Islamic Faith & Practice

By Maulana Manzoor Naumani

Prophecy And Apstleship

Having brought faith in God and the Hereafter, and realized the paramount importance of leading life of devotion and loyalty unto him, it becomes our duty now to enquire what his commands are for us what things does he allow and what things does he forbid. God, obviously, does not communicate His will to everyone individually. The limited wisdom that has been granted to us may suffice us, to a greater or lesser extent for the everyday needs of the world, but it is quite incapable of uncovering for us the pleasure of God so that we can know for ourselves what he requires of us and order our lives accordingly. For this, God founded the institution of Prophethood, i.e., exactly the way He called into being the sun in order that we may obtain heat and light from it and set into operation the cycle of crops to provide us with nourishment, He, solely for our sake, gave rise to the prophetic order and decided to send us his commands and instructions through the agencyof chosen Apostles. Hence, Prophethood and the Divine law (Shariat) are in fulfilment of our own needs and prompted entirely by his Supreme Mercifulness and providential care. Those who consider them to be an irksome burden placed on the shoulders of humanity by a selfwilled despot are hopelessly in the wrong. They, indeed, are a great blessing and it is through them that man's destiny will be worked out and he will attain fulfillment. About the nature of the Prophets there has been a great deal of misunderstanding among different peoples. Some have gone even to the extent of calling them the incarnations of God, as if when a monarch decides to issue an edict to his people, he also becomes his own messenger and serves it personally from door to door, Such people labour under an utterly misconceived notion of Divinity. Glory to thy Lord. The Lord of honour and Power, (he is free) from what they ascribe (to him). (_Quran : Safa't 5)

Some, again, thought that the Prophets should be from among the angles, since the angles were celestial beings and belonged to a most holy class among God's creatures. But they forgot that, equally with holyness, or even more, it was necessary for them to be able to appreciate the disposition, needs and aspirations of those for whose guidance they were sent down into the world. The angels, holy as they were, could never be expected to think and feel like men. They could never associate themselves fully with humanity.

There are states in a man's existence of which he remains unaware until he himself passes through them. For example, a man who is wholly lacking in sexual power from birth can never know what it really means. Or, person who has never dreamt a dream cannot be made to comprehend exactly what it is like. With external impression and experiences, it is not different. One who has not eaten a mango can never conceive of its taste and flavour, nor can a man born blind ever be taught the superb beauty of a rose. It needs a man to understand properly the thoughts and sentiments of men, and those who are intended to serve as guides and models for humanity must of necessity be entirely human in respect of their physical and mental attributes or else their mission will remain unfulfilled. Thus, God always raised up His Prophets from human beings alone and administrated his admonition to those who insisted that they must belong to the class of the angles : Say : "Had there been in the earth angels alone walking as setters, We would certainly have sent down to them from the Heaven and angel as an Apostle. (Quran : Bani Israel, 11)

In other words, an Apostle must belong to the same species as those for whose guidance he is raised up. Had angels been living in the world instead of men, God would certainly have sent down an Angel Apostle for there instruction, but since it is the human beings who inhabit it and it is their guidance that is in view, this duty cannot properly be discharged by a teacher who is not one of them. A man Apostle alone can understand the needs and inclinations of men and it is only his guidance that can succeed among them. The entire concept of Prophethood is rendered meaningless as soon as we accept the Prophets as Gods or sons of God or gods incarnate or angels.

The lives of the Apostles cease to be of any help to us once the magic patterns of supernaturalism are woven aroud them. They cannot serve as our ideals. We can follow only him who is a man of a like fashion as ourselves. To expect us to receive an angel as the model for our conduct is to expect from us to go beyond the limits of our humanity. More, all the excellence in the lives and achievements of the Prophets dwindles and loses its importance once we presume Divinity in them or begin to regard them as angles. What an inspiring example of human loftiness does the character or jesus present if we look at a man? There is in it a splendid assemblage of calm endurance of pain, forbearance, gentleness, humility, piety, love, selflessness and wisdom, and, then, there are miracles, as granted to him by God, to lend a striking proof to his Apostleship. But if we take him for God, we will immediately notice shocking blemishes in his life. Then the fact of his being born out of the womb of Mary, his eating and drinking, the torture and persecution he suffered at the hands of the Jews, and, finally, (according to the Bible) his crucifixion will seem not achievements but failings, and no according for them will be possible either.Even his miracles on earth will lose all their marvelous quality and uniqueness, for don't we see much greater manifestations of Divine power around us day in and day out? An Angel Apostle could come only to angels. He could not be an ideal for us, much less a son of God or a God incarnate. We need a teacher who belongs to the same species as ourselves and is not dissimilar to us in nature, power and capabilities. The truth that the Prophets God sent down to us were all nothing else but human beings is expounded in the Quran in these words : Nor did we send before thee (as Apostles) any but men who we did inspire. (Quran : Yusuf, 12)

The Prophet himself was made to proclaim repeatedly that he was but a man among men whom God had raised up as His Apostle. "Am I aught but a man and an apostle." (Quran : Bani Israel, 1 ) Say : "I am but a man like yourselves, but the inspiration has come to me that your God is one God." (Quran : Kahf, 7 )The Quran has attached such great importance to the subject to the humanity of the Prophet that it has assumed the status of an artice of faith with the Muslims. In Islamic theology, a Prophet is defined as "a man God raises up to reveal and impart his message and guidance to his servants and entrusts him with the responsibilities of an Apostle." The long line of Prophets began with the beginning of the human race ever since man started his career on the earth, God is the universal Cherisher and sustainer, has been ministering to his spiritual needs as he has been to his physical needs. He sent down, through special Messengers, His word to all countries and communities. It is not possible to give the exact number of the Prophets; the Quran does not mention it nor was it necessary. But it is stated it clearly and with all the emphasis one can imagine that no nation and no people have been left without a Divine Messenger having been sent to them.

"To every people (was sent) an Apostle." (Quran : Yunus, 5) And there never was a people, without a warner having lived among them (in the past) (Quran : Fatir,3 ) For we assuredly sent among every people an Apostle. (Quran : Nahl, 5 )The names of some of the Prophets and their brief descriptions occur at various places in the Quran while those of the rest havebeen left out. But it is imperative that we believe in the truth and the unstained virtuousness of all the sacred Apostles of God and hold them in equal respect. Without it, it is not possible to be Muslim.

We make no distinction between one and another of his Apostles. (Quran:Baqara, 40 ) Indispensable, as it is, for the faithful to believe in all the Prophets of God, obedience can be rendered only to the Prophet of the day whose teachings alone are valid and binding. It is so because the Law a Prophet brings is not of his own authorship but directly from God, and it is his will that only those commands of his should be obeyed which he has sent down for that particular time. A new enactment supersedes all previous enactment. Let us make use of an illustration. Suppose a people who are extremely weak and backward chance to come under the sway of an enlightened ruler. If the ruler wants to introduce reform among them, he is bound to take a graduated course. He will begin with nothing more than elementary enactment and then as the people will become a little more advanced he will bring in a more complete set of rules, and, so on. Now, if after a new law has been promulgated, some of the citizens insist on following the older one they will be brought to book for showing disloyalty to the realm. The same is true also for the Divine Laws brought by the Prophets. God formulates His law according to the circumstances prevelent in the community or in the age in which the prophet is raised up. when the circumstances undergo a change, the providence causes another Deliverer to appear with suitable amendments made in the law. It then becomes the duty of the people to conduct their lives according to the amendment law while stillholding in respect the earlier Prophet and the earlier law (since all the Prophets and all the holy laws are from the one and the same God), so much so that if it could be possible for the earlier Prophet to rise from his grave and come back to the world, even he would have to adhere to the current Law. The Prophet is reported to have observed that, "If the Illustrious Apostle, Moses, were alive today, he too would be following the Divine Law brought by me."

