Allowed to Think Aloud – Mahfuz Mundadu
One of the most intriguing aspects I find astonishing with humankind is its capacity for denial, most often in the face of overwhelming evidence.
Broadly speaking, people could be classified in to four categories; those who know, and know they know; such are scholars. We are advised to learn from them. The second category includes those that know, but know not they know. Such are sleeping giants whom we are advised to wake them up. The third category is those that do not know, but know they do not know. Such are students whom we were asked to teach and guide. The last and most certainly, the least of all, are those that know not, and know not they know not. Yet keep on claiming they know all. Such are devil incarnate whom we were strongly warned to avoid. This least of categories will not and can not unconditionally, accept guidance even though they might have understood it as gospel truth.
In this, there could be one and only one possible explanation. Such people may be willing to follow the right path and accept the truth as it is, but on condition that it falls in line with their respective whims and caprices. Such are the people that recognize the truth through men instead of recognizing men (of integrity) through the truth. To this category of humankind, truth is truth so long as it is not in conflict with whom they consider to be a hero. Yes, I reckoned that hero supposes to be a good role model, but theirs is most often, a horrible example. If for whatever reason their hero is perceived as acting or acted against the truth as we know it, then that truth is, to the extent of it being in conflict with the action of their hero, null and void. Incidentally that is not and will never be an Islamic way of guiding human kind towards salvation.
In the beginning there was Adam whom the Almighty Allah charged with the responsibility of calling people away from unAllah and antiAllah ways and manners to that of Allah-compliant thoughts and deeds. Same to all other Messengers, the seal of which, as we all know, is Muhammad (SAWA). To accept the Messenger’s call is to be rightly guided and to do otherwise tantamount to a tedious search for misery and sorrow, here and in the hereafter. Those that are considered his loyal disciples attained that exalted position not by being his partners or comrades in the discharge of this divinely ordained mission, but by them being his committed, honest and indefatigable obedient followers. They are not and could not, in any way be his counterpart as to have a share and valid claim to a portion or an aspect of his messengership or messengerbility. His responsibility is to receive the divine message from the Supreme Being and deliver it to his people as it is, and simultaneously teaches his followers the application of that divine message. In so doing the Messenger is the perfect living master of his time. This implies his capacity to receive the message, understands it, observes and absorbs its import, as well as passes it on to others. He neither misunderstood, nor forgets or omits a portion thereof.
To those that claim to be his followers and helpers, the validity of their claim, lies strictly on the scope and scale of their acceptance and strict adherence to the teachings of the Messenger. It is not enough for them to follow him here and disobey him there. It is not enough to be obedient to him while alive and be other wise after his demise. This is the situation right from Adam and Hauwa and will remain so till the last hour.
None of the followers of any of the infallible messengers will ever be more knowledgeable of the message than the Messenger himself. Whereas the follower of a Messenger is found acting contrary to the teachings of the Messenger, there could only be these possibilities: 1) He acted out of ignorance; that in itself is not and will never be any mark of excellence. Additionally his acting out of ignorance can not be put at per to the teachings of the Messenger as to even consider that act as an option or an alternative to the teachings or guidance of the Messenger.
If, for instance, the messenger should say: do this and one of his highly placed respected companions say do not do it. Then we do not, and we will not, for ever, have the option of either doing it or not doing it. We must do it and, of cause in doing it we end up being rewarded for being obedient to the Messenger. We will amply be rewarded for disobeying the respected companion that directed other wise. This is because; a respected companion attains that revered position of respected companionship by being obedient to the teachings of the Messenger. A respected companion is the led, while the Messenger is the leader. And in the circumstance, a leader remains the leader just as the led remains a follower. A respected companion does not have a say in the messengership and Messengerbility of the Messenger of his time.
The second possibility for a respected companion to act contrary to the instructions of the Messenger is that he is fully aware of the instruction but decided to act against it for some valid excuses. For instance, we are all commanded to pray while standing. If there is an occasion in which a respected companion of the Messenger did not pray while standing we can safely assumed that the respected companion must have been incapable of standing hence, his performance of his prayer not in standing posture. Yet we could not hold on to that as a justification, going forward, and start praying without being in a standing posture.
It may even be possible that a respected companion may decide to act contrary to the teachings of the prophet out of disobedience. Disobedience? Yes disobedience! In such situation the best we can do is to recite the verse from the Glorious Quran: Rabbanagfir lana wa li ikhwaninal laziyna sabakuunaaa bil iymaani… But such act of disobedience against the Messenger is not and will never be a virtue. For instance, at Hudaybiyya during Baiatur-ridhwan the Messenger was reported to have ordered his respected companions to offer their sacrifices after been barred from entering Mecca for pilgrimage. Some of the respected companions vehemently objected to that instruction, amongst which Umar bn Khattab was one of them. In spite of Umar’s position, that act of his at that very moment was and will ever remain what it is: disobedience. And disobedience to the clear instruction of the Messenger was and will never be a virtue talk less of being worthy of emulation.
This is because the Messenger’s command is Allah’s. And no any other person amongst the respected companions could enjoy that status. It is the Messenger and him alone that the almighty says: he who follows Him, follows Allah (not he who follows him is LIKE he follows Allah). Man yu dii irrasula fa QAD ataa Allah (not fa ka anna hu ataa Allah).
It is this Messenger that Allah (SWT) said at the very moment he was receiving allegiance from his respected companions that his hand which happened to be on top of his respected companions’ is Allah’s hand. That hand of the Messenger is Allah’s hand not LIKE Allah’s hand. This is not a phrase from Jawahirul Maaniy… It is a verse from za Holy Qur’an.
If by coming this far I ended up touching some raw nerves, all the best for it. Calling a spade a spade may attracts sword to the jugular, but the condition for falsehood to succeed is for the voice of the truth to be mute. If at the end of this piece I should succeed in knocking us out of our comfort zone of intellectual docility I should be the happiest person of the moment. As humankind we have emotions and sentiments. Yet we have been amply endowed with logic and faculty of reasoning so as to put those sentiments and emotions, wild as they may be, under control.
The piece Written by Hajiya Bilkisu (MNI) captioned: Maulud: A Time for Reflection generated some reactions. What I really found disappointing is the line of arguments towed by those that choose to disagree with what she narrated. They found it difficult to accept that it is possible for a respected companion to err. Saying that so and so person committed an error should not be misunderstood as an insult, disrespectful or being abusive. It is simply stating the fact as it is. Moreover it is possible for the respected companions to commit an error since they are not infallibles.
On the issues raise, I do not see this piece as the right medium to indulge in some intellectual or academic discourse. But suffice it to say that those sincere minds in search of the truth regardless of whose ox is gored may wish to refer to the following books; 1) The Righ Path ( Murajaaat) 2) Then I was Guided ( Thummah ta dai tu) 3) Asshiyat hum ahalus sunna 4) Ask Those Who Know ( Fas aluu ahaluz zikr) 5) Peshawar Nights 6) The Khaliphate 7) The Voice of Human Justice 8) Restatement in History 9) Alfaini 10) Ma a khuduydihii al-ariydha 11) AnNassu wal ijtihad 12) Ihtijaaj
Inna hazihiy tazkirat… fa man sha attakaza ila rabbihii sabiyla