Injunctions and related considerations

(1) It has sometimes been debated as to whether the distinction between Kufr (infidelity or disbelief) and Nifaaq (hypocrisy) still holds good even after the days of the Holy Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). The correct position with regard to this question is this. At that time, there were two ways of identifying a hypocrite and declaring him to be one - either Allah Himself informed the Holy Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) through revelation that such and such a man was not a Muslim at heart but a hypocrite, or a man through some word or deed overtly repugnant to the Islamic creed or practice showed himself up as a hypocrite, thus providing a clear evidence against himself.

Divine revelation having ceased with the departure of the Holy Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) from this world, the first way of identifying a hypocrite is no longer available, but the second way is still valid. That is to say, if a man is found, on certain evidence, to be guilty, in word or deed, of rejecting or opposing or distorting or holding in scorn the basic doctrines of Islam undeniably established by the Holy Qur'an, the ahadeeth and ijma' (consensus), he would be regarded as a Munaafiq (hypocrite) in spite of his claim to be a true Muslim.

The Holy Qur'an proves such a hypocrite the name of a 'mulhid' or hereticq: "Those who distort Our verses" (41:40), and the hadith calles him a zindeek. One must also add that since the kufr (infidelity) of such a man has been proved by clear and definite evidence, the Shari'ah will not put him in a separate category, but deal with him as it would deal with any other kafir (infidel). That is why the authentic scholars are unanimous in concluding that after the departure of the Holy Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) the question of hypocrites ceased to be a relevant one - now anyone who is not a genuine Muslim will be regarded as kaafir.

The famous author, Al-'Ainee (رحمه الله), in his commentary on al-Bukhari, reports from Imam Maalik (رحمه الله) that after the days of the Holy Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) this is the only available means of identifying 'hypocrisy', and that a man who carries this mark could be called a hypocrite.

(2) A little reflection on these verses would reveal the true nature of Islam and 'Imaan (faith) and also that of kufr (disbelief), for the Holy Qur'an reports the claim of the hypocrites to be Muslims: "We believe in Allah", (2:8), forthwith refutes this claim: "Yet they are no believers." [2:8] In order to understand fully the implications of these verses, one should bear in one's mind the fact that the hypocrites in question were actually Jews.

Now, belief in Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) and in Hereafter is, no doubt, an essential part of their creed as well; what was not included in their creed, as defined by their religious scholars, was the belief in the prophethood of Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم). In declaring their faith in Islam, the Jews very cleverly used to leave out the belief in the Holy Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and mention only two elements: belief in Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) and belief in the Hereafter. So far as such a declaration goes, they cannot be called liars, and yet the Holy Qur'an refutes their claim to be Muslims, and regards them as liars. Why?

The fact is that, for one to be a Muslim, it is not sufficient merely to declare one's faith in Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) and the Hereafter in any form or manner which suits one's individual or collective fancy. As for that, associators of all kinds do, in one way or another, believe in Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) and consider Him to be omnipotent, but the Holy Qur'an does not allow any of these things to pass for 'Imaan (faith). 'Imaan, or faith in Allah (سبحانه وتعالى), must, in order to be valid and worthy of the name, conform to what the Holy Qur'an specifically lays down with regards to the divine names and attributes; similarly, belief in the Hereafter can be valid only when it is true to the specifications of the Holy Qur'an and the hadith.

In the light of this explanation one can see that the Jews who pretended to be Muslims believed neither in Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) nor in the Hereafter according to these definite requirements. For, on the one hand, they regarded the Prophet 'Uzair or Ezra (عليه السلام) as the son of God, and, on the other, cherished the fond belief that the progeny of the prophets (عليهم السلام), no matter how it acted, would always remain 'the chosen of God', and would not be called to account on the Day of Judgment, or at the worst receive only a token punishment. These being their beliefs, the Holy Qur'an rightly rejects their claims to faith in Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) and the Hereafter.

(3) As we have already said, verse 13 defines what 'Imaan (faith) really is: "Believe as other men have believed." [2:13] In other words, the criterion for judging one's claim to 'Iman is the 'Iman of the blessed Companions (رضي الله معهم) of the Holy Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), and any claim to 'Iman which does not conform to it is not acceptable to Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) and to the Holy Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم).