According to the Traditions, when jesus will return to the earth, during the last phase, he will abide by the shariat of the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) which is the standing Divine Law, all previous Shariats having been withdrawn by God Himself. To owe allegiance to the out dated Shariats would be an act of disobedience. It is, thus, apparent that the Prophets are not the makers of the Holy Law; they are only its revealers and interpreters. They only impart and communicate what God bids them to without venturing to make the slightest alteration in the Divine message : The Quran tells at various places of the pagans of Mecca that they often used to say to the Prophet (Peace be upon him) if he could remove of modify certain features of the new faith he taught, they would willingly join him. The Prophet's reply would always be that his mission lay only in conveying the message of God as it was revealed to him.

He was not competent to amend or to alter it as he pleased. Say : "It is not for me, of my own accord, to change it: I follow not but what is revealed unto me." (Quran : Yunus,2 )"Nor does he say (aught) of (his own) Desire. It is not less than inspiration sent down to him. " (Quran : Najm, 1 )In the event of there being no clear guidance from God about a particular matter, the Prophets used to exercise their own judgement, but not independently of the principles revealed to them earlier. They deliberated on the issue in the light of the previous revelations and arrived at a decision against their background. This is called Ijtehad. Generally, the Ijtehad of the Prophets used to be correct, but if they ever erred, they were admonished through a Divine revelation and the mistake was set right immediately. If no admonition was received from above, it was inferred that the judgement of the Prophet was in conformity with the Divine will. The decision was then regarded as 'near revelation', and not a product of Prophet's Ijtehad, and it was shown the same respect as a Divine command.

The Question of Ijtehad by the Imams, to which a passing reference may also be made here, does, obviously, not arise in respect of matters that have already been dealt with in the Quran and the Traditions. But, sometimes, there occur situations which have been left undermined by the two sources, and, then, our jurists are called upon to make use of the authority of Ijtehad and determine laws applicable to them, or formulate new ones if necessary, against the background of the foundational principles of Islamic jurisprudence and legislation. It is narrated in a Tradition of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) that when Ma,ad was appointed the governor of Yeman, the Prophet asked him how he would decide matters coming up before him, "I will judge matters according to the book of God", said Ma,ad. "If the book of God contains nothing to guide me, I will act on the precedents of the Prophet of God, and if the precedents also fail, I will exert to form my own judgment".

The Prophet is said to have been most pleased at the reply. The Principle of Ijtehad by the Imams is considered to have its roots in this Tradition. All the Companions of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) who had the good fortune to acquire proficiency in jurisprudence and legislation under his care and guidance took recourse to the right of Ijtehad when a need arose. Then, from the middle of the 1st Century A.H., Muslim legists came forward to work ceaselessly for the evolution of a systematic legal thought. They studied carefully the groundwork of legal principles in the Quran, and the precedents established by the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him), and the jurist Companions, and evolved, on the basis of the vast knowledge thus gathered, the fundamental principle of legislation in Islam. Therefrom, they proceeded to frame laws for all the situations and circumstences the Quran and the Traditions had not distinctly defined. Thus came about the systematization and the codification of the Mohammedan Law. Several schools of Law and jurisprudence had appeared in Islam during that period of intense juristic activity, but four of them became more popular probably because they were more methodical in their approach and possessed greater comprehen siveness. It is important to note that Ijtehad is not every body's meat.

The early doctors who availed themselves most of the privilege were exceptionally well-versed in the book and the sunnah, having had the unique advantage of sitting at the feet of the Companions or their favourite pupils and learning Islamic theology directly from them. In addition, they were also conspicuous for religious earnestness and piety and seemed eminently fitted, in every way, for the great service God took from them. Nowadays, unfortunately, Ijtehad has come to be regarded as child's play and anyone with nothing more than a nodding acquaintance with Islam acquired through reading a few Urdu pamphlets or a translation of the Quran, feels himself entitled to have a go at it, and passes his verdict on religious matters with all the self-assurance of a Mujtahid. It is of such people that a Tradition says, "Transgressors themselves, they lead others into transgration. To come back to our subject, Prophecy is hundred per cent a Divine gift and not an acquirement. There are certain things in the world, e.g., skill in arts, letters, sience and agriculture, which, though they emanate ultimately form God, are dependent, to an extent, on application and industry.

These faculties are described as acquirements. In the same way, there are things which are altogather a natural beauty, inborn intelligence and shrewdness may be said to fall within this category. These are called Divine gifts, and Prophecy is one of them. It cannot be acquired. We will now take up the miracles. Sometimes events of a supernatural import make themselves manifest through the agency of the Prophets. which are outside the powers of ordinary man. These events are known as miracles. But a miracle is not the act of the Prophet through whom it may occur; it is an act of God who causes it to happen through the medium of his Messenger to demonstrate the truth of his mission. The Prophet is only a vehicle for the presentation of the spectacle; he is not its author. Some people operate at such a low level of intellectual and spiritual comprehension that they fail to be convinced of a Prophet's inspiration unless he performs some supernatural deeds before them. It is for their satisfaction that God confersmiracles upon his Apostles. Otherwise, those who are blessed with a wholesome nature and possess enough good sense have no need of the marvels to testify to the veracity of a Prophet's claim. To them the life of a Prophet and his mission are in themselves a miracle. None, Perhaps, among the leading Companions waited for the Prophet to perform a miracle before they brought faith in his Apostleship. Miracles, hence, are not a necessity with the Prophets or with Prophet hood, but with the unintelligent and the uninformed.

It is quite possible that a Prophet may not show a single miracle or that a Prophet of a more exalted position is granted fewer miracles that a Prophet of a lesser importance for the reason that resistance to truth is greater among the people in which the later is raised up. A miracle is neither an act of the prophet, nor and essential complement of prophet-hood, nor a criterion of superiority. It is a sign of God which, as we have said earlier, He reveals when he pleases and as the need be to establish the genuineness and validity of the inspiration of His Apostles. Only God can make the miracles happen, the Prophets being utterly helpless in the matter. The more mischievous and stubborn among the pagans of meca were accustomed to challenge the Prophet (peace be upon him) to show them one miracle on another if he really was a Divine Apostel. In reply the Prophet (peace be upon him) would always tell them that he neither possessed the faculty to work miracles nor laid any claim to it. He was only a Messenger. Say : "Glory to my Lord; Am I aught but a man,_an Apostle?" (Quran : Bani Israel, 10 )When had he said that he was anything more than a man that they demanded of him supernatural deeds?

Say : "The signs are indeed with God." (Quran : Ankaboot, 5 )Miracles were beyond his control ; they were in the hands of God who alone could show them.

