophet, any aspect of the laws of Islam (including trimming beards, wearing full-length clothes, wearing the burqa, protecting women from exposure to other men, purity practices, and using a siwak as a toothbrush), or those who uphold the traditions of Islam and their practices. This is total unbelief.

The indication of this is, “Should you ask them, they would say, ‘We were only talking idly and playing.’ Say: Was it God, and His signs and His messenger that you were mocking? Make no excuse; you have disbelieved after you had believed” (Qur’an 9/65–6). It makes no difference if this is done jokingly or seriously, just as is made clear in this verse. Either way it is unbelief.

7. The practice of magic, according to the interpretation of Qur’an 2/102 (“But neither of these two [angels, Harut and Marut] taught anyone [magic] till they had said, Indeed, we are a trial; then do not disbelieve”). Magic includes soothsayers, those who claim to have knowledge of the unseen, reading tea leaves. Muhammad said, “Whoever goes to a soothsayer and believes what he says has disbelieved in what has been sent down to Muhammad” (transmitted by Ahmad, al-Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, Ibn Maja and al-Hakim). Also included are using astrology, making horoscopes, or trusting blue amulets which the ignorant believe will bring protection from evil. This is unbelief. Those who do not believe its influence is absolutely forbidden are likewise in error.

8. Supporting and aiding polytheists against the Muslims. God says in Qur’an 5/51, “Whoever among you who takes them as allies is surely one of them.”

9. Believing that some people are permitted to deviate from the religion of Islam is disbelief. “And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will not be accepted of him, and in the hereafter he will be from among the losers” (Qur’an 3/85).

10. Turning completely away from the religion of God, not following its precepts nor acting upon it. God says in Qur’an 32/22, “And who does greater wrong than he who is reminded of the revelations of his Lord and turns aside there from. Truly, We shall exact retribution from the guilty.”

3

THE FORMATION OF MUSLIM SOCIETY AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS

Sayyid Qutb

The Islamic message brought by the prophet of God, Muhammad, was the last link in the long chain of messages calling for the submission to God by the noble prophets. Throughout human history, this message has remained singular in its focus: that people should recognize that their true Sustainer and Lord is one God; that they should submit to Him alone, and that the lordship of created beings be destroyed. Except for a few people here and there in history, humanity as a whole has never denied the existence of God and His sovereignty over the universe; however, they were mistaken in the true understanding of their God, by associating other gods with Him in their belief and worship, or in obeisance and adherence. Both of these aspects are shirk in the sense that they take human beings away from the religion of God which was brought by the prophets, a religion which people gradually forgot with the passage of time, slipping into the state of jahiliyya from which they had been previously delivered. They found themselves in the state of shirk, either in their belief ...