If a man has the presumption to interpret an Islamic doctrine or verse of the Holy Qur'an in a way which departs from the explicit and clear explanation provided by the Holy Qur'an itself or by the Holy Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), his individual opinion and belief, no matter how much it titillates the palate of his contemporaries or feeds their fancy, will have no value or validity in the eyes of the Shari'ah.

For example, the Qadianis claim that like Muslims they too believe in the doctrine of the Finality of the Prophethood of Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم), but in this respect they deviate from what the Holy Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) has himself stated, and what the Companions (رضي الله معهم) believed in, and distort the doctrine so as to make room for the prophethood of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian; so, according to the indication of the Holy Qur'an, they come under this indictment: "They are no believers."

In short, if a man interprets an Islamic doctrine in a way which is repugnant to the 'Imaan (faith) of the blessed Companions (رضي الله معهم), and yet claims to be a Muslim on the basis of his adherence to this doctrine and also performs his religious duties exactly like Muslims, he will not be considered a Mu'min (true Muslim) until and unless he agrees to conform to the criterion of 'lmaan laid down by the Holy Qur'an.

Removal of a doubt

We may also dispel a misunderstanding which often arises - and is more often made to arise with an ulterior motive - with regard to the famous dictum in the Hadith and Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence) that the 'people of the Ka'bah' (Ahl al-Qiblah), that is, those who turn towards the Ka'bah in offering prescribed Salah cannot be branded as infidels. The verse under discussion clearly defines the meaning of the phrase, Ahl al-Qiblah. The term pertains only to those who do not deny any of the basic essential doctrines and commandments of Islam which are called the Daruriat (essentials). For that matter even the hypocrites mentioned in the Holy Qur'an used to offer their prayers exactly as the Muslims did; but turning towards Ka'bah while praying was not taken to be sufficient to make them acceptable as true Muslims, simply because they did not have faith in all the essentials of Islam as the blessed Companions (رضي الله معهم) did.

Lying is contemptible

(4) The verse: "We believe in Allah and in the Last Day" shows us how disgusting it is to tell a lie - even the hypocrites, with all their hostility to Islam, tried to refrain from it as far as possible. In claiming to be Muslims, they used to mention only their faith in Allah and in the Day of Judgment, but left out the faith in the Holy Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) for fear of telling a lie.

Misbehaving With Prophets (عليهم السلام) is to misbehave with Allah (سبحانه وتعالى)

(5) These verses denounce the hypocrites for trying to be clever with Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) Himself and to deceive Him, although no one among them could probably have had such an intention or even thought of such a possibility. What they were actually doing was to try to deceive the Holy Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and the Muslims. Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) has equated this effort with an attempt to deceive Him, and has thus indicated that a man who is in any way impertinent to a prophet or a man of Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) is ultimately guilty of being impertinent to Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) Himself - this should be true above all in the case of the Holy Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) who stands in his station at the head of all created beings.

The curse of telling lies

(6) There is another subtle and very significant point here. According to these verses, the hypocrites would meet with a grievous punishment for having told lies. Now, their greatest crime was disbelief and hypocrisy in matters of faith, and they had been committing other crimes as well, like nursing envy and malice against Muslims in their hearts and actually conspiring against them. And yet here the grievous punishment has been connected with their habit of telling lies. This is an indication that basically this nefarious habit was their real crime, which gradually led them to hypocrisy and disbelief. In other words, although hypocrisy and disbelief are much greater crimes, yet they arise from the habit of telling lies.

That is why the Holy Qur'an combines the sin of lying with the sin of idol worship in the same phrase:

فَاجْتَنِبُوا الرِّجْسَ مِنَ الْأَوْثَانِ وَاجْتَنِبُوا قَوْلَ الزُّورِ

"Guard yourselves against the filth of idols and against telling
lies." (22:30)

Who are reformers and mischief-makers

(7) As these verses report, when the hypocrites were asked not to spread disorder in the land through their prevarication and double dealing, they used to reply emphatically: ''We are nothing but reformers." [2:11] The word Innuma (nothing but), used in the Arabic text, indicates not merely emphasis but exclusivity. So, their reply would mean that they were nothing but reformers, the servants of order, and that their activities could have nothing to do with disorder.