While on the topic of miracles may also examine Karamat and Istedraj. In the manner God, sometimes, causes a miracle to reveal it self at the hands of his Apostles, He makes supernatural deeds flow some devoted and deep-hearted followers of the Apostles as will. These deeds Karamat as they are called_are no more the personal acts of the individuals through whom they are worked out as the miracles are of theology and Tsawwuf, Karamat is defined as "an astonishing and supernormal deed that may come to pass through the instrumentality of an individual whose life is openly one of virtue and righteousness." The measuring yard for piety and righteousness in Islam being the Shariat, the term Karamat is applied only to extra ordinary events that occur through a person conforming to that standard. Removed from piety and moral uprightness and the observance of the Shariat, there can be no holiness and no Karamat. The Quran is very clear about it. Behold; Verily on the friends of God there is no fear nor shall they grieve; those who believe and (constantly) guard against evil (i.e. pledge faith in the Prophet of the day and fear God and observe His Shariat). (Quran:Yunus, 7)

Sometimes, deeds of a supernatural character happen to be wrought by men who, clearly, do not fulfil the conditions of moral and spiritual rectitude as laid down by the shariat. Such deeds, if they do not belong to the realm of prestidigitation, are termed as Istedraj, i.e., they are trial prescribed by God for testing the faith of His servants, like the means of the imposter, Dajjal, who, as the Traditions have it, will command that rain to fall and revive the dead for all to see, and, thus, play havoc with the spiritual values of men. We have, accordingly, the advice of Bayazid Bustami never, never, to believe in the spiritual merit of anyone, even though he displays the capacity to work wonders to the extent of flying in the air (unaided by any mechanical device), unless it is known for certain about him that he observes the divine commands with scrupulous care, and, regulates bis life strictly as demanded by the Holy law.

Karamat is not at all a necessary attribute of Wilayat (spiritual excellence).

In a majority of cases, in fact, it is the older way round. An outstanding Wali may not perform a single supernatural deed in his life whereas any number of them may be shown by another of a lesser caliber. The real test of spiritual greatness is piety than which no virtue is dearer in the eyes of God. It is not a religious obligation to believe in a saint as such. Nevertheless, to bear a grudge against those whose saintly state is a popularly accepted fact or to treat them (or their memory, if they be dead) with disrespect is a source of great misfortune. There is a celestial Tradition to the effect that anyone who harbors a feeling of hostility against a Wali should consider himself to be at war with God. Our attitude towards all saintly men should be one of reverence notwithstanding any difference of opinion we may have with them because unlike the Prophets they are not protected against error nor are they worthy of unstinted loyalty. To revert back to the miracles of the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him), numerous instance of them are recorded in the Tradition and in the various historical and biographical studise of him. These miracles are so well known that it would be futile to narrate them here. Besides, they are now things of the past and cannot be brought back to the world's view once again. We will refer in these pages only to that living miracle of his the Holy Quran which is still in our midst, breathing out the same supernatural splendour and attesting to his Prophetic inspiration with as such power and eloquence as it did at the time of its revelation some 1300 years ago.

The Quran is a miracle in more ways than one. At the moment, however, we will take up only such aspects of it as are capable of common appreciation and of driving home even today the fact of the Prophet's Divine inspiration. Take, first, the Permanance of the Quran. It will be seen that the contents of it are mostly of a kind with which the Arabs were completely unacquainted when they were revealed. Further, its language, in spite of being Arabic, is vastly different from the colloquial as well as the formal and elevated language of Arabic poetry and literature. In the opinion of the linguists, even the language of the Tradition (i.e. the language of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) ). Differs a great deal from that of the Quran. It was, therefore not easy for the Arabs to commit the Quran to a complete book but was revealed in fragments on the heart of the Prophet (Peace be upon him). The standard of literacy in Arabia of those days being what it was, it could not be possible for the verses to be written down by a number of persons immediately as they were revealed so that several copies of the Holy book would have grown up sumultaneously, verse by verse, with the revelations.

The Prophet himself being unlettered, could not jot down a single line of the Quran with his own hand, or read what others had written of it. The Quran, moreover, is not a just a matter of a few pages, but makes quite a big volume. A book of this nature and background should, in the normal course, have got lost or, at least, mutilated, in the long corridor of time, as has been the lot of the Holy scriptures of all other religious. If it is presentto this day in its original form, intact and unsullied, it is, as any impartial person can conclude for himself, a supernormal event. Does it not speak vividly of its Divine origin that in spite of the revolution of thirteen centuries the same Quran, without the difference of a solitary word, is preserved by Muslims throughout the world, be they in the East or the West, in Arabia or Iran, in Asia or Europe or Africa or America? Another miraculous feature of the Quran is the profundity of thought it displays. the Quran was presented to the world as God's ward by a man who had not seen the inside of a school, education being unknown in the country where he was born. Till the fortieth year of his life he had remained what his natural disposition and the rugged desert surroundings had made him to be untutored and unlettered, yet lofty of character, kind, honest and gentle. Then, all of a sudden, a tremendous change had come over him. He was transformed.

He declared for everyone to hear that the mantle of Apostleship had fallen upon him, that hw was God-inspired a prophet and began to recite verses of breath-taking beauty which, he said, were not of his composition but divine. These verses are collected in the Quran, and about them we can challenge the world that they constitute the last word on the nature, being and attributes of the Almighty. The Quranic method of expending highly intricate truths like Futurity and last judgement offers a unique example of instruction and reasoning. The ethical teachings of the Quran are in a class by themselves. They are far superior to the precepts and sermons of any moral teacher. No better law was ever designed for mankind them what is laid down in it. The awareness of human nature of its strength and its weaknesses the Quranic law reveals is truly astounding. It has no parallel anywhere. Furthermore, if the finest brains of the world got togather to evolve a system of Divine worship for humanity, they could not surpass the prayer-structure contained in the Quran. The Namaz alone is a marvel of ingenuity.

The more we ponder over its regulation and arrangement and over its prayer content, the more we are conviced that it could not be the invention of an unlettered son of the desert. No dweller of primitive Arabia, much less, one who had never opened a book or enjoyed the stimulating company of the wise and the learned, could definitely produce by his own exertions the principles for the beneficent regulation of the manifold aspects of human conduct and relations set forth in the Quran. Judged from this angle, Quran, again is a masterpiece of a miracle. It is a greater miracle than the raising of the dead or the healing of the blind. This miracle of the voice and the pen has been conferred upon us because ours is the age of enlightement. people's minds in the olden times were overridden with the mythological lore, with magic and superstition. The modern world is a world of realism and the progress of the arts and the sciences. Learning and wisdom now command much greater importance than passing phenomenon. For elegance of style and the richness of expression, once more, the Quran is without a parallel in the world of literature.

We have not yet seen, nor will ever see, the like of it anywhere. This is not the empty boast of a zealous admirer but a fact. The Arabic literature is not without its gems. Choicest pieces of literary writings, both classical and modern, including plays, poems, stories, speeches and treatises on various subjects are available in the Arabic language. And, than, there are the excellent Traditions of the Holy Prophet and the saying and sermons of his companions. Take any of them and select the finest passage from it; compare it with the briefest Surah of the Quran, and you will know. Nothing will be found approaching the Quran for literary merit. You may have heard the name of the Egyptian scholar, Allama Tantavi jawhari. He has recently written a commentary of the Quran called Jawahir-ul-Quran, which shows how thoroughly grounded he is in the modern Western Philosophy and sceince. In Physics, specially, his knowledge seems to be very great. He relates that during one of his visits to Germany he was sitting in the company of some Orientals friends interested in Arabic studies when one of them asked him if he, too, with he general body of Muslims, believed that the Quran was a miracle from the literary point of view also. He replied that he was taken back and the answer, the German orientals remarked that they did not expect a man of his culture and education to hold on unscientific, commonplace view like that. Allama Jawhari, thereupon, protested that there was nothing in it to be amazed at; it was a matter of literature, not faith, and could be put to test right then.

He invited them to express in eloquent sentences such as, "Verily, the Hell is boundless, " and, "The Hell is vast beyond measure" . The Allama told them to try again and take as much time over it as they wanted, but they confessed that they had done their best and could do no better. He then recited, the following verse from the Quran : One day we will ask Hell, " Are thee filled to the full?" It will say, "are there any more to come?" (Quran : Kaf, 3 )The German scholars jumped from their seats with excitement on hearing the verse and admitted with utmost frankness their inability to match the majestic eloquence of the Quran.

Both in its literary form and content, the Quran is an much a miracle today as it was when it first made its appearance through the medium of the Prophet (Peace be upon him). We can confidently hold it out to the world and say that since the ministry of the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) is to stay valid and unchanged till the end of time, it is the will of God that this miracle of his be also endowed with enternity. It is a luminous, unfading sign of God for all time and for all mankind. Those who may be open to doubt and uncertainty can again faith books, religious as well as otherwise. They will see the truth with own eyes, and should they remain indifferent to it, their hearts are sealed to God and nothing but the punishment of Hell awaits them as their ultimate lot. Another historical miracle of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) is the mighty revolution in thought and spirit he ushered in. The story of this revolution has been treasured up in the annals of the world for the succeeding generations to know and get inspiration from.

How utterly depraved was the social, moral and spiritual condition of Arabic at the time of the Advent of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) is known to friend and foe alike. The whole land was steeped in religious stupor, in crime, folly and sin. The Life to come and retribution for good and evil were, as motives of action, practically unknown. Drink, adultery and gambling were common. Internecine wars, murders, robberies and other deeds of lawlessness and bestiality were the pride of the people. Came the Prophet, and, lo, the entire scene was transformed. What a wonderful change, really, the word he preached had brought about! Idolators became monotheists, purely and truly the worshippers of One God. They now lived under a constant sense to sunk in a most revolting state of semi barbarism were recast to function as torch-bearers of civilization in the world; virtu replaced vice; crime and cruelty became extinct, and justice and clemency sprang up in their stead. An authentic record of this stupendous change is available in the books of history, and even the most inveterate enemy of Islam cannot deny that it had been wrought in the lives of the Arabs wholly through the teachings of the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) and his missionary endeavour. I make bold to say that this unique success, which, surely, is a miracle if ever there was one, and defy the critics to produce anything measuring upto it in a hundred years, the many and various resources of mind, matter and spirit the modern times have placed at their command notwithstanding.

I am reminded here of an interesting incident. I had an uncle, now dead, who was a Unani physician by profession and possessed an exceptional keenness of intellect and a ready wit. He was a natural debater and had a through knowledge of theology. He told me that during a railway journey he had to change the train at lucknow and this necessitated a halt at the station for about three hours. Since he did not like the idea of passing the time in idleness, he thought of a plan to put it to some use. He hired a tanga and went to see Mr.Niaz Fatehpuri at the office of the Nigar. On reaching there, he desired an hour's interview with him to discuss what he said was an important matter. At first, Mr. Niaz was not willing to concede his request, discouraged, perhaps, by the appearance of my uncle. But the letter's persistence and the cleverness of his argument finally prevailed and the editor sat attentively to listen. "I often have the pleasure of reading the Nigar", my uncle began. "Your intelligence, your learning and the force of your pen have made a deep impression on me, and I have come today to beg you to employ your extraordinary abilities for a much higher and nobler purpose. you see how widespread is evil in the world; how people are getting immersed, day be day, in vice and immorality. Take your own city of Lucknow. What a dismal picture does it present from the human and the moral points of views? Its citizens are grossly illiterate, uncultured and narrow of outlook. The sanitary conditions are horrible. There is dirt and disease every where. In every walk of life, one finds deceit and selfishness. All the finer qualities of human character are missing in the people while everything that is petty and mean has become the order of the day with them. Good manners, courtesy, honesty, truthfulness and justice are extinct. In such circumstances, it becomes the duty of the intelligentsia to devote itself wholeheartedly to the reconstruction of society. If people like you could raise to the occasion and launch a concerted programme of social and moral uplift with the same drive and enthusiasm with which national undertakings are carried through, the face of the world would be changed. Make a beginning from Lucknow.

I am willing to place my entire services at your disposal in this noble endeavour. Believe me, within a year or two we will build up a new Lucknow which will be an example to the world; and then, we will go ahead and build a new world. I am confident that all good, right-thinking persons will join hands with us in this worthy task". "Molvi Saheb", Mr.replied with evident astonishment, "you seem to be a very simple-minded person. You don't know what you are talking about. Even if there were hundreds of persons like you and me they could not accomplish this work". "But, why?" my uncle asked. "You are such an excellent writer and have a press of your own. I suppose you are also a very good speaker. I, too, am a writer and speaker of some merit. Further, I am sure that as soon as we begin our compaign, all the newspapers and periodicals will lend us their support and an army of writers and speakers will be at our beck and call. You will see that in a few days the whole atmosphere will be electrified and a new springtime will come over the earth. If not the world, we can, at least, reform our province and our city. Don't lose heart; have a little faith, and you will see the truth of what I say". "You really are a very simple man", Mr.Niaz said again. "You have no knowledge of the world. It is beyond your power and mine to change it." "Well", my uncle rejoined, "Let me ask you a question. From your writings I feel that you have a good grasp of history. You will be aware that about 1350 years ago this very thing was brought about in Arabia, in a land which was utterly devoid of educ- ation and enlightement and whose people were far ahead in wickedness and immorality than all the rogues and rascals of the present-day world. It was brought about by a man who could neither read nor write; there was no press at his disposal, no journal to carry his message to the four corners of the land, and no team of poets and orators to beat his drum.

If in those dismal circumstences, and with such poor equipment, an illiterate man could alter the destiny of his nation,why can educated persons like us not do it, particularly, when we also command the power of the pen and press and thousands of others of our fashion are there in the world to come to our aid, not to speak of the various governments which will, naturally, grudge us no encouragement in this laudable mission? There is really nothing to be dismayed of. I even say that if it took twenty years to produce the change in Arabia, we will be able to do it in one year. What is needed is single-minded devotion and resoluteness of will." " Molvi Sahib", said Mr.Niaz, "It is hard to explain, but it is impossible. You are grossly mistaken about ourselves and the world. It is pure wishful thinking." "Alright", my uncle said, "Tell me, whether it is a fact or not that such a thing was achieved in Arabia some 1300 years ago? "It is a fact, of course. Who can deny it?" replied Mr.Niaz.This is all that I wanted to hear from you", my uncle concluded. "Some time ago I had read your article on the denial of miracles.