Commenting on their reply, the Holy Qur'an says: "Beware, it is, in fact, they who spread disorder, but they are not aware."[2:12]

Now, we learn two things from this comment. Firstly, the activities of the hypocrites did actually produce disorder in the land. Secondly, they did not indulge in these activities with the express intention or design of creating 'disorder - they were not even aware of the possibility that their actions could be the cause of disorder. For, among the things which spread disorder in the world, there are some which are commonly recognized to be mischievous and disorderly activities, and hence every sensible and conscientious man refrains from them e.g., theft, robbery, murder, rape etc.; on the other hand, there are some which in their external aspect do not appear to be mischief or disorder, but, working unseen, they have the necessary consequence of destroying the morals of men which, in its turn, opens the door to all kinds of disorder.

This is exactly what the hypocrites were doing. No doubt, they refrained from theft, robbery etc.; it was on this count that they denied their being mischievous, and emphatically asserted that they were serving the cause of order. But all this while they had been freely giving vent to their malice and envy by conspiring with the enemies of the Muslims. These are things which finally bring man down to the level of beasts. Once he has lost his awareness of ethical values and human decency, even an average man becomes an agent of social disorder - of a disorder much greater than thatreleased by thieves or robbers, or even beasts are capable of producing. For, the mischief of robbers and beasts can be controlled by the physical power of law and government. But laws are made and enforced by men. What happens to laws, when man has ceased to be man, can easily be witnessed all around us in the world of today. Everyone takes it for granted that humanity is on the march and the modern man is so far the ultimate in civilization; the network of educational institutions covers every
hamlet on the face of the earth; legislative bodies keep buzzing night and day; organizations for the promulgation of laws spend billions, and circumlocution offices proliferate. And yet crime and disorder keep in step with the march of civilization. The reason is simple.

Law is not an automatic machine; it requires men to make it work. If man ceases to be man, neither laws nor bureaucratic agencies can provide a remedy for the all-pervading disorder. It is for this that the greatest benefactor of mankind, the Holy Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) , concentrated all his attention on making men real men - in all the plenitude of the term. Once this has been achieved, crime or disorder comes to an end of itself without the help of enormous police forces and extensive system of law-courts. As long as people acted upon his teathings in certain parts of the world, man saw a kind of peace and order prevail the like of which had never been witnessed before nor is likely to be witnessed when these teachings are abandoned or disregarded.

In so far as actual practice is concerned, the essence of the teachings of the Holy Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), is fear of Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) and solicitude for the assessment of one's deeds on the Day of Judgment. If these are absent, no constitution or legal code, nor administrative body or university can force or induce man to keep away from crime. Those who run the world in our day invent ever-new administrative measures to prevent crime, but they not only neglect the very soul of administration, the fear of Allah, but even deploy the means of destroying it - all of which has the necessary consequence that the remedy only helps to feed the malady.

To another aspect of the question, it is easy enough to find a cure for thieves and robbers and for all those who create disorder openly. But the miscreants who have been described in these verses always appear in the garb of reformers, brandishing colourful schemes of social amelioration which are only a mask for personal interests, and for raising the slogan: "We are nothing but reformers." [2:11]

Hence it is that Allah (سبحانه وتعالى), whik asking men not to spread disorder on the earth, has also said in another place:

وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ الْمُفْسِدَ مِنَ الْمُصْلِحِ

"And Allah knows the one who makes mischief distinct from him who promotes good." (2:220)

This is an indication that Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) alone knows the states of men's hearts and their intentions, and He alone knows the nature and consequences of each human deed as to whether it would help the cause of order or of disorder. So, to serve the cause of order, it is not sufficient merely to possess such an intention; much more essential than that is to orient oneself in thought and deed in harmony with the Shari'ah, for an action may, in spite of the best intentions, sometimes result in mischief and disorder, if it is not guided by the Shari'ah. [Ma'ariful Qur'an]

» Posted by Seifeddine-M on 8th January 2011

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