I called on you today only to explain what a miracle really was and to show that in your heart you too believed in it. A miracle is a thing occurring through the agency of a Divine Prophet which other men are powerless to enact, and you have said repeatedly that, in spite of the numerous advantages you possess, you are unable to produce even in lucknow what the unlettered Apostle of God had so marvelously accomplished in the country of Arabia".

As the discussion came to a close, the time at my uncle's disposal also drew to an end, so, he came away although Mr. Niaz Fatehpuri was pressing him to stay a little more, presumably to make amends for discourtesy he had shown earlier. The social, theological and spiritual brought about by the Prophet in his own lifetime in Arabia is, thus, an undying miracle of his in the same manner as the Quran. It is a different thing that the prevalent degeneration among the muslims has cast a thick blanket over it and made it difficult for the world to appreciate its true worth and significance. The Prayers of the Prophet (Peace be upon him), i.e., the words he spoke while making devout supplications to God are yet another wonder of the literary world. By the grace of the Almighty, the texts of these prayers are still preserved unimpaired for anyone to derive from them belief in his Apostolic inspiration. For my part, I generally turn to them when I feel the need of reinvigorating my faith. May God reward the "Traditionalists' most bountifully and fill their graves with luster that togather with the other sayings and doings of the Prophet, they also preserved his prayers in their records and, thus, made them safe for posterity. Some scholars.

Later on, assembled them togather to form a separate volume, till now exist scores of books, large as well as small in which the prayers of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) have been arranged in different styles. Leaving aside those who are totally dead to spiritual feeling, no one who reads them can fail to see that they could arise only from an illumined heart a heart that had attained the highest degree of spirituality and was endued with the most intimate understanding of humanity and the universe. A heart that was absolutely free from all that was dark and impure. praise be to Allah that I, at least, receive the light of faith from every prayer of the Prophet (Peace be upon him), and I make no secret of it that perhaps because of my natural bent, my inner self draws a greater measure of faith and confidence in his Apostleship from his prayers than from anything else. The Prayers of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) certainly, are a miracle, an ever-glorious, evergreen wonder. In truth, the entire existence of the Prophet, his every word, his every gesture was a miracle. I am afraid, the discussion' on miracles has become a bit too long. But some features of it would have, I suppose, lent nourishment to our faith and would continue to do so in future. Besides, when required, we can place them before those who are not fortunate enough to be blessed with faith in the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) and invite them to rethink the process of their spiritual convictions.

One word more and we have done with the them of Prophecy and Apostleship. To accept a person as a Prophet is not the same thing as to him as a leader, a poet or a physician because when we accept someone as a national leader or a poet or a physician it does not mean that we bow before whatever he says in that capacity as gospel truth, while the acceptance of a person as a Prophet implies the clear admission of the fact that the transcendental truths he reveals to us and the guidance he furnishes, are all from God that his words are, in fact, God's words, are, therefore, emphatically true and there can be no doubting or disputing of them. It, thus, becomes our duty not to accept anyone as a Prophet casually, but with utmost deliberation and care, and, then, to follow him with all over mind, body and soul for reason demands that once a person is believed in as a Divine Apostle, whole-hearted allegiance should be rendered to him as such, and whatever he communicates should be listened to and carried out as the command of God. Reconsider it logically. When a person is accepted as a Prophet of God, it is also accepted at that very instant that he is not a liar and an imposter or that he does not suffer form a mental derangment or a phychic disorder, but that God communicates with him and what he tells about the abstract realities that are beyond the scope of our own experience or understanding is based upon Divine communication.

Having done that, would it not be absolutely senseless to be skeptical about or reject something revealed by him on the ground that it did not stand the test of reason? In the modern days, a number of educated persons who take pride in flaunting themselves as rationalists betray a similar perversion of thinking when they open their mouths on religion. To my mind, it is shccr blasphemy and is more illogical than than the downright rejection of the Prophet himself. To study and exmine the tenets of religion for one's further satisfaction and with a view to discovering the wisdom behind them after one has avowed faith in the Prophet as Divine Messenger and acknowledged that his teachings are perfectly true and God-inspired is a separate matter and no harm attaches to it. We do not have the slightest doubt that what the Prophets have taught and what has reached us from Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) through authentic sources is completely in conformity with human nature and intelligence and contains nothing that may fall short of the ideals of knowledge and wisdom. But how many of us do possess an ideal intellect or wisdom? With our intellects the case, on the other hand, is that if we had been told before the invention of the microscope that a drop of water contained thousands of living bodies, we would have mocked at it. In the same way, had some one said, a century or two ago, that a particular mode of transport, with a hundred passengers on board, could fly in the air at the rate of 500 miles an hour he would have propmtly been shouted down as a liar. But now, both of these things have come to pass before our eyes in the shape of a reality.

To make these poor intellects, unable as they are to comprehend a thing that is going to come true in this very world within a short span of time, the basis of determining the truth of Apostolic revelations is patently absurd. It is advisable, therefore, to exercise extreme care and caution before accepting any one as a Prophet, but once this has been done, he should be followed unquestioningly and every command of his must be regarded as worthy of implicit obedience. This is what wisdom demands and the Prophets have taught. A person who believes in some of the teachings of a Divine Apostle and rejects the others cannot consider himself to be a believer. The Quran has made submission to the dictates of the Prophet in their entirety the sine qua non of faith. " But no, by thy Lord, they have no (real) faith until they make thee judge in all disputes between them, and find in their souls, no resistance against thy decisions, but accept them with the fullest conviction." (Quran : Nisaa', 9)" It is not fitting for a believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by God and his Apostle, to have an option about their decision." (Quran : Ahzab, 5)

One ofted heared the cry these days that the Traditions of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) do not have an essential bearing on faith; it is not necessary to believe in or act according to them; The Quran is enough; it is the whole faith. This erroneous notion is due mainly to an inadequate appreciation of the position and the mission of the Prophets. People who are the victims of it imagine that a Prophet is something of a postman whose job is just to deliver the mail. They suppose that the role of the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) in religion was only this much that the Quran was revealed to him and he passed it on to others. The Prophet also acts as a deputy of God in unfolding and interpreting the precepts of religion. Just to mankind, it was also a part of his duty to explain the conception of the life of faith contained therein all its details and through his own personal example by translating it into action in his daily existence. For instance, Namaz is prescribed as an obligatory item of worship at a hundred places in the Quran,but nowhere does it say how it is to be offered. Similarly, what is allowed in the matter of food and drink and what is not, is stated very briefly in the Quran. It does not tell us whether we can eat, for instance, canine flesh and the worms or not. There is only this summary statement:

He allows them as lawful what is good (and pure) and prohibits them what is bad (and impure) (Quran : A'iraf, 19 )In these and many other spheres the Holy Prophet was called upon to function as God's vicegerent and the interpreter of his will. The regulations and maxims he farmulated with respect to them were Divinely-inspired, springing forth, as they did, from the knowledge that had been vouchsafed to him by God. These regulations and maxims go to lay down the blue-prints of the Islamic way of life.

In the Quran itself where one of the duties of the Prophet has been defined as 'To rehearse to them (men) His signs two other phrases He instructs them in Scripture and wisdom and (He) sanctifies them occur immediately after it, meaning that, apart form rehearsing the Quran to the people, the Prophet, will also teach it to them and instruct them in wisdom and that he will cleanse and purify them. At another place, the Prophet is spoken to in these words, "That thou mayest explain clearly to men what is sent to them. " It is thus a part of the Prophet's mission also to interpret the book revealed through him to mankind and to elucidate fully the Divine will and purpose contained in it. People who assert that the mission of the Prophet lay wholly in the transmission of the Quran to the world, which is the be-all and end-all of religion, and that it is not necessary, after it, to follow the Traditions or the Sunnah reject, in fact the word of God contained in the verses: " He instructs them in scripture and wisdom and sanctifies to them, " and, " That thou mayest explain clearly to men what is sent to them." The Tradition and the Sunnah of the Prophet are but an exposition of these verses.

They make available to us a complete picture of his Prophetic endeavor of teaching the book and wisdom and of cleansing and explaining clearly to men what is sent to them, and, because of them we can prophet by his mission almost to the same degree as the Holy Companions did as a result of their personal contact with him. Apart from this, were transmission of the Quran the sole object of the setting up of the institution of Apostleship, a much better course would have been to cause it to land from the Heavens on to the roof of the house of Ka'ba in the form of a finished book or to the make the walls of that sacred building read it out to the Meccans as had happened in the case of Moses who had heard the word of God spoken by a bush. A thing like that would have proved more effective with the pagans of Macca and employment of a human agency. If a Man-Apostle was preferred, it was because he alone could properly interpret the Divine Will, by word and by deed, and operate as a fit pattern for humanity. In any event, as we have mentioned earlier, the deniers of the Traditions and the Sunnah, who deceive the Millat in the name of the Quran, have no clear idea of the meaning and significance of prophecy, although they lay claim to being the followers of the sacred Prophet, and their supporters are generally drawn from sections who wish to remain Muslms without having to observe the restrictions imposed by the Shariat.

Once the Principle that the Traditions are not relevant to faith is accepted, there is no form of sensuality or self-indulgence for which justification cannot be found within the framework of religion because details of the life of belief, piety and social uprightness indicated in the Quran can only be known through the practical teachings sayings and the doings of the Prophet (Peace be upon him). This mischief is most detrimental to Islam and can prove deadly in its consequences. Some educated and religiously-inclined Hindus are found to believe in the unity of religions which they preach also to other. Their contention is that for salvation it is not necessary to follow a particular religion, but all religions being equally true, one can attain the desired goal by pursuing the path laid down by any of them. Pandit Sunder Lal of Allahabad is a front rank leader of this school of thought and I know him personally. What is hidden in the hearts is known only to God, but, as far as I can say, he is a sincere and good-hearted man. Having made the propagation of the oneness of faith the chief work in his life, he concentrates on the Muslims. Side by side with being a devout Hindu, he thinks that also believes in Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him) as a Divine Apostle and in Quran as a Divine scripture. His favorite them with the Muslims is that what they call the Shariat and that is what basically distinguishes them from other religious communities is found no-where in the Quran, so much so that even the Namaz they offer is not a Quranic Namaz, but a non-Quranic one, for the Quran speaks only Sal,at, and anyone who worships the creator in the temple or medicates upon him anywhere else carries out the Quranic injunction no less faithfully.

What an irony of the times it sadly is that the Quran which was brought by the Prophet (Peace be upon him) himself is now being employed to wean away the Muslims from the Namaz and the Shariat preached by and revealed through him. The fundamental error of the Muslims who reject the Traditions and the Hindus who espouse the unity of faiths is the same. They fail to appreciate the nature, meaning and scope of the Divine institution of Apostleship. Their activities can succeed only in leading the Muslim masses away from the detailed design the Prophet has formulated as from God, (and which is contained in the Sunnah and the Traditions), for the conversion of the basic foundational principles of the Quran into practice. The above issues did not fall within the range of our discussion. They crept in while we were trying to show that the acceptance of someone as a prophet automatically implied, both logically and religiously, that the should be obeyed in all the aspects of his teachings without reserve or argument; but, it is well that they did, for they do have a topical value.

We will now go back to our main them. The three subjects we have so far dealt with, Monotheism, Futurity and Apostleship are known as fundamental articles of faith. There are some other planks of belief which it is also necessary to affirm before one can be called a Muslim, but the importance of these three lies in the fact that the entire structure of the Prophet's message is based upon them, and without them it would be futile to hope to live according to the plan contained in that message. They form the doctrinal and conceptual foundations of the Islamic scheme of things. The items of faith are divided into two classes, or, rather, into two degrees. Firstly, there are items whose proof from the Prophet is so positive and absolute that there can be no difference of opinion as to their authenticity, and which have been universally accepted as such without any debate or controversy. And, secondly, the times about whichalthough there is sufficient evidence to establish their genuineness as from the Prophet, it is not so clear and emphatic as to rule out the possibility of doubt or argument. The doctrines of Monotheism, Prophecy and the Last day belong to the first group of beliefs.

Besides these, this group includes belief in Quran as the Word of the Almighty, belief in heaven and hell and in the hereafter, in angles, and the raising up of many a Divine Apostle before the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him), with the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) being the last of them and the line of these venerable messengers of God terminating with him. All these items make the essentials of faith and have been held as such unceasingly by the Millat. To try to controvert them would be an act of apostasy. The beliefs that are allotted to the latter group comprise of things like Divine chastisement in the grave, and some other details appertaining to the last day and Resurrection, e.g., Mizan ( the Scales), Sir'at (the Bridge), Shafaa't (Intercession) and Royat (the seeing of God). The appearance of Dajjal and the descent in person of Christ as indications of the approach of the last day also belong to the same category. While there is enough proof to associate them with the Prophet, it is not of a standerd to raise them to the level of 'essentials'. To deny them, therefore, by putting far-fetched interpretation on them cannot be denounced as blasphemy or apostasy, though it will be a folly of the first order, nevertheless.

There was no difference of opinion among the Holy Companions over the fundaments of belief, but the different peoples and communities that came into the fold of Islam during their time brought with them their ancient nations and habits of thought which it was not possible to eradicate radically from their minds. The divergence of view which later led to the creation of a number of sects within the Ummat had its origin in this very fact. Disagreement over details or matters of subsidiary importance is not such a serious thing as to result in groupism or factionalism. It is a natural phenomenon, bound to occur in the normal course of things. Factions and groups arise from clashes on basic issues, on points of vital importance to belief and practice, and the Companions, as we have stated earlier, were completely immune from them. The acted as a body, being guided by the same principles and displaying and identical attitude of the mind in situations of a religious import. The numerous sects that came to operate later on can broadly be classified into Ahl-e-Sunnat-wal-jama'at (Peple of the Sunnah and the way of the Companions functioning as body) and Ghair Ahl-e-Sunnat-wal-jama'at (the rest). The chief distinguishing feature of Ahl-e-Sunnat is that togather with regarding the Quranas the essential groundwork of religion, they hold the Sunnah of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) to be a commentary on and a detailed exposition of the basic commands and principles contained therein. In their view, the things that are not mentioned in the Quran but are expressed definitely in the Sunnah are also worthy of our obedience as a part of faith. Further, they believe that the inferences the Holy Companions drew from the Quran and the Sunnah and the points of law on which they unanimously concurred are universally binding and it is not up to a Muslim to challenge collective judgement.

The agreement of the Companions with a religious principle means that it is final and absolute, and to hold it in disputation is a highly perfidious undertaking for the Companions were in a position to know better than anyone else the circumstances and the form and language in which it was revealed and they had further the opportunity to learn the religion directly from the Prophet ( Peace be upon him) and to profit by his constant advice and guidance. No one, therefore, can be a better authority on faith or claim to understand the spirit and purpose underlying the teachings of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) more correctly than them. Religion is what they thought it was. This, in brief, is the basic ideology of Ahl-e-Sunnat-wal-jama'at. They are so called for the simple reason that they attach such great importance to the Sunnah and the unanimous authority of the Companions in religion, and hold themselves duty bound to follow them. The other sects do not do so. The first so appear among them were the Khawarij and the Shias. The Shias, themselves, are divided into a number of groups but this much is common to all of them that they do not regard the Companions (Peace be upon him) to be a valid authority on religion some of them even go to the extent of denouncing the majority of Companions as the enemies and wreckers of faith and in the place of the Sunnah they prefer to go by the Tradition of their Imam. In fact, their whole faith is based on these traditions. According to some sections of the Shias, the Quran, too, is not above suspicion, and, thus, the only reliable source of religion that is left are the pronouncements and the behaviour of the Imams they follow.

The Khawarij acknowledge the Quran as the positive and absolutely unpolluted fountainhead of religion and also give an almost equal weight to the Sunnah with Ahl-e-Sunnat, but, unlike them, they do not believe in the unanimous authority of the Companions as deserving of our unstinted following. In other words, they think that it is quite possibile for the companions as a whole or a large majority of them to have erred in their interpretation of a point of religion or in the assessment and evaluation of a teaching of the Quran or the Sunnah, while the latter-day Muslims may get to its correct meaning a position which is quite unacceptable to Ahl-e-Sunnat. Among the other sects to crop up in Islam during the early days were the Motazila, the Jamias, the Murjeah, the Kadriyah and the Jabriyah. As far as I have been able to guess, the chief point of difference between them and Ahl-e-Sunnat, again, is the collective judgement of the Companions as an authoritative source of legislation after the Quran and the Sunnat. The Sunnis.

The Sunnis stand fast by the letter and the spirit of the law emanating from all the three sources without endeavouring to make it suit their convenience, whereas the other sects rely to such an extent on their own judgement that they find loopholes even in the fundamental principles of the Shariat and have no hasitation in going against the general practice of the Companions. The thing that differentiates basically the Sunnis from the other branches of the Ummat is that they adhere strictly to the Sunnah of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) and the way of the Companions and do not project their own thinking into them no matter what the others say or do. all the other differences between them are the off-shoots of this primary line of cleavage. We will take up some of these differences to illustrate our point. A well-known maxim among the Khawarij says that a Muslim forfeits his faith on committing a grievous sin and in the Hereafter he will meet the same fate as an infidel.

They base their conclusion on certain pronouncements in the book and the Sunnah in which infidelity is ascribed to some major acts of moral transgrassion, or phrases like, " There is no faith in him", "He does not belong to us", "He has no place in Islam" have been used to censure the conduct of the person who is guilty of them, or in which the punishment of the hell is clearly promised to him. In contrast to them is the Murjeah sect which holds that the mere affirmation of faith is enough to ensure salvation in Futurity. A person may, after he has brought faith in Islam, commit any number of sins in his life, and yet he will not go to Hell; only his place in the Hereafter will be some what inferior to that of a more virtuous Muslim. The Murjeah take their stand on the dictum which gives the glad tidings of the Heaven to everyone who possesses the bare qualification of faith and argue themsalves comfortably out of the provision that run counter to it in the same way as the Khawarij brush aside all tenets of faith which, in opposition to their preconceived notions deliverance, show that a Muslim does not become an infidel by being guilty of one of the major sins.

The truth, however, is that the founders of both the sects had their own individual ideas and spiritual inclinations which clouded their vision. For reason of History the originators and early preachers of the Kharji sect were prone to think that the graver sins were fatal to faith, the commission of which turned a Muslim into a heathen, and those of the Murjeah sect that to sin even in the extreme was not a matter of much importance. In consequence, they caught hold of the tenets that appealed to them and made them the guides to their action and those that went again their wishes they just rejected on one ground or another or interpreted them in such a way as to bring them round to their pet convictions. The people of the Sunnah, on the other hand, took not of the viewpoint of the Companions on the subject and adopted for themselves the path they had pursued in respect of it, which was that the perpetration of the major sins was neither the equivalent of apostasy, as the Khawarij supposed, nor a trivial, insignificant affair as the Murjeah thought, but deserving of Divine reprobation and chastisement, and yet not unpardonable if He so desired. The seeing of God in the Hereafter is another matter. I would wish to mention in this connection as an example. It is stated candidly in the Traditions that one of the boundless blessings the faithful will be rewarded within the world to come will be that they will see the most high and this will be the source of greatest happiness to them.

The Quran, too, at a place says: "Some faces that day will beam (in brightness and beauty) looking towards their Lord." (Quran : Qiyamat, 1)The Quranic verse clearly tells that on the last day the faces of the loyal servants of God will be radiant with joy for then they will be favoured by him with the matchless spectacle of his own Adored self. But the Motazila who have a habit of taxing poor human intellect beyond its legitimate limits and want to believe in a religious truth only after it has stood the test of reason repudiated the possibility of it on the ground that it was not admissible logically. They argued that only a thing that existed in material form or had colour or surface could be seen by the human eye and that, too, when it was placed in front of the viewer and within a certain distance of him. Since God had neither form nor substance nor was he contained in space and time He was here, there and everywhere, now and always the question of seeing him did not arise. Having thus rejected the possibility of seeing God on rationalistic grounds, it was not difficult for them to find their way to refute the relevant texts and in this they had the support of the Shias who also hold an identical view.

In contrast to them the people of the Sunnah saw that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) had made an authoritative revelation about it in the Traditions and the Companions had drawn no other inference from it except that in the hereafter the faithful creatures of God will be blessed with an unconcealed view of him and they accepted it as true, giving no weight to the dialectical exertions of the rationalists like the Motazila. But, let no one conclude in a hurry that the creed of Ahl-e-Sunnat is not in consonance with reason. There is no dogma in it, no single doctrine or principle that may be repugnant to the intellect. The dialecticians of this school have convincingly established the truth and logicality of each and every precept or item of belief included in it. On the issue of the seeing of God in the Hereafter itself, all the objections raised by the critics the Shiasand the Motazila have been thoroughly rebutted by Ahl-e-Sunnah.

The details of the Sunni standpoint are available in Maulana Abdul Aziz's well-known treatise on the refutation of the Shia sect, Tohfa-e-Isna Ashariya, and in Maulana Abdul Haq Huqqani's Aqaed-ul-Islam. Here, I will say just a few words with a view to allay any anxiety you may be having in this regard. The whole case of the Motazila is built on the assumption that it is not possible to see a thing unless the conditions and circumstances needed for it in this world of ours are persent. The assumption itself is wrong. Even the Motazila do not deny that God sees everything, material as well as non-material, and Since he is boundless in his existence, it cannot be said about any of his creations that it is in front of him or in line with his vision;_and, yet, He sees them all. Thus, the law of vision which the Motazila regard as absolute is, in this existence is limited in many ways, and, to reject, on the strength of it, the possibility of seeing God in the Hereafter is patently incorrect.

The powers and faculties that will be conferred on those who will in the heaven will be a million items stronger and more advanced then what we have here, and the sight that will be granted to them will also be such as to enable them to see God. If here in this worl we can now observe, with the aid of mechanical devices like the telescope and microscope, things the earlier generations could never dream of, what is unbelievable there in the blessed ones in the Hereafter being endowed with preternatural vision? The so-called logical premise on the basis of which the Motazila had rejected the Prophetic revelation, flimsy as it always, has been thoroughly exploded by the modern sceintific inventions today hundreds of articles are being sold from shop to shop in the market of which it would have seemed utterly incredible if someone was to have spoken a few centuries ago. I often say that to refuse to accept a religious truth now in the modern times on the ground that it does not make sense is to proclaim one's colossal lack of imagination. Syas God in the Quran: "soon we shall show them our signs in the (furthest) regions (of the earth) and in their own souls (until) it becomes manifest to them that this the truth." (Quran : Ha'_Mim, 6)The achievements of science in the modern age have made it possible for us to understand many a transcendental truth which people in the past used to find so hard believe on account of their ignorance.

On the question of predestination and free will, similarly, the Jabriyah, and the Kadriyah sects took the course that agreed with their traditional attitudes of thinking and become the champions of the one or the other of the two concepts. They made the provisions that fell in with their pet notions the basis of their respective convictions and ignored or misinterpreted those that turned out to be otherwise. But, the Sunnis, in their customary way, allowed their judgement to be determined wholly by the apparent law and the general practice of the Companions. The Companions believed that everything that came to pass in the world including man's own actions and deeds appertaining to him were constrained and designed by the Divine will. While acknowledging the freedom of human will, unlike the jabriyah who are downright fatalists and give no more option to man then to a plant or mineral, they did not regard it to be entirely undefined by fate as the Qadriyah do. The Ahl-e-Sunnat readily adopted this view as the most correct one on the subject and drew the same infrence from the relevant revelations and pronou ncements as the Companions had done.

The mental attitude of Ahl-e-Sunnat in these spheres has been very ably summed up by Hazrat Omer bin Abdul Aziz in a letter he wrote in reply to a correspondent who had asked for his views on predestination. This letter has been reproduced by the traditionalists from authoritative sources. After enjoining strictly a life of piety and obedience to God and the Prophet (Peace be upon him), and laying full stress on the observance of the Sunnah, the letter read: " You should adhere faithfully to any of belief the Holy Companions may have held or performed for themselves as a whole, and make in your own because they were intimately acquainted with the knowledge God vouchsafed to the Prophet (Peace be upon him) and were possessed of deep insight into religion. They could get to the bottom of every problem and were in a position to comprehend the religious truths better than us. In the knowledge and understanding of religion they were for ahead of the others. Should you still feel that you are in the right (on a point on which you take a different view from them) it would mean that you claim for yourself superiority over the entire body of the Companions in the matter of religion. How manifestly foolish and dangerous a notion would it be for anyone to entertain?The letter then proceed to deal with the issue at hand in a few lines, the gist of which is that the concept of fate had been expounded in various Traditions by the Prophet (Peace be upon him) and it was from him that the Companions believed in and taught to others in their respect during the lifetime of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and afterwards and what, in their option, was also confirmed by the Holy book was that all that happened in the world including all that we did was in the knowledge of God from Eternity; it was pre-ordained by him and inscribed in the preserved Tablet. The letter concludes with these words:

"If there are any verses in the Quran which seem to you to contradict the doctrine of fate, remember that the Holy Companions also had read them and that because of the guidance and education they had received from the prophet (peace be upon him) and the illuminating company of his which it was their constant privilege to enjoy, they were better qualified to understand the meaning and purpose of the Quran than you. When, with all that, they still believed in fate, you can very will realize that you are at fault in the interpretation of those verses."The characteristic thing about the approach of Ahl-e-Sunnat, in short, is as it has been under-lined by Omer bin Abdul Aziz in his letter that they repose full faith in the Companions functioning as a whole and follow implicitly the path marked out by them. The Ahl-e-Sunnat start from the admission that in the appreciation and understanding of religion and its principles it is not possible to excel that august body of men. This course is positively the safest to adopt where the religious truths are concerned, and the bulk of the Ummat has always abided by it. To stress the same point, Hazrat Ali, on another occasion, took recourse to the device of calling for a large-size copy of the Holy Quran, and holding it aloft before a big crowd, of saying to it, "Speak to them, O Quran." By this means he again demonstrated the truth that the Quran was a book and not an oracle which could speak out its mind. To seek guidance from it one had to go to someone who possessed an authoritative knowledge of it and whose spiritual and moral conduct was also above suspicion.

The above incident will show that mentality of the contemporary groups and individuals who refuse to be governed by Salaf-i-Salikeen and say that they will obey only the Quran and the Sunnah is totally akin to that of the Khawarij, it tells of such persons aim at bringing people round to their point of view by cutting them loose from the guidance of the worthy predecessors, and the sample-minded folks who listen to them do fall a pray to this strategy. This, in course of time, leads to the emergence of new sects and factions within the Ummat. Even in subsidiary matters like the Fiqh, in our opinion, prudence lies in permitting one self to be guided wholly by the interpretations of the Holy law laid down by the popular Imams, and by the general practice of Salf-i-Salikeen, more specially in these days of easy Ijtehad. Some educated and liberal-minded persons are not content to bind themselves to any particular school of jurisprudence. For them also it is advisable not to take a new line on issues over which there is a complete unanimity amoung the four leading Imams, and on subjects on which there is a difference of opinion among them, the safest thing would be to follow the interpretations of anyone of them without attempting to forge a new way for themselves but to the whole of the Ummat as it will lead to confusion in its ranks. Those of us with an ambition of devoting ourselves to the service of Islam should be particularly careful in this behalf. We must strictly avoid doing anything by way of thought or action which may be the cause of disruption in the Ummat or create suspicion in the popular mind about our spiritual integrity. Hazrat Shah Waliullah has stated in Fuyooz-ul-Haramain that during his stay at Madina the Prophet (Peace be upon him) taught him by inspiration three things that were against his natural bent of mind and one of these was conformance to the four schools in matters of Fiqh. The sole purpose of it was that the great work of religious reformation God was to take from him and his disciples and successors demanded that they should not lose the trust of the Muslim masses. In any case, it is most essential for men of a much lesser stature like ourselves to be particular about. What the Ummat needs today are not new theories and original concepts but a revitalization of faith and the breathing into it of a life of belief and virtue. To this laudable task let us apply all our time and all our energy.